What Is Index Coverage & Why It Matters for SEO
Index coverage is a critical SEO metric found in Google Search Console. It shows which pages of your site are indexed by Google and which are not. If a page is indexed, it can appear in search results. If it's not, it doesn't exist in Google’s eyes—no matter how good your content is. The Index Coverage report breaks down your site's URLs into categories like 'Valid', 'Error', 'Excluded', and 'Valid with warnings', making it easier to identify and resolve crawl and indexation issues. Poor index coverage usually signals technical SEO problems that directly limit your organic performance.
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Use Cases
Ensure product, blog, or service pages don't sit in limbo by identifying blocked, noindexed, or orphaned pages and correcting issues fast.
For large websites, monitoring index coverage helps prioritize high-value pages and prevent Google's bots from wasting crawl budget on low-priority or duplicate URLs.
Diagnose issues like soft 404s, redirect chains, or canonical conflicts that suppress indexation and prevent organic visibility.
Recovering Lost Traffic After Updates
Frequently Asked Questions
What causes index coverage errors?
Common causes include server errors (5xx), redirect issues, noindex tags, robots.txt blocks, or crawl anomalies. Each limits Google’s ability to index your pages.
Where do I find index coverage data?
You can access it in Google Search Console under 'Pages' (or previously 'Coverage'). This dashboard lists how Google categorizes all your known URLs.
What does it mean if a page is 'Indexed, not submitted in sitemap'?
It means Google found the page and decided to index it—even though it wasn’t listed in your sitemap. While not always harmful, it may indicate missing sitemap entries.
How often should I check my index coverage?
This status means Google found the page but hasn’t crawled and indexed it yet. Causes include low site authority, weak internal linking, or crawl budget limits.
Why are some of my pages 'Discovered – currently not indexed'?
Improve content quality, strengthen internal links, ensure fast page speed, and re-submit URLs manually via Search Console. Sometimes, Google chooses not to index low-value content.
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