Google Not Indexing Your Posts? The 10 Most Common Fixes

In this article, we'll explore and understand why Google is not indexing your posts and share the most common fixes for it

You publish a new post, you do a quick “site:” search, maybe you even paste the exact URL into Google, and nothing shows up. Not even a low quality listing. Just… silence. In this article, we’ll explore and understand why Google is not indexing your posts and share the most common fixes for it.

That feeling is brutal, especially if you have deadlines, a client asking questions, or you just spent hours writing something you’re proud of. The upside is that “not indexed” usually isn’t a punishment. Most of the time, it’s a mechanical problem or a quality signal that makes Google delay indexing, pick a different version of the page, or decide the page is not worth storing right now.

This article is your practical playbook. It’s written for people who want answers, not theory. You’ll learn what indexing actually means, why Google sometimes skips pages that look fine, and the ten fixes that solve the majority of indexing problems on blogs and WordPress sites.

What “Not Indexed” Actually Means

Google has to do four things before your post can show up in search results.

First, it has to discover the URL. That usually happens via internal links, sitemaps, or external links.

Second, it has to crawl the URL. If your site blocks crawling or if your server is unstable, Google may not fetch the page reliably. Google indexing errors common fixes.

Third, it has to understand the page. If your content is thin, duplicated, or confusing, Google may not get a strong signal about what the page is for.

Fourth, it has to decide the page deserves a slot in the index. That final step is where many people get stuck. Your post can be crawlable and still not get indexed if Google thinks it adds little value, overlaps too heavily with other pages, or looks like a low priority compared to the rest of your site.

So when you say “Google isn’t indexing my posts,” your real job is to find out which step is failing.

The Fastest Way To Diagnose The Problem

The quickest truth teller is Google Search Console. Use the URL Inspection tool on the exact URL you want indexed. Google Indexing Common Fixes

You’re looking for three signals. Google indexing errors common fixes

Whether crawling is allowed. If it’s blocked, you fix robots rules or server access.

Whether indexing is allowed. If it’s not, you usually have a noindex tag or a canonical pointing elsewhere.

Whether Google chose a different canonical URL. If Google believes another version is the “main” page, it can ignore the one you care about.

Once you know which bucket you’re in, you stop guessing and start fixing.

The 10 Most Common Fixes That Actually Work: Google Not Indexing Posts

Fix 1: Remove A Noindex Tag That’s Blocking Indexing

This is the number one reason posts don’t get indexed, and it’s easy to miss because everything looks normal on the front end.

Noindex often comes from an SEO plugin setting, a template rule applied to a post type, a leftover staging configuration, or an “advanced” toggle someone forgot to change. Check the post settings inside your SEO plugin and confirm the page is set to be indexable.

When you remove noindex, you are not forcing Google to index the page. You’re simply allowing Google to index it. That distinction matters.

Fix 2: Fix Robots.txt And Other Crawl Blocks

If robots.txt blocks the path of your blog posts, Google may not crawl the page, which means it may not index it. This is common after migrations or when people copy a robots file from another site without understanding it.

Also check for other crawl blocks, like firewall rules, bot protection settings, country restrictions, or hosting features that challenge Googlebot with verification screens. If Google cannot reliably fetch the page, indexing becomes inconsistent.

Google Not Indexing Posts Fix 3: Make Sure The Page Returns A Clean 200 Status Code

Your post should return a 200 status code. Not a redirect chain, not a soft 404, not a server error that comes and goes. Google is less likely to index pages that behave unpredictably.

This problem shows up when a caching layer serves different versions of the page to bots, when a plugin breaks rendering sometimes, or when hosting is overloaded. Your browser may load the page fine, but Googlebot may be seeing something else. If you suspect this, check server logs or use tools that verify the HTTP status Google receives.

Fix 4: Fix Canonical Tags That Point To The Wrong URL

Canonicals are one of the most common “invisible” indexing killers. If your post has a canonical tag pointing to another page, Google will often index the canonical target instead and ignore your post.

This can happen when you have very similar posts, when you copied a template and forgot to update settings, or when a plugin incorrectly generates canonical URLs. Each post you want indexed should usually canonical to itself. If you intentionally want consolidation, then make that consolidation explicit and consistent.

