Having more not indexed pages than indexed pages in Google Search Console is not automatically a problem.
What matters is which URLs are excluded and why Google chose not to index them.
A website with 2,000 indexed pages and 10,000 not indexed URLs can be perfectly healthy if those excluded URLs are redirects, duplicate pages, feeds, tracking URLs, ecommerce filters, or other pages that should not appear in search results.
On the other hand, a website with only 20 excluded pages could have a serious SEO problem if those 20 URLs are important product, service, or article pages.
Think of Google’s index like a library. The goal is not to get every scrap of paper in the building onto a shelf. The goal is to make sure the books people actually need are available.
That is why you should focus on URL quality and exclusion reasons rather than the indexed-versus-not-indexed ratio.
Is It Normal to Have More Not Indexed Pages Than Indexed Pages?
Yes. For many websites, it is completely normal.
Modern content management systems can create far more URLs than website owners realize. WordPress, Shopify, WooCommerce, Magento, and other platforms may generate archive pages, feeds, pagination URLs, filters, tracking parameters, duplicate product paths, and other variations automatically.
Google discovers these URLs but does not necessarily want to index them.
For example, your website might contain:
- 1,000 useful articles and product pages
- 1,000 redirecting URLs
- 2,500 filter and parameter URLs
- 1,000 duplicate URLs
- 500 feeds and archive pages
- 300 intentionally noindexed pages
Google Search Console could therefore report thousands more non-indexed URLs than indexed URLs without indicating anything is wrong.
The better question is not, “Why aren’t all my URLs indexed?”
It is:
“Are the URLs I want people to find on Google being indexed?”
Which Google Search Console Exclusions Are Usually Normal?
Several Page Indexing statuses frequently represent normal website behavior.
Page With Redirect
A URL that redirects to another URL generally should not be indexed.
For example:
example.com/old-service
may redirect to:
example.com/new-service
Google normally indexes the destination rather than the redirecting URL.
Seeing large numbers of Page with redirect URLs is common after site migrations, URL restructuring, HTTP-to-HTTPS changes, or content consolidation.
Investigate only if an important page is redirecting unexpectedly or redirects lead to irrelevant destinations.
Alternate Page With Proper Canonical Tag
This status usually means Google found a duplicate or near-duplicate URL and accepted your canonical instruction pointing to another version.
That is normally a good sign.
For example, an ecommerce platform might produce several variations of the same product URL. A canonical tag tells Google which version should represent the content in search.
You generally do not need every variation indexed.
Excluded by Noindex Tag
A noindex tag explicitly tells search engines not to index a page.
This is perfectly normal when intentional.
Common examples include:
- Checkout pages
- Account pages
- Internal search pages
- Thank-you pages
- Staging or utility pages
The problem begins when valuable pages accidentally contain a noindex directive.
Why WordPress Websites Create So Many Non-Indexed URLs
WordPress can create a surprisingly large number of URLs around your actual content.
Depending on your theme and plugins, Google may discover:
- Category archives
- Tag archives
- Author archives
- Date archives
- RSS feeds
- Comment feeds
- Attachment pages
- Pagination pages
- Internal search result URLs
- Query parameter URLs
Imagine publishing one article and then having WordPress create several additional ways to reach or categorize that article. Google may discover all of them, but that does not mean all of them deserve a place in the index.
Are WordPress Tag and Category Pages Bad?
Not necessarily.
A well-designed category page can rank and provide genuine value. A thin tag archive containing only one or two posts often cannot.
The key is intentionality.
If an archive page helps users discover useful content and targets a meaningful topic, indexing it may make sense. If your site automatically created hundreds of nearly empty tag pages, excluding them may actually improve index quality.
Why Shopify and Ecommerce Sites Have So Many Excluded URLs
Ecommerce websites often produce even more URL variations than blogs.
