How to fix non-indexed pages in Google: A complete guide

Whether you’re a new travel blogger or an expert who’s just been hit by another algorithm update, this guide breaks down what’s going on and how to fix it.

What is Google indexing?

First things first: Google indexing is the process of storing and organizing web pages in Google’s database. Once a page is indexed, it can appear in search results for related queries. 

But before indexing happens, Google has to crawl the page. Indexing and crawling often get confused, but they’re different.

• Crawling is when Googlebot (Google’s automated tool) visits your website and looks at your pages. If it can access and understand a page…
• That page gets indexed. Only after that can it start ranking in search results. 

Here’s one way to picture it: Imagine you write a travel guide and send it to a library. Crawling is the librarian reading through your guide. Indexing is when they add it to the shelf. Ranking is whether it ends up on the front display or buried in the back.

Why indexing is important for SEO

Indexing is the foundation of SEO. A page can’t appear in Google’s search results if it isn’t indexed. That means no one can find it even if the content is useful, well-written, and optimized. All other SEO work, from keywords to internal linking, depends on your content being indexed first.

Plus, indexed pages contribute to your site’s overall authority and trust. If your content keeps getting ignored or dropped from the index, it can affect how Google views your entire domain.

How to check if Google has indexed your site

Google Search Console 

The best way to check if your pages are indexed is with Google Search Console, a free tool that shows how Google sees your site.

To set it up, go to search.google.com/search-console, sign in with your Google account, and add your website as a property. You’ll need to verify that you own the site. The easiest way to do this is through your domain provider or by uploading a small HTML file to your site. Once verified, Google will start collecting data and give you access to indexing reports, crawl stats, and tools to monitor how your pages perform in search.

Once you’re set up, go to the Indexing tab and click on Pages. You’ll see a breakdown of all your Indexed or Not indexed pages. Scroll down to see the reasons some pages weren’t indexed. If you click on a specific reason, Google will show you a list of affected URLs and allow you to validate a fix if you’ve made changes.

To inspect a specific URL, just paste your link into the top bar (the URL Inspection Tool). Google will tell you if the page is indexed, when it was last crawled, and whether there are any issues. If the page isn’t indexed, you’ll see the reason, and you can also request indexing from right there.

Site search operator

Another quick way to check if your pages are indexed is by using a search engine like Google with the site: operator. Just type site:yourdomain.com into Google. This will show a list of pages from your website that have been indexed.

You can also check a specific page by searching site:yourdomain.com/page-url. If the page appears, it’s indexed. If not, Google hasn’t added it to the index yet, or it may have been removed.

This method is fast and doesn’t require any tools, but it has limits. It doesn’t show every indexed page and sometimes misses updates. It’s best used as a quick check. For deeper insights, always rely on Google Search Console.

Technical issues

Even if your content is solid, one minor issue in your site settings can block indexing. 

Here are some of the most common technical problems.

1. noindex tags

noindex tags tell Google not to index a page – and sometimes they get added by accident, including by SEO plugins or themes that tell Google to ignore the page. Google can still visit a page with the tag, but it won’t appear in search results.

To check if a page has a noindex tag, right-click on the page and select View Page Source. Then use Ctrl+F (or Cmd+F on Mac) and search for “noindex.” If you see a line like this:
<meta name=”robots” content=”noindex”> – that’s what’s blocking the page from being indexed.

💡 A simpler way is to go to Google Search Console, then paste your URL into the URL Inspection Tool. Look under Page indexing. If the page is blocked by a noindex tag, you’ll see a message that says Blocked by ‘noindex’ tag.

2. The robots.txt file

robots txt controls which parts of your site Googlebot is allowed to crawl. And if it can’t crawl a page, it won’t index it. 

3. Canonical tag conflicts

A canonical tag tells Google which version of a page to index if there are duplicates. If the tag points to the wrong URL, like your homepage or a different post, Google may ignore the page you want indexed. 

To check it, open the page you want indexed, right-click → View Page Source, and search for link rel=”canonical”. Ensure that the URL matches the current page.

💡 You can also use tools like SEOptimer, SEO Review Tools, Sitechecker, SEOTesting, or Plerdy. Just enter your URL, and the tool will show you if the page has a canonical tag.

4. Redirect loops

Sometimes a URL keeps redirecting back and forth or leads to a dead end. Googlebot gets stuck and can’t reach the final page. 

This often happens when multiple plugins or redirect settings conflict, or when you accidentally chain too many redirects together.