Google Not Indexing Posts Fix 5: Submit A Clean Sitemap That Contains The Right URLs

A sitemap helps discovery, especially for new sites or new content sections. But a messy sitemap can do the opposite by flooding Google with low value URLs.

Your sitemap should focus on pages you actually want indexed and ranked. If your sitemap includes internal search pages, tag archives you don’t care about, filter and parameter URLs, and other thin pages, you’re giving Google too many low priority choices. Keep it clean, then submit it in Search Console.

Fix 6: Improve Internal Linking So The Post Is Not An Orphan

If a post has no internal links pointing to it, it’s an orphan. Google can still find it via the sitemap, but the page will look unimportant.

Internal links are one of the strongest signals you control. Link to the new post from at least one relevant existing article, preferably one that is already getting crawled regularly. Also consider adding the post to a category hub page or a “start here” page, so it sits inside a clear topical structure.

This one change can speed up discovery and strengthen the “this matters” signal at the same time.

Google Not Indexing Posts Fix 7: Consolidate Duplicate Or Overlapping Posts

A lot of indexing issues are not technical, they are editorial.

If your site has five posts that target the same topic with slightly different wording, Google may crawl them but only index one, or index none until it can decide which is best. This often happens with content clusters that were built too quickly, or with AI assisted drafts that sound similar.

The fix is to consolidate. Pick the strongest URL, merge useful sections from overlapping posts into that single page, then redirect the weaker pages or set proper canonicals. Google usually rewards one clear best answer more than several near duplicates.

Fix 8: Turn A Thin Post Into A Page That Deserves Indexing

Thin content is not just “short.” A post can be 1,500 words and still be thin if it’s vague, repetitive, or doesn’t satisfy intent.

If your topic is “how to fix indexing,” but your post never explains specific errors, never shows what to check, and never gives a step by step flow, it won’t feel complete. Google has plenty of options. Your page needs to earn its spot.

What makes a post index worthy is usefulness. Add details that show real experience: screenshots, examples of common errors, how to interpret Search Console statuses, and what to do next based on what you see. A page that solves the problem thoroughly is both more indexable and more rankable.

Google Not Indexing Posts Fix 9: Control Low Value URLs That Steal Crawl Attention

This is the hidden villain on many WordPress sites.

Tags, author archives, date archives, internal search results, pagination, and parameter URLs can multiply into thousands of crawlable pages. Google might spend time crawling those instead of your money pages, especially if your internal linking accidentally points bots into endless archives.

Decide what deserves indexing. Keep valuable archives indexed if they genuinely help users and have unique content. Noindex or block the junk. Clean your sitemap so it only lists pages you actually want Google to store.

When crawl attention improves, indexing tends to become smoother.

Fix 10: Build Site Trust So Indexing Becomes Automatic Over Time

If your site is new, publishes irregularly, or has a history of low quality pages, Google may crawl and index more cautiously. That’s normal.

The fix is consistency and structure. Publish on a predictable cadence, build clusters around topics you want to own, strengthen internal linking between related posts, and keep your site fast and stable. Over time, Google visits more often, discovers posts faster, and indexing becomes boring, which is exactly what you want.

Google Indexing Common Fixes: Symptom, Likely Cause, Best Fix

Symptom	Likely Cause	Best Fix
Post never appears in Google at all	Not discovered, weak internal links	Add internal links, ensure sitemap includes it, use URL inspection
“Discovered, currently not indexed”	Low priority, thin content, duplicates	Improve usefulness, consolidate overlaps, request indexing once updated
“Crawled, currently not indexed”	Google decided it is not valuable enough	Expand depth, add unique value, strengthen topical cluster
“Blocked by robots.txt”	Robots rules blocking the URL path	Update robots.txt, then recheck URL inspection
“Excluded by noindex”	Meta robots noindex or plugin setting	Remove noindex, then request indexing
Google indexes a different URL	Canonical or redirect issues	Fix canonical, simplify redirects, confirm preferred URL
Soft 404 behavior	Thin template, weak content, wrong response	Improve content and return correct status codes
Indexing works for some posts only	Crawl dilution from junk URLs	Reduce low value URLs, clean sitemap, improve internal structure