What is Indexing? And why isn't Google indexing my pages?

So you've built your website. You've written your pages. Maybe you've even submitted your sitemap to Google Search Console. And yet, your pages are sitting there, unindexed.

Google knows they exist, but refuses to show them in search results.

Sound familiar?

It happened to me too. So let me explain what indexing actually is.

1. What's the difference between crawling and indexing?

   
   

   If you've read my previous post on how Google crawls a website, you'll know that crawling is simply Googlebot visiting your pages and reading their content.

   Indexing is the next step. Once Googlebot has crawled a page, it decides whether that page is worth storing in its index.

   
   

   Think of it like this: crawling is Google reading your page. Indexing is Google deciding to remember it.

2. So why would Google crawl a page but NOT index it?

   
   

   Google doesn't index every page it finds.

   
   

   The most common reasons:

   
   

   Thin content

   The page doesn't have enough valuable content.

   
   

   Duplicate content

   The page is too similar to another page on your site or elsewhere on the web.

   
   

   Noindex tag

   Someone has told Google not to index the page using a meta tag or HTTP header.

   
   

   Blocked by robots.txt

   The page is being blocked from crawling entirely, so indexing never even gets a chance.

   
   

   Low authority

   Your site is new and Google hasn't decided to trust it yet. The most common reason for brand new websites.

   
   

   No internal links

   The page exists but nothing on your site links to it, making it feel like an orphan.

   
   

3. What does 'Discovered – currently not indexed' mean?

   
   

   If you're using GSC, you may have seen this status. It means Google has found your page but has put it in a queue and hasn't gotten around to crawling and evaluating it yet.

   
   

   This often happens on new sites with low authority.

   
   

   Google essentially says: 'I see this exists, but I'm not prioritising it right now.' The fix? Build authority, add content and be patient.

4. How do you get Google to index your pages?

1. Submit your sitemap to GSC.

2. Use the URL Inspection Tool in GSC to request indexing on specific pages.

3. Add real, valuable content to every page.

4. Build internal links.

5. Publish more content.

Want to know how to spot these tags yourself? Read my post on noindex, nofollow and robots.txt