To fix this, trace the full path using a redirect checker like httpstatus.io. Look for loops or unnecessary steps, then clean up your redirect rules so that each URL points directly to a final, working page.

5. JavaScript rendering issues

Some pages use JavaScript to load content after the page first opens. If Googlebot can’t process that JavaScript, it may miss key content or see a blank page.

 Use the URL Inspection Tool in the bar at the top of  Search Console to see what Google sees. If the page has already been crawled, click View Crawled Page. If not, use Test Live URL to see what Googlebot sees. Check your theme or plugins if key parts of your content are missing. Some page builders or add-ons load content too late. You may need to change some settings, switch plugins, or ask your developer to move important content so it loads immediately.

💡If you’re unsure what to do, start by disabling non-essential plugins one by one and retesting your page. This is often the easiest way to spot what’s causing the issue.

1. Thin content

Content is “thin” when there isn’t much helpful information on the page. It could be too short, too generic, or missing key details. For example, a blog post with just a few lines of text or a tag page without real content might get skipped. Google only wants to index your pages when they offer value, so make sure your content is original, detailed, and helpful.

2. Duplicate content

Google might index only one version if it finds the same or similar content on multiple pages, either within your site or across the web. This can happen with copied product descriptions, repeated location pages, or multiple blog posts covering the same topic with little variation.

To find duplicate content, you can:

• Paste a short sentence from your page into Google (in quotes) to see if it appears elsewhere.
• Use tools like Siteliner, Copyscape, or Ahrefs to search for duplicates.
• In Google Search Console, look in Pages or use the URL Inspection Tool. The tool won’t explicitly label content as duplicate. Still, in the page indexing report, you might find statuses like Duplicate without user-selected canonical, meaning Google found duplicate pages, but you haven’t specified which one is the preferred version.

💡If you find duplicates, use canonical tags to point to the preferred version. And whenever possible, rewrite or combine similar content to avoid overlap.

3. Spam signals

Even if they’re not spam, pages that look like it may be excluded from the index. This can happen if your page has too many keywords stuffed in, misleading titles, or auto-generated text. It can also happen if your site has low-quality backlinks or a pattern of publishing shallow content. 

💡Keep things natural, practical, and written for humans first.

Google algorithm factors affecting indexing

1. Quality thresholds

Just because a page isn’t “thin” doesn’t mean it’s quality. Even if a page is long, it might get skipped if it doesn’t offer enough original value or doesn’t meet Google’s standards for usefulness. A page could technically be “not thin” but still not good enough to index.

But wait, what are Google’s standards for usefulness? Google looks for content that:

• Answers a specific question.
• Helps the reader accomplish something.
• Shares real expertise.

Pages that feel copied, vague, or generic often don’t make the cut, especially if they sound like they were written just to rank for keywords.

Pages that meet the threshold usually have a clear structure and helpful formatting (like bullet points or subheadings) and include personal insight or unique data. For example, a detailed blog post with firsthand travel tips is more likely to be indexed than a broad destination summary copied from other sites.

If you’re seeing Discovered – currently not indexed or Crawled – currently not indexed in Search Console, content quality may be the issue, especially if you don’t find any technical issues.

2. E-E-A-T signals

E-E-A-T stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trust. It’s a set of guidelines Google uses to decide whether your content is reliable and helpful.

This isn’t technically a ranking factor, but it plays a big role in whether your pages get indexed and ranked, especially in competitive niches like travel, finance, and health.

• Experience: You’ve done the thing you’re writing about. A blog post titled “What it’s really like to take the overnight train from Lisbon to Madrid”  that includes your own photos, tips, and honest opinions shows real, lived experience. Google values that more than a generic article pulled together from secondhand sources.
  
• Expertise: You have deep knowledge of the subject. For example, if you write a packing guide based on years of frequent travel or a detailed visa guide with up-to-date info, that’s expertise. Showing your credentials or past work also helps.
  
• Authoritativeness: Other people trust you on the topic. This could be expressed in backlinks from other travel blogs, getting featured on prominent sites, or having useful content on similar topics – for instance, a series of detailed city guides helps build your authority over time.
  
• Trust: Your site is honest, transparent, and safe to use. This includes having an About page, contact info, a privacy policy, and accurate facts. It also means avoiding clickbait, misleading titles, and ads for products that don’t match your content.
  

Google doesn’t require you to be a professional journalist or travel agent, but your content should clearly show that you’ve been there, done that, and know what you’re talking about.

