Indexability
15-30 minAdvanced
Indexability ensures Google can actually SEE and LIST your pages. If a page isn't indexed, it doesn't exist.
Prerequisites
- Search Console Access
Easy Recommended
Using Google Search Console
The primary way to check and request indexing.
1
URL Inspection
1
Paste a URL into the top search bar in GSC
2
Check status: "URL is on Google" vs "URL is not on Google"
3
Click "Test Live URL" to see if Googlebot can render it
4
Click "Request Indexing" to queue it
Best Practices
Do
- Noindex Tag Archives and Date Archives usually (duplicate content)
- Noindex "Thank You" pages
- Fix "Discovered - currently not indexed" (usually quality issue)
Don't
- Noindex category pages if they drive traffic
- Block CSS/JS in robots.txt
- Leave "Discourage search engines" on in Production
Verification Checklist
- GSC shows "URL is on Google"
- site:yourdomain.com/slug shows the page
- No "Indexed, though blocked by robots.txt" errors
- Sitemap status is "Success"
Pro Tips
- Use the "Removals" tool in GSC only for emergencies (removing sensitive data). It is temporary.
- For large sites (>10k pages), analyze Crawl Budget using server logs.
Common Issues & Fixes
Problem: Crawled - currently not indexed
Solution: Google saw the page but decided it wasn't worth indexing yet. Improve content quality and internal linking.
Problem: Discovered - currently not indexed
Solution: Google knows the content exists but hasn't crawled it. Likely a crawl budget issue or poor internal linking.