Discovered – currently not indexed”: 10 Proven Fixes to Get Your Pages Indexed

Seeing the “Discovered – currently not indexed” status in your Google Search Console (GSC) report is one of the most frustrating experiences for an SEO or site owner. You’ve created the content, you know it’s there, but Google is essentially saying, “We see it, but we haven’t bothered to add it to our library yet.”

This status means Google knows your URL exists—likely from a sitemap, an internal link, or a backlink—but has chosen not to crawl or index it yet.

This isn’t a penalty, but it’s a serious problem. An undiscovered page brings no traffic, holds no authority, and provides zero value to your business. This article breaks down the exact causes and provides 10 concrete fixes to move your pages from this limbo into Google’s index.

Why Google Tags Pages as “Discovered – currently not indexed”

Before we get to the fixes, you need to understand the “why.” Google’s resources are not infinite. It has to make daily decisions about which billions of pages to crawl, re-crawl, and index.

When your page is stuck on this status, Google has made a judgment call that your page is not a priority. This usually boils down to two main categories:

Crawl Budget/Queue: Googlebot simply hasn’t gotten around to it. This is common for new sites or sites with millions of pages. Google may deem your site low-authority or find it difficult to crawl, so it postpones the task.
Quality Assessment: This is the more common and serious cause. Google has enough information (from your internal links, sitemap, or a brief initial crawl) to decide the page is probably not worth the effort. It believes the content is thin, duplicate, or just doesn’t meet its quality standards (E-E-A-T).

10 Concrete Fixes to Get Your Pages Indexed

Here are actionable steps, from the simple to the complex, to resolve the “Discovered – currently not indexed” issue.

1. Be Patient (For a Few Days)

If you just published the page 24-48 hours ago, your first step is to do nothing. It can take time for Google’s crawlers to find and prioritize new content, especially on a new or small site. If it’s been over a week, it’s time to act.

2. Drastically Improve Content Quality

This is the most important fix. Ask yourself, “Is this page 100% unique, helpful, and provides a better answer than what’s already on page one?” If not, it’s thin content.

Fix: Expand the content (aim for 800+ helpful words), add unique insights, include new data, add images/video, and cite expert sources. Ensure it follows E-E-A-T (Expertise, Experience, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness).

3. Check for “noindex” and “robots.txt”

It’s the “is it plugged in?” of SEO. A stray noindex tag in your page’s <head> or a Disallow: rule in your robots.txt file could be telling Google to ignore the page.

Fix: Use the “URL Inspection” tool in GSC. It will tell you if the page is crawlable and indexable. Remove any “noindex” tags and ensure robots.txt isn’t blocking the page.

4. Improve Your Internal Linking Strategy

Pages that are not linked to from within your own site are called “orphan pages.” If you don’t link to it, you’re telling Google it’s not important.

Fix: Link to your new page from your high-authority pages. Add a link from your homepage, a relevant parent category, or within the body of a popular, related blog post. A solid internal linking structure is a key part of good web design and development.

5. Submit an Updated Sitemap

Your sitemap is a roadmap for Google. When you publish or update content, your sitemap should automatically update (most CMS platforms do this).

Fix: Go to GSC, navigate to the “Sitemaps” report, and ensure your sitemap is submitted and has been “Successfully read.” If it’s old, you can manually resubmit it.

6. Use the “Request Indexing” Tool (Sparingly)

Once you have significantly improved the page (Step 2) and fixed any technical issues (Steps 3 & 4), you can use the “Request Indexing” feature in GSC’s URL Inspection tool.

Fix: This “jumps the queue” and asks Google to crawl it. Do not do this if you haven’t improved the page, as Google will simply learn to ignore your requests.

7. Check for Canonicalization Issues

You might be accidentally telling Google that this page is a duplicate of another. The rel="canonical" tag tells Google which version of a page is the “master” copy.

Fix: Check the source code of your page. The canonical tag should point to itself. If it points to another page, Google will index that other page and ignore this one.

8. Improve Site Speed & Server Response

If Google’s crawler tries to visit your page and your server is slow or (even worse) returns a 5xx server error, it will give up and come back later. If this happens repeatedly, it will stop trying.

Fix: Use PageSpeed Insights to check your load time. Optimize images, use caching, and ensure you have a good hosting provider.

9. Build High-Quality External Backlinks

A backlink from a reputable, external site is the strongest signal you can send to Google that your page is valuable.

Fix: This is a long-term strategy, but if you have great content (see Step 2), promote it. A single good backlink can be enough to trigger a crawl and indexing.

10. Prune or Consolidate Thin Content

If you have thousands of pages stuck in the “Discovered – currently not indexed” status, the problem isn’t the pages; it’s your site. You have a site-wide quality problem.

Fix: Conduct a content audit. Find all your low-quality, thin pages. Either improve them (combine 5 short posts into 1 ultimate guide) or delete them and 301 redirect them to a relevant page. This frees up crawl budget for your good content.

When to Call in the Experts

Fixing the “Discovered – currently not indexed” error is a process of elimination. Start with the easiest fixes (patience, technical checks) and move to the most difficult (improving content quality).

If you’ve worked through this list and your important pages are still stuck in limbo, it may be time for a professional audit. An affordable SEO agency in the USA can diagnose deep-seated technical issues or crawl budget traps that are holding your site back.

For a comprehensive SEO strategy that gets your content seen, contact Digi Web Insight today.