3. Domain trustworthiness

Google doesn’t just look at individual pages – it considers your site as a whole. If your domain has a history of publishing helpful, original content, Google is more likely to trust new pages and index them quickly. You don’t need a huge site to build trust. A small travel blog with 20 high-quality posts can be more trustworthy than a big site full of filler. 

💡So, how do you build that trust?

• Focus on consistency. Keep publishing original content and updating your older posts.
• Avoid duplicate pages, clickbait titles, and keyword stuffing.
• Internal linking helps, too. It shows Google how your content connects.

Over time, these small efforts will build you a reputation that Google can rely on.

4. Crawl budget

Your crawl budget is the number of pages Googlebot is willing and able to crawl on your site during a given period. It’s not a number you can see or control directly, but it matters, especially for larger sites.

Your crawl budget is determined by two factors:

1. Crawl capacity limit – how often Googlebot can safely crawl your site without overloading your server.
2. Crawl demand – how important or popular your pages seem based on updates, traffic, and links.
   

If your site is small (and most travel blogs are), you probably don’t need to worry about crawl budget. However, if you have hundreds of posts, tag pages, or old URLs, Google may prioritize some pages over others.

How many resources Google allocates to crawling your site depends on its structure and quality. Pages with internal links and proven value get crawled more often. Unlinked or low-value pages may be ignored.

Site size and update frequency also matter: larger sites with frequent updates usually get crawled more often. If your site hasn’t changed in months, Google may slow down its crawl rate, which can delay indexing.

To help Google crawl your site efficiently, make sure your internal linking is clear, your sitemap is updated, and you’re not wasting your crawl budget on pages that don’t matter (like tag archives or expired promotions).

Why do articles get deindexed?

1. Manual actions and penalties

Google’s automated systems handle most indexing issues. However, in rare cases, your site might be hit with a manual action – a penalty applied by someone from Google’s webspam team. When this happens, Google may remove specific pages (or your entire site) from the index.

Manual actions usually fall under a few main categories:

• Spam: Pages that use misleading tactics, auto-generated content, or aggressive keyword stuffing.
• Unnatural links: If you buy backlinks or participate in shady link exchanges, Google might see your site as manipulative.
• Cloaking: This means showing one version of your page to users and a different one to Googlebot, which is strictly prohibited.
  

To check if your site has a manual penalty, go to Google Search Console. In the left-hand menu, click Security & Manual Actions → Manual Actions. If you see a message here, it means your site has been penalized. You’ll also get information about the issue and how to fix it.

Most travel bloggers won’t run into this, but it’s still worth knowing how to check, especially if your content suddenly disappears from search.

2. Algorithm updates and ranking drops

Sometimes your content disappears from search, not because of a mistake, but because Google has changed the rules.

​​The first major update that hit travel bloggers hard was the Helpful Content Update (HCU) in September 2023. It was designed to reward content that’s genuinely helpful and written by people with real experience and to demote content that seemed generic, AI-written, or made just to rank. But for many travel bloggers, the result was devastating. Overnight, traffic dropped. Pages that had ranked for years were gone. For some, entire blogs were effectively wiped from Google’s index.

It didn’t stop there. Core updates in March, November, and December 2024 continued the same trend. Blogs and small publishers saw massive losses, even those with original, well-written posts.

This is where indexing volatility comes in. Around big updates, it’s common for pages to temporarily drop out of the index, especially older or lower-performing ones. Sometimes they come back. Other times, they don’t. Google is re-evaluating what belongs in search, and borderline content is often the first to go.

Freshness is part of the equation, too. Travel changes quickly – visa rules, opening hours, prices, safety info. If your posts haven’t been updated in a long time, Google might see them as outdated, no matter how good they were when published.

If you’ve seen a sudden drop in traffic or indexing and didn’t do anything wrong, you’re not alone. Google updates change the landscape for travel bloggers.

💡The best path forward is to audit your content. Refresh it with updated info and submit it using the URL Inspection Tool in Search Console. Google needs a reason to come back, and telling it your page has been improved gives it one.

How to non-indexed pages

1. Create and submit a sitemap

If you’ve found pages that aren’t indexed, the first step is to make sure Google can discover them. One of the best ways to do so is by creating and submitting a sitemap. 

A sitemap is a file that lists all the important pages on your site. It helps Googlebot understand your site structure and find pages that might otherwise get missed. You don’t need to include every URL, just the pages you want Google to crawl and index.

