Status “Crawled, but not Indexed” may have a permanent nature

Recently, another video conference was organized and held for webmasters by Google. During the event, Google Search representative John Mueller highlighted the most relevant and significant changes related to search optimization. The SEO expert made several important statements, one of which concerned the status of “Not indexed but crawled.” In response to a question from one of the participants in the meeting about how long a page could remain in a non-indexed state, the specialist noted that over time, this status might not change at all.

Significance of the Mentioned Status Check

In the Google summary on site indexing in the “Status” section, it is stated: “If a page has been assigned the status ‘Crawled but not indexed’ – this indicates that the URL has been detected by the system but has not been added to the Google index.” Such situations arise similarly to when the search robot suspends the website scanning procedure for an indefinite period due to resource overload at that moment.

What Factors Cause the Status “Crawled but not indexed” to Arise?

The main reasons for the status “Crawled but not indexed” lay in the technical area. As previously mentioned, during the initial resource load, Google’s system automatically shifts the scanning date to a later time.

Among other reasons, it is worth noting insufficient site quality “according to the opinion” of the search system. Despite the fact that Google is one of the most powerful corporations in the world, specializing in cloud computing, the resources of the company still do not encompass everything. That is why Google Search is more directed toward liquid, highly relevant web pages, the content of which is well perceived by the audience.

Taking these factors into account, some URLs may be indefinitely assigned the status “Crawled but not indexed.”

Mueller commented on this thesis as follows: “The situation when a page remains unscanned and non-indexed is completely normal, as not every page enters the system’s attention pool.”

Additionally, the analyst added that compared to newly created pages, along with the volume of web resources, it is more likely that some content will remain crawled but not indexed. The scanning and indexing of Google’s database material will only be implemented when the search engine attaches value to the content, but this may not occur subsequently.

What to Do If a Page Receives Such Status?

Mueller states that it is not necessary to panic in this case. It is better to adopt a tactic of consistent improvement, continue modernizing the site, and, in particular, boost the quality of its content. Meanwhile, despite everything, it is worth remembering that approximately 20% of web resources do not fall under indexing, according to the statistics brought up by John Mueller during the briefing.