Shopify and similar platforms can generate URLs through:
- Product collections
- Product variants
- Sorting options
- Faceted navigation
- Filters
- Pagination
- Search pages
- Tracking parameters
- Alternate product paths
- Campaign parameters
A store may have 500 products but thousands or even tens of thousands of discoverable URLs.
Should all of those URLs be indexed?
Usually not.
For example, these URLs could display essentially the same products:
/collections/shoes/collections/shoes?sort_by=price-ascending/collections/shoes?filter.v.option.color=black/collections/shoes?page=2
Search engines have little reason to index every possible combination.
Large numbers of excluded ecommerce URLs therefore do not automatically indicate poor SEO. In many cases, preventing low-value combinations from filling Google’s index is desirable.
What Do “Crawled – Currently Not Indexed” and “Discovered – Currently Not Indexed” Mean?
These two statuses deserve more attention because they can include URLs you actually want indexed.
Crawled – Currently Not Indexed
Google has crawled the URL but decided not to index it, at least for now.
Possible causes include:
- Thin content
- Duplicate or highly similar content
- Low perceived value
- Weak internal linking
- Soft-404-like content
- Poor page quality
- Large numbers of similar pages
A few URLs in this category are normal. A growing number of important pages deserves investigation.
Check whether the affected pages provide unique value, receive internal links, have correct canonical tags, return a 200 status code, and contain enough useful content to justify indexing.
Discovered – Currently Not Indexed
Google knows the URL exists but has not crawled it yet.
This can occur on large websites where Google discovers far more URLs than it wants to crawl immediately.
Potential contributors include:
- Very large numbers of low-value URLs
- Poor internal linking
- Excessive faceted navigation
- Weak site architecture
- Server performance problems
- Rapid publication of large URL volumes
A handful of recently published URLs in this category may be harmless. Thousands of important pages remaining there for long periods deserve attention.
What About Duplicate Pages Without a User-Selected Canonical?
Duplicate-content statuses require closer inspection.
Google may report Duplicate without user-selected canonical when it believes several URLs contain the same or very similar content and you have not clearly specified a preferred version.
This does not always create an SEO disaster. Google can often choose a canonical itself.
Still, you should determine why duplicates exist.
Possible solutions include:
- Adding canonical tags
- Redirecting obsolete duplicates
- Improving internal linking consistency
- Linking only to preferred URLs
- Removing unnecessary parameter variations
Another status, Duplicate, Google chose different canonical than user, deserves additional attention because it means Google disagreed with the canonical URL you specified.
Check whether your preferred page is genuinely the strongest and most representative version.
Are Feeds, Parameters, Tags, and Redirects a Problem?
Usually, they are only a problem when they become uncontrolled or interfere with important URLs.
RSS feeds, tracking parameters, sorting options, filters, pagination, tag archives, and redirects can all create URLs that Google discovers but reasonably chooses not to index.
Their presence in Search Console does not mean Google is penalizing your website.
Instead, ask three questions:
- Should this URL appear in Google search results?
- Is Google excluding it for the reason I expected?
- Could these URLs make it harder for Google to crawl or understand my important pages?
If the first two answers are satisfactory, there is often nothing to fix.
Google Search Console Indexing Status Decision Table
| Search Console Status | Usually Normal? | When to Investigate | Recommended Action |
|---|---|---|---|
| Page with redirect | Yes | Important URLs redirect unexpectedly | Verify destination and redirect type |
| Alternate page with proper canonical | Yes | Canonical points to the wrong page | Check canonical configuration |
| Excluded by noindex | Yes, if intentional | Important page is noindexed | Remove accidental noindex directive |
| Not found (404) | Often | Important URLs return 404 or broken internal links exist | Restore, redirect, or remove links |
| Blocked by robots.txt | Sometimes | Important content is blocked | Review robots.txt rules |
| Soft 404 | Usually needs review | Page should contain valuable content | Improve content, restore the page, or return a proper 404 |
| Crawled – currently not indexed | Sometimes | Important pages remain excluded | Improve quality, uniqueness, internal linking, and technical signals |
| Discovered – currently not indexed | Sometimes | Large numbers of valuable URLs remain uncrawled | Improve site architecture and reduce low-value URLs |
| Duplicate without user-selected canonical | Often | Google indexes an undesirable version | Add clearer canonical signals |
| Duplicate, Google chose different canonical | Review recommended | Google ignores your intended canonical | Check duplication and canonical consistency |
| Server error (5xx) | No | Any important URL is affected | Fix the server or hosting issue |
| Redirect error | No | Redirect loops, chains, or invalid targets appear | Correct redirects |
| Blocked due to access forbidden (403) | Usually needs review | Google should be able to access the URL | Check firewall, CDN, and security settings |
Which Not Indexed Pages Should You Fix First?
