How to Find and Fix Indexing Errors in Search Console

Understanding Page Indexing in Google Search Console

If your website pages are not showing up on Google, you are losing free search traffic. To fix this, you must learn how to fix indexing errors Search Console. Many website owners panic when they see thousands of "Not indexed" pages in their Google Search Console dashboard. But here is the secret: not every unindexed page is an error. Many exclusions are completely normal and actually help your website's health.

In this tutorial, we will learn how to separate real indexing errors from normal exclusions. We will inspect the problematic URLs, fix the root causes, and tell Google to crawl your pages again. Let us do this step by step.

Prerequisites Before You Begin

Before we start fixing errors, make sure you have the following ready:

• A verified Google Search Console property for your website.
• Owner or full user permissions to request indexing and validate fixes in the dashboard.
• An active XML sitemap. If you have not submitted one yet, you can learn How to Submit a Sitemap in Google Search Console to help Google find your pages easily.

Step 1: Analyze the Page Indexing Report

Open your Google Search Console dashboard. On the left-hand menu, click on "Pages" under the "Indexing" section. Here, you will see a summary chart. It shows two main categories: "Indexed" and "Not indexed".

Scroll down to the table titled "Why pages aren't indexed". This is where Google lists the specific reasons for excluding your URLs. Do not try to fix everything at once. We must prioritize the pages that actually matter for your business and traffic.

Step 2: Group and Prioritize Your Pages

We must divide these reasons into two groups: Intentional Exclusions and Actionable Errors. This prevents you from wasting time fixing things that are not broken.

Intentional Exclusions (Usually Safe to Ignore)

• Excluded by "noindex" tag: You told Google not to index these pages (like your admin pages, cart pages, or search result pages). This is correct behavior.
• Blocked by robots.txt: You blocked Googlebot from crawling these folders. This is normal for private files.
• Page with redirect: These are old URLs redirecting to new ones. Google should not index the old URLs, only the final destination.

Actionable Errors (You Must Fix These)

• Submitted URL marked "noindex": You put a page in your sitemap, but you also added a "noindex" tag to it. This is a conflicting signal.
• Submitted URL blocked by robots.txt: You asked Google to index a page via your sitemap, but your robots.txt file blocks Googlebot from reading it Search Console Sitemaps Report.
• Soft 404: The page is blank or missing, but your server sends a "200 OK" success code instead of a "404 Not Found" code.
• Server error (5xx): Googlebot could not reach your server. This is often a hosting issue.
• Not found (404): These are broken links that return a 404 error code.

Step 3: Inspect Individual URLs

To understand exactly why a specific page is not indexed, we must use the URL Inspection tool URL Inspection Tool. Copy the URL of the page you want to check, paste it into the search bar at the top of Search Console, and press Enter.

Search Console will retrieve the data from its last crawl. Look at these key fields:

• Presence on Google: Does it say "URL is not on Google"?
• Crawl allowed?: Does it say "Yes" or "No: blocked by robots.txt"?
• Page fetch: Did Google successfully retrieve the page?
• Google-selected canonical: This is highly important. Sometimes, you want Google to index URL A, but Google decides that URL B is the original version.

If you have recently made changes to the page, click the "Live Test" button at the top right. This tells you how Google sees your page right now, not during the last crawl.

Step 4: Fix the Underlying Crawl or Content Issue

Now, let us look at how to fix the most common indexing errors step by step.

How to Fix "Submitted URL marked 'noindex'"

This error happens when your SEO plugin (like Yoast or Rank Math) adds a "noindex" tag to a page that is listed in your XML sitemap.

Decision Rule: If the page is important (like a blog post), remove the "noindex" setting in your SEO plugin. If the page should remain hidden (like a thank-you page), remove it from your XML sitemap so Google does not get confused.

How to Fix "Soft 404" Errors

A soft 404 occurs when a page is empty or has very little content, but your server tells Google that the page is fine.

Decision Rule: If the page is old and no longer needed, configure your server to return a true 404 or 410 response. If the page is active but has thin content, add helpful text, images, and internal links to make it a high-quality page.

