---
title: "Fix indexing issues"
description: "Pages that aren\\"
canonical_url: "https://nuxtseo.com/pro/docs/workflows/fix-indexing"
last_updated: "2026-05-06T18:43:49.164Z"
---

Before a page can rank, Google has to (a) discover it, (b) crawl it, (c) decide it's worth indexing. Each step can silently fail. The dashboard groups every URL by Google's verdict and tells you which fix applies.

## From the dashboard

Open a site, then **Indexing → Issues**.

The dashboard groups issues by reason and sorts them by severity. Each card shows the fix.

<table>
<thead>
  <tr>
    <th>
      Verdict
    </th>
    
    <th>
      What happened
    </th>
    
    <th>
      Usual fix
    </th>
  </tr>
</thead>

<tbody>
  <tr>
    <td>
      Discovered, not indexed
    </td>
    
    <td>
      Google knows the URL but hasn't crawled it
    </td>
    
    <td>
      Add internal links, resubmit sitemap
    </td>
  </tr>
  
  <tr>
    <td>
      Crawled, not indexed
    </td>
    
    <td>
      Crawled but rejected (thin / duplicate / low quality)
    </td>
    
    <td>
      Expand content, consolidate duplicates
    </td>
  </tr>
  
  <tr>
    <td>
      Excluded by noindex
    </td>
    
    <td>
      Meta robots tag on the page
    </td>
    
    <td>
      Remove <code>
        noindex
      </code>
      
       if unintentional
    </td>
  </tr>
  
  <tr>
    <td>
      Blocked by robots.txt
    </td>
    
    <td>
      <code>
        Disallow
      </code>
      
       in robots
    </td>
    
    <td>
      Fix the disallow pattern
    </td>
  </tr>
  
  <tr>
    <td>
      Alternate with canonical
    </td>
    
    <td>
      Canonical points elsewhere
    </td>
    
    <td>
      Check the canonical is correct
    </td>
  </tr>
  
  <tr>
    <td>
      Duplicate without user-selected canonical
    </td>
    
    <td>
      Google picked a different URL
    </td>
    
    <td>
      Declare a canonical explicitly
    </td>
  </tr>
  
  <tr>
    <td>
      Soft 404
    </td>
    
    <td>
      200 status but looks empty
    </td>
    
    <td>
      Fix the template or return a real 404
    </td>
  </tr>
</tbody>
</table>

## From MCP

```ts
// What's the indexing state?
gsc_status()

// Sitemap errors?
gsc_sitemaps()
```

Ask Claude Code:

> My site's indexing dropped this week. Check the sitemaps and tell me which ones have errors.

The MCP pulls sitemap health from GSC and surfaces broken URLs, redirects in sitemaps, and "couldn't fetch" errors.

## Common patterns and what they mean

### A whole section is "Discovered, not indexed"

Google found the URLs (probably via sitemap) but hasn't crawled them. Usually means low internal link equity to that section. Fix: link to the section from high-authority pages (homepage, hub pages).

### Soft 404s on real pages

The page returns 200 but Google thinks it's empty or error-like. Check for:

- Pages that load content via client-side JS only
- Empty category pages with no products / posts
- Error states that render with status 200 instead of 404

### "Alternate with canonical" explosion

Usually query-string variants (`?utm=...`, `?page=2`) that correctly canonicalize elsewhere. Safe to ignore unless the canonical points to the wrong URL.

### Sitemap submitted URLs > indexed URLs

Normal gap, up to ~30%. If it's >60%, Google is actively rejecting pages. Run the Issues view to find out why.

## Related

- [Indexing reference](/pro/docs/concepts/indexing) for every verdict explained.
- [Sitemap module](/docs/sitemap/getting-started/introduction) for generating sitemaps that don't 404.