Google rewrote the Search Console help on the “Crawled - currently not indexed” status. The new text says that Google doesn't index all pages, that this message is common for many sites and that it doesn't necessarily indicate an issue that needs attention. For an important page, it points to the URL Inspection tool, and to the reporting form only for an indexing bug affecting a whole site. The sentence in the old version about the page possibly being indexed later and not needing to be resubmitted is gone.
Contents
Search Engine Roundtable noted on November 3, 2026 that Google updated the “Crawled - currently not indexed” section of its help on the page indexing report.1 The text now says that Google doesn't index all pages on the web, that this message is common and that it doesn't necessarily indicate a problem.2 This article covers the old and the new wording, then the steps Google describes for an important page.
01What Google's new text says
The status appears in the Search Console page indexing report. In the English help, it is titled “Crawled - currently not indexed”; the French version translates it as « Explorée, actuellement non indexée ».2
The three paragraphs
The first defines the status: the page was crawled by Google but not indexed. It adds that Google doesn't index all pages across the web, that the message is common for many sites and that it doesn't necessarily indicate an issue that needs attention.2
The second is for people who see this message on important pages. It tells them to use the URL Inspection tool and other tools to diagnose whether there are issues on the site that prevent the pages from appearing, such as having blocked them from Google's crawlers.2
The third covers the extreme case. If the possible issues have been fully diagnosed and an indexing bug is suspected, due to a complete, site-wide problem with indexing, Google points to the form for reporting an indexing issue.2
A neighboring status: “Discovered - currently not indexed”
The same page describes another status, “Discovered - currently not indexed,” where Google found the page but has not crawled it yet. Google explains that, typically, it wanted to crawl the URL but expected this to overload the site, so it rescheduled the crawl, which is why the last crawl date is empty in the report.2 With the status covered here, the page has been crawled.2
02What changed from the old version
Search Engine Roundtable reproduces the old text and the new one, which shows what Google removed and what it added.1
The old wording
The old version had two sentences: the page was crawled by Google but not indexed, it may or may not be indexed in the future, and there is no need to resubmit the URL for crawling.1
What was added and removed
The new text adds that Google doesn't index all pages, that the message is common and that it doesn't necessarily signal a problem. It also adds the diagnostic step with the URL Inspection tool and the pointer to the reporting form.12 The sentence about possible indexing later and not needing to resubmit the URL no longer appears in the text.12
The point Barry Schwartz raised
Barry Schwartz, of Search Engine Roundtable, finds it a bit odd that the text doesn't mention quality issues, since Google has mentioned them twice.1 The new text gives as an example of a possible issue having blocked the pages from crawlers.2
03What to do, according to Google, when you see this status
The text distinguishes three situations, each with its own answer. The diagram lists them in the order Google presents them.2
An important page: diagnose
Google points to the URL Inspection tool and other tools to check whether the site has an issue that prevents the page from appearing, such as having blocked it from crawlers.2 The URL indexability checker tests these points one by one: HTTP status, robots.txt, noindex, X-Robots-Tag and canonical tag.
On the site side, the internal linking guide explains how to spot orphan pages, those with no incoming link.
A less important page: the message alone doesn't say there is a problem
Google writes that the message is common and doesn't necessarily indicate an issue that needs attention.2 The pages a business wants to see appear are the ones it declares in its XML sitemap.
A site-wide bug: the form
The reporting form is for the case where the possible issues have been fully diagnosed and an indexing bug is suspected, due to a complete, site-wide problem with indexing.2
| Situation | Answer in Google's text |
|---|---|
| The status appears on ordinary pages | common message, not necessarily a problem |
| The status appears on important pages | URL Inspection tool and other tools to diagnose |
| The diagnosis is complete and a site-wide indexing bug is suspected | form for reporting an indexing issue |