Understanding "Discovered" vs "Crawled" Exclusions

Many bloggers get confused by these two statuses. Let us compare them so you can choose the right action:

Status	What it Means	Main Cause	How to Fix
Discovered - currently not indexed	Google knows the URL exists but has not crawled it yet.	Crawl budget issues or poor site structure.	Improve internal linking and site speed.
Crawled - currently not indexed	Google crawled the page but chose not to index it.	Low content quality or duplicate content.	Improve content depth and uniqueness.

For "Discovered" pages, do not request manual indexing for hundreds of URLs. Instead, improve your internal linking. Link to these new pages from your high-performing, already-indexed pages. This helps Googlebot find and prioritize them naturally. For "Crawled" pages, read your content objectively. Is it unique? Does it answer the user's query better than existing search results? Update the page with better information, clear headings, and helpful examples.

Step 5: Validate and Monitor the Result

Once you have fixed the issues on your website, you must tell Google to check your work.

1. Go back to the specific error report in Search Console.
2. Click the "Validate Fix" button.
3. Google will start a validation cycle. This process can take several days or even weeks depending on how often Google crawls your site.
4. You will receive email updates showing the progress: "Started", "Passing", or "Failed".

You can monitor your overall search performance, including impressions and click-through rates, using the Performance reports to see if your newly indexed pages are attracting visitors How Are You Performing on Google?.

An Illustrative Example: The Duplicate Content Dilemma

Let us look at a real-world example to make this clear. Imagine you run a recipe blog. You have a page: https://example.com/recipes/eggless-cake. In Search Console, this URL shows the error: "Duplicate, Google chose different canonical than user".

When you inspect the URL, you see:

• User-declared canonical: https://example.com/recipes/eggless-cake
• Google-selected canonical: https://example.com/recipes/eggless-chocolate-cake

Why did this happen? You wrote two separate articles, but the content of both pages is almost identical. Google decided that the chocolate cake version is the primary page and ignored your eggless cake page.

The Fix: To solve this, you have two choices. If the pages are truly different, rewrite the eggless cake page to focus on vanilla or general eggless baking. Add unique tips, different ingredients, and unique images. If they are too similar, set a 301 redirect from the weaker page to the stronger page, and update your internal links.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Panic-fixing normal exclusions: Do not try to index your feed URLs, admin pages, or tag pages. Keeping these out of the index saves your crawl budget for your money pages.
• Clicking "Validate Fix" without changing anything: Google will recrawl your pages. If the error is still there, the validation will fail, and you will waste time.
• Ignoring internal links: If a page has zero internal links (an orphan page), Google is unlikely to index it, even if you request manual indexing multiple times.

Limitations and Safety Advice

Please remember that Google Search Console does not update in real-time. If you fix an error on your WordPress or Shopify site today, the error might still show in Search Console for a few days. Do not panic. Use the "Live Test" option in the URL Inspection tool to verify that your live site is clean.

Also, requesting manual indexing has a daily limit. Use it only for your most important pages. For bulk indexing, rely on a clean sitemap and strong internal links.

Next Steps

Now that you know how to identify and fix these errors, go to your Search Console dashboard. Pick the top three error categories affecting your most important pages. Fix them one by one, click "Validate Fix", and monitor your progress. If you want to make sure Google finds your new pages automatically, check out our other guides to set up your sitemap correctly.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why does Search Console say my page is not indexed?

A page might not be indexed because Google has not crawled it yet, found it to be duplicate content, or encountered a technical barrier like a 'noindex' tag or robots.txt block. Use the URL Inspection tool to find the exact reason.

How long does it take Google to validate a fix?

Validation is not instant. It usually takes anywhere from a few days to a few weeks. Google must recrawl the affected URLs to confirm that the errors are gone before updating the status in your dashboard.

Can I manually force Google to index my entire website?

No, you cannot force bulk indexing. The 'Request Indexing' tool is meant for individual URLs and has a strict daily limit. For entire websites, submit a clean XML sitemap and build strong internal links.