Fix thin pages, then push: the content-first indexing workflow

If your URL is in Crawled-not-indexed, Google has rendered a verdict: not worth indexing. The Indexing API doesn't override that verdict. What overrides it is changing the page enough that Google's quality classifier re-evaluates and flips. Then you push to trigger that re-evaluation.

Signs of thin content

• Under 300 words of unique body content.
• Mostly boilerplate (nav, footer, sidebar) with a tiny content well.
• Heavily templated structure with one or two variable fields.
• No images, no examples, no internal links.
• Reads like it was written for SEO rather than for a human.

Substantive improvements that work

1. Add unique research, data, or first-person experience.
2. Add original screenshots, photos, or diagrams.
3. Expand to 800+ words of substance.
4. Add an FAQ section answering real questions.
5. Internal-link to 3-5 related pages, and get 1-2 internal links back.
6. Add author / E-E-A-T signals.

When to delete instead

Sometimes the right answer is to delete or consolidate. A site with 50 pages all in Indexed status outranks the same site with 200 pages where 150 are Crawled-not-indexed. Pruning is an SEO move, not a failure.