a single source, nothing corroborates it

Treat crawled but not indexed as a verdict

That status means Google looked and decided the page was not worth an index slot, which leaves four responses: let it go, improve it, redirect it, or canonicalise it. Use the inspection tool's referring page field to trace where a junk URL came from. Check too whether the platform has quietly generated an indexable page for every uploaded image, a fault found on roughly a fifth of installs.

The method

1. 01

   Read a crawled but not indexed status as Google judging the page not worth an index slot, then pick one of four responses: let it 404, improve it, redirect it, or canonicalise it.

2. 02

   To find out where a junk URL came from, open it in the URL Inspection tool and read the referring page field.

3. 03

   Check whether a WordPress install has generated a separate indexable page for every uploaded image, because that fault is close to universal and nobody spots it themselves.

What it returned

• 20

  Glen Allsopp found it on around 20 percent of the WordPress sites he reviewed, and says his own course members were surprised to find it on their own sites.

• Glen Allsopp's own report held three examples: a deleted page that had almost no content, a duplicate created by an inbound link, and spam search pages left behind after the site was hacked.

• Glen Allsopp used this to trace tens of thousands of spam URLs on his own site back to external links, possibly a negative SEO attack.

Sources

• Resolving the 'Crawled - Currently Not Indexed' Page Indexing Status - Detailed.comGlen Allsopp · detailed.com · How to Resolve This With a Real World Example · 2023-10-23
• Generating Six-Figure Profits from $40 SEO Audits: A Detailed Guide - Detailed.comGlen Allsopp · detailed.com · The Unexpected Mental Side of Things · 2022-12-17