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Why do valid pages appear in the 'Excluded' section of GSC, and what should be your next step?

Valid pages can appear in the “Excluded” section of Google Search Console (GSC) for several reasons, even if they are live and accessible. The “Excluded” category means Google is aware of the page but has chosen not to index it, or can't index it due to specific conditions.

Why do valid pages appear in the 'Excluded' section of GSC, and what should be your next step?

🔍 Common Reasons Valid Pages Are 'Excluded'

1. Crawled - Currently Not Indexed

  • Google crawled the page but decided not to index it yet.

  • Common for:

    • Thin content

    • Duplicate or low-quality pages

    • New or recently updated content

Next step: Improve content quality and usefulness; then request reindexing.

2. Discovered – Currently Not Indexed

  • Google knows about the page (e.g., from a sitemap or internal link) but hasn’t crawled it yet.

  • Often due to:

    • Crawl budget limits

    • New websites or large sitemaps

Next step: Build internal links to the page and monitor crawl activity.

3. Alternate Page with Proper Canonical Tag

  • The page is marked with a canonical pointing to another URL.

  • Google chooses to index the canonical page, not the alternate.

Next step: Check if the canonical is correct and intentional.

4. Duplicate Without User-Selected Canonical

  • Google detected it as a duplicate, even if you didn’t set a canonical.

  • It picked a different URL to index.

Next step: Set a canonical tag explicitly to control which version is indexed.

5. Excluded by ‘noindex’ Tag

  • The page has a <meta name="robots" content="noindex">.

Next step: Remove the noindex tag if you want the page indexed.

6. Blocked by robots.txt

  • Page is disallowed from crawling, so it can’t be indexed.

Next step: Update robots.txt to allow crawling if you want it indexed.

7. Soft 404

  • Page returns content, but Google considers it "empty" or not useful enough.

Next step: Add meaningful content and ensure proper status codes.

✅ What Should Be Your Next Step?

🛠 Use the URL Inspection Tool

  • Inspect the excluded URL to see:

    • Crawlability

    • Indexing decision

    • Canonical URL

    • Live test result

✅ Decide Intent

  • Ask: Should this page be indexed?

    • If yes: Fix issues (e.g., improve content, fix canonical/noindex/robots).

    • If no: You can safely ignore it.

📤 Request Indexing (After Fixes)

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