Google Is Quietly Refusing to Index 'Commodity Content' — Here's What Survives

A page can’t rank if Google never adds it to the index — and according to a new analysis from SEO consultant Marie Haynes, Google is increasingly leaving perfectly decent pages out. The culprit isn’t broken code or thin spam. It’s “commodity content”: competent articles that simply restate what’s already out there. For any business publishing a blog to be found, the bar just went up.

What happened

In an analysis published July 16, 2026 and reported by PPC Land, Haynes examined why so many pages sit in Google Search Console’s “crawled — currently not indexed” status. Her conclusion: most are stuck there for quality reasons, not technical ones — and, tellingly, they’re often good pages.

She describes the problem content as “usually not junk” — “good, decent articles” — but material that “almost anyone could produce on a subject, generally restating what already exists elsewhere.” Or, as she puts it: “The pages aren’t special or any more valuable than what currently exists.”

Haynes ties the tightening to June’s spam update, suspecting it “affected a number of sites producing commodity content at scale” — while adding the honest caveat, “I cannot prove this yet.” She also flags a specific risk: mass-generating a page for every anticipated follow-up question, which can trip scaled-content problems. Notably, she observes that established, authoritative sites can still get away with more generic content on the strength of their standing.

Why it matters

Two forces are squeezing from both sides. Google is raising the threshold for what earns a spot in the index — reportedly favoring content with firsthand experience and knowledge “no one else has,” precisely because AI tools made generic text trivial to churn out. At the same time, the reward for ranking has shrunk as AI Overviews absorb clicks.

So the game changed twice: it’s harder to get indexed, and indexing is worth less than it was. Undifferentiated content now fails the first test entirely.

“The pages aren’t special or any more valuable than what currently exists.” — Marie Haynes, on why decent pages go unindexed, via PPC Land

What this means for small businesses

If you’re publishing content to attract customers, quality now beats quantity by a wide margin:

• Check “crawled — currently not indexed.” In Google Search Console, see how many of your pages Google chose not to index. A growing pile is a warning sign about content quality, not just technical health.
• Add what only you have. Firsthand experience, real project examples, local knowledge, actual pricing, and genuine expertise are what clear the bar. Generic overviews don’t.
• Stop publishing filler. One distinctive, experience-rich article beats ten rehashed ones — and won’t drag your site’s overall quality signal down.
• Use AI to brainstorm, not to write. Haynes’s own advice: generative tools are for ideas, not as a substitute for content. Scaled, AI-spun pages are exactly what this shift punishes.

For a Michigan small business, the takeaway is freeing, not scary: you have real experience your competitors’ generic content lacks. Put it on the page.

The bottom line

Google is drawing a sharper line between content that adds something and content that just adds to the pile — and the pile no longer gets indexed. Lead with your firsthand expertise, publish less but better, and you’ll land on the right side of a threshold that’s only going to keep rising.