Index coverage
Index coverage was the name of the Search Console report, renamed Page indexing in 2022, that lists every URL Google knows for a property as indexed or not indexed with a reason. Most reasons are correct and need nothing. The skill is telling those apart from the few that cost you pages.
By Théophile Louvart, founder of Porteur · Updated 15 September 2026 · Markdown
What the report holds
- A count of indexed and not indexed URLs over time.
- Every not-indexed reason, with up to a thousand example URLs each.
- A Validate fix button per reason, which starts a re-check that can take about two weeks.
- A view by sitemap, which is the honest way to ask "are the pages I submitted indexed".
Which reasons to act on
| Reason | Act? |
|---|---|
| Alternate page with proper canonical tag | No. Google agreed with your canonical |
| Page with redirect | No, unless your sitemap or links still point at the old URL |
| Excluded by noindex tag | Only if the page should be indexed |
| Crawled, currently not indexed | Yes, when it covers pages you wanted. It is a quality judgement |
| Discovered, currently not indexed | Yes, when it persists. Google knows the URL and has not fetched it |
| Duplicate without user-selected canonical | Yes. Declare the canonical yourself |
| Soft 404 | Yes. The status code is lying |
| Server error (5xx) | Yes, immediately if it spreads |
| Not found (404) | Only when links or the sitemap still point at it |
How to read it without panicking
Read the trend by reason, not the total
A rising total of not indexed URLs is meaningless on its own. One reason growing across a template is a decision Google made about that template.
Filter by sitemap
Your sitemap should list only pages meant to rank. Coverage of that list is the number that matters.
Inspect one URL per reason
The URL Inspection tool tells you what Google saw, which canonical it chose and when it last crawled.
Fix the template, then validate
Twenty URLs with one reason share one cause. Fix it once, then use Validate fix and wait.
Questions
Yes. Google renamed the report in 2022. Older articles and courses still call it index coverage, and both names describe the same list of URLs with reasons.
The pages you meant to be indexed, which is why filtering by sitemap is the useful view. A large gap between submitted and indexed is the thing to investigate.
Usually quality or discovery: crawled and not indexed, or discovered and not fetched. Sometimes it is correct: duplicates, redirects and pages you noindexed on purpose.
It tells Google you have addressed a reason and starts a re-check of the affected URLs. It can take about two weeks and it does not jump the queue for quality judgements.
Not by itself. Redirects, canonicals and deliberate noindex pages all count. Watch the reasons that mean a page you wanted is missing.
Check my site, free
The free check reads which of your pages are visible and which answer nothing, and names the three worth your next hour.
- Free check, no card
- Read-only, your own accounts
- Readable by your agent
Read next
- GuideCrawled, currently not indexed: what it means and what to do
- GuideDiscovered, currently not indexed: why Google has not crawled the page
- GlossaryIndexation
- GlossaryGoogle index
- GuideHow to use the URL Inspection tool in Search Console
- GlossaryCrawl error
- GlossarySoft 404
- GuideThe Sitemaps report: what Success, Has errors and Couldn’t fetch mean