Do not attempt to “fix” every excluded URL simply to make the Search Console graph look better.
Prioritize URLs that have actual search value.
Important pages unexpectedly excluded. Product pages, service pages, category pages, articles, landing pages, and other organic-search targets should generally be indexable.
Technical errors. Server errors, redirect errors, accidental blocking, and unintended noindex directives deserve prompt attention.
Large groups of valuable URLs in Crawled or Discovered – currently not indexed. These patterns may indicate broader quality, architecture, duplication, or crawl-efficiency issues.
Lower priority should usually go to intentionally redirected, duplicated, canonicalized, or noindexed URLs.
The objective is not a 100% indexing rate.
The objective is a high indexing rate among URLs that deserve to rank.
How Can You Tell Whether Your Website Has a Real Indexing Problem?
Start by making a list of the URLs that matter to your business.
These might include your core:
- Product pages
- Collection or category pages
- Service pages
- Location pages
- Blog articles
- Resource pages
Then compare that list with Google’s indexing data.
If nearly all important URLs are indexed while thousands of junk, duplicate, or utility URLs are excluded, your website may be functioning exactly as intended.
If valuable pages are disappearing from the index while low-value URLs multiply, you have something worth investigating.
That distinction is far more useful than simply comparing two numbers at the top of Google Search Console.
Final Takeaway
Seeing more not indexed pages than indexed pages in Google Search Console is not automatically bad for SEO.
Large WordPress sites, Shopify stores, and other ecommerce websites can naturally generate thousands of redirects, duplicates, filters, feeds, tag pages, tracking URLs, and parameter variations that Google has little reason to index.
Focus on the reason for exclusion, not the raw number.
If Google excludes duplicate and low-value URLs while indexing your important products, services, categories, and articles, the report may indicate healthy index management rather than a problem.
If Google excludes pages you expect to generate organic traffic, investigate those specific URLs and statuses.
In other words, the healthiest website is not necessarily the one with the fewest excluded pages. It is the one where Google indexes the right pages and ignores the right ones.
Frequently Asked Questions
Should I Try to Get Every Page Indexed by Google?
No. Google does not need to index every URL your website generates. Redirects, duplicate pages, filtered URLs, feeds, account pages, internal search results, and other low-value URLs often should remain outside the index. Focus on getting your useful, unique, search-focused pages indexed.
What Percentage of Website Pages Should Be Indexed?
There is no universal “good” indexing percentage. A 30% indexing rate could be healthy for an ecommerce website with thousands of filter URLs, while a 90% rate could still hide problems on a smaller site. Evaluate whether your important canonical URLs are indexed instead of chasing a specific percentage.
Why Does Google Keep Finding URLs I Do Not Want Indexed?
Google can discover URLs through internal links, external links, sitemaps, redirects, parameters, navigation systems, feeds, and previously crawled pages. WordPress and ecommerce platforms can also generate URLs automatically. Discovery does not mean Google intends to index them.
Can Too Many Non-Indexed Pages Hurt SEO?
Simply having many non-indexed URLs does not create an SEO penalty. However, an uncontrolled number of low-value URLs can contribute to inefficient crawling, duplicate-content signals, or messy site architecture on very large websites. The underlying URL-generation problem matters more than the Search Console count itself.