You can often find your sitemap at yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml. Open that link in your browser to confirm it’s working. It should list URLs and update automatically when you publish new posts.

Also, most blogging platforms and SEO plugins like Yoast SEO, Rank Math, All in One SEO can generate a sitemap automatically.

Once you have your sitemap, you need to submit it to Google.

1. Go to Google Search Console.
2. In the menu on the left, click Sitemaps under the Indexing section.
3. Paste in the URL of your sitemap.
4. Click Submit.

This tells Google exactly where to look for new or updated content. It doesn’t guarantee indexing, but it improves your chances, especially for new pages.

2. Improve internal linking

​​Google discovers new content by following links, including ones within your own site. If your page has no internal links, Google might not find it or consider it important enough to index. These are called orphaned pages.

To fix this, make sure every important page on your site is linked to from another one – ideally one that’s already indexed and getting traffic. This helps spread link equity, which means some of the trust and authority from one page is passed to another through internal links. It tells Google that the page linked to is worth crawling and indexing.

Tips for spreading link equity:

• Start with your navigation and category structure. Are your destination guides or affiliate posts buried too deep? Also look at your blog posts. Can you naturally link to your non-indexed page from existing content?
  
• Create link silos: groups of related pages that link to each other. For example, all your Italy posts should be connected. This helps Google see the structure of your site and understand how your content is organized by topic.
  
• Don’t forget contextual relevance. Google values links that are placed naturally inside useful content. A link inside a sentence is much more powerful than one buried in a long list or stuck in a footer.

💡Other quick tips: Don’t over-link – 2 to 5 internal links per post is plenty. Use clear, descriptive anchor text like “3-day Rome itinerary” instead of vague phrases like “click here.” And don’t just link from new posts to old ones; also go back and update older posts with links to your newer content. This helps keep everything connected and makes it easier for Google to crawl and index.

3. Maximize page load speed

Page speed can impact how Google crawls your site and how well your content performs in search. If pages load slowly, especially on larger websites, Googlebot may crawl fewer URLs or take longer to process them. This can delay or prevent indexing.

Fast-loading pages also create a better visitor experience by reducing bounce rates and improving engagement. Google measures this through Core Web Vitals. To learn more, check out our article on page speed.

4. Using Indexing API

Google’s Indexing API lets you directly notify Google when a page has been added, updated, or removed. But it’s only intended for particular types of content. Currently, Google officially supports it only for JobPosting and BroadcastEvent schema types. For most travel blogs, the Indexing API isn’t necessary or allowed for regular posts, guides, or reviews.

That said, some SEOs and site owners still experiment with it to get pages crawled faster, especially for large sites with indexing issues. However, there’s no guarantee Google will respond, and misuse of the API could go against Google’s guidelines.

If you do qualify to use it (for example, if your site includes live events or structured data for job listings), you’ll need to:

1. Set up a Google Cloud project
2. Enable the Indexing API
3. Create service account credentials
4. Submit page URLs using a script or tool that connects to the API

💡Most travel bloggers can forget the API. The better long-term approach is to focus on sitemaps, internal links, and content quality, as these are safer and more effective ways of getting pages indexed.

Frequently asked questions

Should I de-index posts?

Yes, sometimes de-indexing is a smart move, especially if you have a lot of low-quality, outdated, or duplicate posts dragging down your site. Removing these pages from Google’s index can focus the crawl budget on your best content and improve your overall site quality in Google’s eyes.

De-indexing is appropriate when:

• The content is thin, outdated, or no longer useful
• The post is duplicated across your site (like tag archives or old summaries)
• You’re consolidating similar posts into one stronger article
• You’re cleaning up a large blog after an algorithm update
  

There are a few ways to de-index posts in bulk:

• Use your CMS or SEO plugin: In WordPress, tools like Yoast SEO, Rank Math, or All in One SEO let you add a noindex meta tag to individual posts, categories, or entire tag pages.
• Set rules in your robots.txt meta settings: Block with noindex across entire site sections, like /tag/ or /archives/, depending on your structure.
• Update your sitemap: Make sure pages you want de-indexed are removed from your sitemap. Google pays attention to what’s included there.
• Block with robots.txt only if you want to stop crawling too – but remember, blocking a page there doesn’t remove it from the index if it’s already been indexed.
  

De-indexing doesn’t delete the post from your site, it just tells Google not to show it in search results. If done strategically, it can strengthen your overall site authority by removing low-value content.

