Google Indexing Fewer Pages – SEO Insights on Recent Trends and Changes
Over the past few weeks, a number of webmasters and SEOs have been complaining about a considerable decrease in the number of pages Google appears to be crawling—beginning sometime in late May 2025. The complaints are getting louder on platforms such as LinkedIn, Bluesky, and X, with many positing that Google is quietly crawling fewer pages on websites.
The SEO community is abuzz with the situation and are attempting to figure out whether this is a real algorithmic shift, a glitch, or merely a change in how Google’s indexing data is shown.
Jason Kilgore’s Findings: A Spike in “Crawled – Currently Not Indexed”
The problem was initially brought to attention by Jason Kilgore, who experienced unusual activity with the site TaxServiceNearYou.com. As far as he could tell, the site had no backlinks, yet there was an enormous spike in pages labeled as “Crawled – currently not indexed” beginning on May 26. He went so far as to post images from his Google Search Console (GSC) page indexing report to prove the point.
But it isn’t solely Kilgore. SEO expert Adam Gent also saw a disturbing trend. He had noticed that on Indexing Insight, where they track millions of pages, the “Crawled – previously indexed” bucket had recently surged in recent weeks. Screenshots from his GSC report further highlighted the issue.
Widespread Concerns: More Examples of Indexing Errors
Even more instances arrived, with customers such as Gagan Ghorta and 24Cryptoverse posting identical indexing errors on X. Throughout various websites and parts of the world, the trend seems strangely uniform—numerous pages that previously showed up in indexes are either not indexed or marked for inspection.
John Mueller Responds: Clarification from Google
This led the people in the SEO community to send a query to Google’s John Mueller for clarification. In response on Bluesky, Mueller requested specific examples and said, “Which millions of pages? Happy to hear specifics.” A little later, he made an addition: “But from glancing at other examples, I don’t see a problem. We don’t crawl all content, and what we crawl can vary over time.”
User Complaints: Is Google De-indexing Reliable Sites?
That response has not completely soothed nerves. A string of user comments on sites and forums indicates that the effect might be wider than Google admits. One user wrote, “Half of my site has been deindexed since May 27, 2025! We work like crazy to provide a reliable site with verified data, and we’re being penalized while misleading sites selling scams stay on top of the results. It’s just disgusting!”
SEO Experts Investigate: A Trend in Search Console Data
A few SEO experts took it upon themselves to dig deeper. Going through a few unrelated websites in Google Search Console showed a possible trend: spikes in non-indexed pages and indexation status changes. Such pages tended to belong to categories such as “Crawled – currently not indexed” or even “Indexed, though blocked by robots.txt.”
Glenn Gabe Weighs In: Is There a New Reporting Format?
Digital strategist Glenn Gabe weighed in on X, implying this might not be something to panic about. He wondered if it might be because of indexing updates or perhaps a new reporting format in Google Search Console itself. “This may not be something to stress about,” he said, particularly if the status comes under robot restrictions.
Could Google Be Re-Scoring Pages or Testing Changes?
But others think Google might be implementing subtle changes within its indexing system or re-scoring the quality and relevance of pages in recent unconfirmed updates. Such subtle movements could be making Google give certain pages lower values, resulting in less indexing.
What’s Going On? A Glitch or a Test?
So, what is the truth? Is this merely a glitch, a Google test, or the start of another wave of algorithm updates?
For now, there’s no official confirmation from Google regarding any recent changes to how it indexes pages. But if you’re managing a website, it’s a good time to head to your Google Search Console and examine your page indexing report.
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