Indexed But Not Served

This is a common condition for content. This information will help you know and be able to diagnose this for yourself.

In GSC it says that your page is indexed. But is it being served in results?

How WOULD you know?

There are 3 subsystems in Google’s indexation system - crawling, indexing, and serving

The fact that indexing and serving are separate systems explains why it is possible for content to be INDEXED according to GSC and not SERVED or findable without using “quotes”.

You can know if your content is being served.

Go to Performance in Search Console

Using Page Filter paste in your page URL

You can easily determine this is a case where the PAGE is INDEXED but didn’t make the cut for the VISIBLE SEARCH RESULTS.

Many describe this as “NOT INDEXED” but the correct designation is “INDEXED NOT SERVED”

Secondary Diagnostic

I’ve tested hundreds of pages using this method and had GSC data to confirm they were INDEXED. To date this is 100% conclusive.

If you want to confirm if a page is INDEXED but NOT SERVED -

“URL.com/to-determine-if-by-searching-this-way-does-the-page-show/”

Search for your indexed page “URL” WITH quotes - and you will find it. (INDEXED)

Search for your indexed page URL WITHOUT quotes. (NOT SERVED)

That’s the operational distinction.