Index Coverage
Index coverage describes the status of URLs in a search engine's index: valid, excluded, error, or submitted-but-not-indexed.
Also known as: indexation-status · search-index-coverage
Why it matters
Content that is not indexed cannot earn clicks. Coverage drops after migrations, robots mistakes, or quality issues silently erase visibility while dashboards still show legacy traffic.
How it works
Crawlers fetch, evaluate, and decide to index or exclude. GSC Index Coverage groups reasons: noindex, redirect, 404, crawled-not-indexed, duplicate without canonical. Sitemaps submit candidates; they do not guarantee inclusion.
Common mistakes
- Declaring migration done before coverage recovers on key templates.
- Accidental noindex on production after copying staging headers.
- Submitting sitemaps listing redirects or 404s.
- Ignoring 'crawled, currently not indexed' on money pages.
Best practices
- Weekly coverage review on templates that drive revenue.
- Maintain a redirect map and validate with crawlers post-migration.
- Align canonicals when consolidating duplicates.
- Request indexing for critical URLs after substantive fixes.
Learn Domains perspective
You migrated domains and traffic flatlined, dozens of product URLs were accidentally noindexed. Learn Domains raises coverage drops affecting high-impression URLs in your Digital Asset Score and Mission Brief, tied to the exact URLs in your Search Console data.
FAQ
- Why is a good page 'crawled, not indexed'?
- Quality, duplication, or weak signals, improve uniqueness, internal links, and demand proxies.
- How long until new pages get indexed?
- Hours to weeks depending on site signals; sitemaps and internal links speed discovery.
- Does Learn Domains request indexing for me?
- No, it surfaces issues from your Search Console data; you fix and request indexing in GSC.
Next steps
- 1Open GSC Index Coverage for your vault property.
- 2Fix the top excluded pattern affecting product URLs.
- 3Update URL Library to drop non-indexable paths.
Knowledge graph
Parent terms
Related concepts
crawl-budget · programmatic-seo · google-search-console