How long does it take for Google to index a page?

There’s no fixed timeline. In some cases, it can happen within a few hours. Other times, it might take several days or even weeks. For most travel bloggers, new content is usually indexed within a few days – but only if Google can find and crawl it easily.

Several factors affect how quickly a page gets indexed. These include:

• How often your site is updated
• How strong your domain is
• How many internal links point to the new page
• Whether the page is listed in your sitemap.

Pages on well-maintained sites with good structure and regular updates get crawled and indexed faster. Conversely, orphaned pages, low-quality content, and sites with crawl issues may take much longer.

Submitting a page through the URL Inspection Tool in Search Console can sometimes speed things up, but it’s not guaranteed.

How to request faster indexing

If you’ve published or updated a page and want Google to index it quickly, using the URL Inspection Tool in Google Search Console is the best method.

Paste your page URL into the search bar at the top of Search Console. Google will check if the page is already indexed. If it’s not, or if you’ve made major updates, click Request indexing. This signals to Google that your page is ready to be re-crawled.

You can also use this tool after fixing issues on a previously excluded page. If the fix is confirmed, Google may index the page on the next crawl.

There’s no official limit to how often you can request indexing, but avoid overdoing it. Only submit when a page is new or has been meaningfully updated. Repeated requests for the same page won’t speed things up, and Google may ignore them.

Does Google index posts with redirects?

When a redirect is in place, Google does not index both pages; it only indexes the final destination.

For example, say you had a post at yourblog.com/top-things-to-do-in-paris and redirected it to yourblog.com/paris-travel-guide. Over time, Google will stop showing the original URL in search results and index only the new one. The old post won’t appear in search anymore, even though the URL still exists.

But beware, the type of redirect matters. A 301 redirect is permanent. It tells Google the content has moved for good, and any ranking signals (like backlinks) should be passed to the new URL. This is the best option for consolidating or cleaning up old posts.

A 302 redirect is temporary. It tells Google the move isn’t permanent, so the original URL might still be indexed. Leaving a 302 in place for too long can confuse search engines and slow down the indexing of the correct page.

If your goal is to get the destination page indexed, make sure it’s crawlable, listed in your sitemap, and linked from other pages on your site. A redirect alone won’t guarantee that Google will index the new page immediately.

Should I resubmit articles for indexing if I change the year?

Yes, you should resubmit the page using the URL Inspection Tool in Google Search Console if you update the year in your article (whether in the title, heading, or meta description). This helps prevent the old year from appearing in search results, which could turn readers away.

That said, just changing the year isn’t enough to signal freshness to Google’s algorithm. If the rest of the content hasn’t changed, Google may still treat it as old. But resubmitting the page ensures that Google at least crawls and reflects the most recent version, which is especially helpful if the year appears in your meta title..

💡In short: always resubmit, but don’t expect a year update to boost visibility unless you’ve also updated the content.

Why can’t I find my blog and articles in Google search?

If you’ve searched for your blog post and it’s nowhere to be found, don’t panic. It doesn’t always mean something’s wrong – just that you have more SEO work to do.

First, understand that indexing and ranking are different. A page might be indexed (which means Google has saved it in its system) without ranking for the terms you searched. If your post is new, low on internal links, or on a competitive topic, it might not appear on the first few pages, even if it’s indexed.

To check if a page is indexed, use the site: operator – for example, search for site:yourblog.com/post-title. If nothing shows up, the page likely hasn’t been indexed yet.

But even if your blog post has been indexed and you search for the exact title, it might not show up. That meansGoogle is ranking other pages that use similar or identical wording higher.

💡In short: if you can’t find your post in search, check whether it’s indexed first. If it is, the issue is probably ranking, not visibility.

Indexing issues can be frustrating, especially when you’ve put time and effort into your content and it’s not appearing in search. But the good news is, most problems are fixable.

Start by auditing your site. Use tools like Google Search Console and site: searches to see what’s indexed and what’s missing. Look for common issues like crawl blocks, thin content, orphaned pages, and outdated posts. Fix what you can: improve internal linking, update content, remove low-value pages, and make sure important ones are in your sitemap.

Request indexing when it makes sense, but don’t rely on it alone. Indexing is an ongoing process, not a one-time fix. Keep an eye on changes after core updates, monitor what’s working, and keep improving your site’s structure and content.

Stay patient, stay consistent, and keep publishing helpful, high-quality content. Getting indexing right takes work, but it’s worth it.