Almost every blogger has faced a common frustrating problem while indexing URLs in Google Search Console (GSC), which is “Discovered – Currently Not Indexed.”
This problem may affect the blogs, articles, pages, and websites. And because of this, most bloggers get panicked and try to fix the problem, which actually doesn’t solve the problem.
In this blog post, you’ll get to know
- What “Discovered – Currently Not Indexed” means
- Why does Google do this
- The most common causes of Discovered – Currently Not Indexed
- Solution to fix the problem
- And how to prevent it in the future
What Does “Discovered – Currently Not Indexed” Mean?
Whenever Google displays this status in Google Search Console, it means that Google has found the URL in the sitemap, but has not crawled or indexed it in Google Search.
Key difference:
- Discovered = Google knows the existence of the page
- Not Indexed = Google hasn’t added it to search results
This is not an error, it’s an issue.
Here, Google means “The page is available but not urgent or valuable to crawl as of now”.
Where to Find This Detail in GSC
- Open Google Search Console
- Go to Pages
- Scroll to Why pages aren’t indexed
- Click Discovered – Currently Not Indexed
See the number of affected URLs; if the number of affected URLs is high or keeps growing, then it is a sign that Google is losing interest in your blogs.
Is “Discovered – Currently Not Indexed” Bad for SEO?
Yes, it could be if:
- New blogs are not getting indexed
- Sitemap keeps growing, but posts and pages don’t
- Many pages and posts get stuck for a long time
Main Causes of “Discovered – Currently Not Indexed”
1. Limitations of crawl budget
Google provides a crawl budget to every type of website. If the site:
- Has too many URLs
- Publishes content that is not valuable
- Posting frequently low-quality content.
In these conditions, Google may slow the crawling speed of new URLs.
These are the common problems on the new websites, large blogs, and sites that have poor internal linking.
2. Low Content Quality
Google mostly doesn’t crawl the pages that are:
- Short or not enough
- Similar to the same content
- And repetitive content
If the article doesn’t have anything new, then Google may refuse to index it or delay indexing it.
3. Poor Internal Linking
If the page:
- Doesn’t have internal linking
- If the page is too deeply buried in the site
Google may treat it as poor quality. Internal links can be known as the importance of the signals.
Without a reason, Google doesn’t crawl the page quickly.
4. Weak Authority of Site
New or low-authority sites often experience this issue.
If Google doesn’t yet trust your domain, it will:
- Crawl fewer pages
- Index slower
- Focus only on your best content
This improves naturally to grow the site.
How Long Does Google Take to Index These Pages?
Usually, there is no fixed timeline.
- Some pages may get indexed quickly
- Some pages may never get indexed
If “Discovered – Currently Not Indexed“ appears more than 3-5 weeks, it means there is something that needs to be fixed.
How to Fix “Discovered – Currently Not Indexed”
1. Improve Content Quality
Before reaching Google Search Console (GSC), check that the page is really worth for indexing.
Improve content quality by:
- Writing in depth, approx 1000+ words
- Adding something unique examples
- Making it easy to read
Google always prefers informative and useful content over just long content.
2. Keeping Sitemap Clean
A clean sitemap is important to get indexed in GSC.
Try to remove:
- Duplicate URLs
- Archives, Tags, Filter
A simple and clean sitemap helps Google to focus.
3. Improve Page Speed & Hosting
To check the page speed, there is a tool officially from Google, which is PageSpeed Insights.
Try to check:
- Core Web Vitals
- Response time of the server
- Reliability of the hosting
To check these things, freely try PageSpeed Insights by Google. Focus on the improvements in these things if it is slow.
A faster site has better crawl efficiency and ranks more.
Facts about indexing
- Submitting sitemap does not guarantee indexing
- Requesting for indexing doesn’t fix everything
- But this doesn’t mean that Google penalized the site
- More content doesn’t mean faster indexing
Final Thoughts
“Discovered – Currently Not Indexed” is feedback to improve the content quality.
Google is basically telling you to “Convince me this page deserves attention.”
Focus on content quality, site performance, and provide valuable knowledge and information.
