Google’s John Mueller offered more information on this pesky “Discovered – but currently not indexed” post in the Google Search Console. Mueller responded to a series of tweets about what happens at Google when they choose not to index a URL.

Is Google indexing buggy?

There are many threads on Twitter and Facebook regarding notices that a URL has been discovered but not indexed because it is troubling to work on content and see it appearing to be rejected by Google.

Research Marketing Professional Dan Shure (@dan_shure) launched a Twitter thread on this topic to share how a new article was discovered but not indexed.

Dan shared the example of a customer site that posted two articles and days have passed showing up as Discovered but currently not indexed.

They submitted the URLs for re-crawling, but Google essentially turned its back on those pages, refusing to index them.

Could the URL be blocked after being discovered?

So Dan lets float the idea that maybe the URL itself, after being discovered and not indexed, gets burned at this point and decides to delete the old URL and paste the content on a new URL.

It’s a really good idea to remove the old URL and try again with a different URL.

He tweeted:

“So last Friday we were waiting more than 10 days (even new posts were indexed)

I thought, is the * url itself * “polled”?

So we deleted one of the posts, copied / pasted the exact same content and reposted on a new page with a slightly different URL and a new post date “

Dan continued in the next tweet:

“The post on the new URL (but the same content) gets indexed IMMEDIATELY (without even submitting it to GSC) in just a few hours.

The other post we left alone was still not indexed.

We’re going to move this one to a new url / date now and see if the same happens.

Dan concluded that there must be something about this URL.

Dan explained:

“We know that Google indexes content using the URL as the primary ‘identifier’ by which all signals are associated. “- maybe something to try if you have this problem”

Nothing new or special about overdraft / unindexed

Google’s John Mueller wondered if the tool was confusing people and if Google should just remove it.

There is nothing really special or new about “discovered / unindexed” – mostly it was previously (before it was added to SC) not something you saw. It’s basically “we saw you, but maybe later, or never”. Does that confuse people too much? Should we delete it?

– John 🧀 (@JohnMu) November 8, 2021

On the verge of indexation

Mueller acknowledged that sometimes the same content will be indexed under a new URL in situations where the site is “teetering on the edge of indexationWhich could mean a lot of things such as the overall quality of the site.

It really is a a helpful insight Mueller shared:

“Yes, it can happen. But it can also happen that it drops again a week later, or a different URL drops.

If you are on the verge of indexation, there are always fluctuations.

Essentially, that means you have to convince Google that it’s worth more indexing.

John followed up with a deeper explanation:

“Since we don’t understand the URL (it’s not indexed), we need to extract the rest of the site to better understand its potential context within the site and the rest of the web. Is this something the web has been waiting for? Or is it just another red widget? “

When asked to explain how to convince Google to index something John Mueller responded with:

” Awesome.
Lots of awesomeness.
All kinds of wonders.
And add more awesomeness.

What is Awesomeness?

Being awesome makes sense and doesn’t need an explanation. But he is kind of wave.

I prefer something like: Don’t do what everyone else does, just do it however you want.

Or something like: Create something that would have excited you when you were new to the topic.

More is not better

It’s all about doing it “Ten times betterIs motivating but naive because more does not equal better.

Another common mistake is copying competitors, using their same keywords and synonyms (like there is magic in their keywords) because it leads to mostly rewritten content.

Prince didn’t get famous by copying Michael Jackson, did he?

So why are SEOs so committed to taking inspiration from what already ranks in the top ten? It makes sense to see what Google ranks, but it no longer makes sense when an SEO starts rewriting what is already ranked.

If you know the subject and are good at it, why not try not to look at what the competition is doing and do your best? Maybe Google will recognize a singular voice on your site, others will call it awesome, and it probably won’t have a problem getting indexed.

Quote

Read the discussion on Twitter:

Could “Discovered – but currently not indexed” put a URL in some sort of “blacklist”?

Could “Discovered – but currently not indexed” put a URL in some sort of “blacklist”?

I thought I would share something weird and interesting that happened with a few blog posts from a client.

(1/5) (I hate making discussions but it requires a little detail) 👇🏻

– Dan Shure (@dan_shure) November 8, 2021