# 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.

Updated 2026-09-15 · Source: https://porteur.ai/glossary/index-coverage

## 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

1. **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.
2. **Filter by sitemap** Your sitemap should list only pages meant to rank. Coverage of that list is the number that matters.
3. **Inspect one URL per reason** The URL Inspection tool tells you what Google saw, which canonical it chose and when it last crawled.
4. **Fix the template, then validate** Twenty URLs with one reason share one cause. Fix it once, then use Validate fix and wait.

> A site: search is not this report. Its result count is an estimate; the Page indexing report is Google’s own list for your property.

## Questions

### Is index coverage the same as the Page indexing report?

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.

### How many pages should be indexed?

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.

### Why does Google index fewer pages than my sitemap lists?

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.

### What does Validate fix do?

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.

### Is a growing number of not-indexed URLs a problem?

Not by itself. Redirects, canonicals and deliberate noindex pages all count. Watch the reasons that mean a page you wanted is missing.

## Read next

- [Crawled, currently not indexed: what it means and what to do](https://porteur.ai/guides/crawled-currently-not-indexed): What “Crawled, currently not indexed” means in Search Console, how to tell why it happened on your site, and what to change that gets pages indexed.
- [Discovered, currently not indexed: why Google has not crawled the page](https://porteur.ai/guides/discovered-currently-not-indexed): Google knows the URL but has not crawled it. Here is how to check why, cut junk URLs, add internal links, fix the sitemap, and set a date.
- [Indexation](https://porteur.ai/glossary/indexation): Indexation means a page is stored in Google’s index and can appear in search. Here is how to check status, read Page indexing, and fix what blocks it.
- [Google index](https://porteur.ai/glossary/google-index): The Google index is the store of pages Google keeps. See if your pages are indexed, how this differs from ranking, and what to fix in Search Console.
- [How to use the URL Inspection tool in Search Console](https://porteur.ai/guides/url-inspection-tool): Read each panel, run Test live URL, and know when to request indexing. Fix new pages, dropped pages, and canonicals Google ignores.
- [Crawl error](https://porteur.ai/glossary/crawl-error): A crawl error is a failure to fetch a URL: a 5xx, a timeout, a DNS failure, an unreachable robots.txt. Which ones matter, where they show, and the fix.
- [Soft 404](https://porteur.ai/glossary/soft-404): A soft 404 answers with a success status while being an error or an empty page. How Google detects it, where it shows, and the fix for each cause.
- [The Sitemaps report: what Success, Has errors and Couldn’t fetch mean](https://porteur.ai/guides/search-console-sitemaps-report): How to submit your sitemap URL, read Success, Has errors and Couldn’t fetch, and fix invalid XML, 404s, cross‑host URLs and missing child sitemaps.

The free check reads which of your pages are visible and which answer nothing, and names the three worth your next hour. Free check: https://porteur.ai/