Sitemap & Coverage
Monitor indexing status and sitemap health
Updated 2024-12-20
Sitemap & Coverage
Monitor your site's indexing status and sitemap health.
Coverage Overview
Google's indexing status for your pages:
Status Categories
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Valid | Indexed and appearing in search |
| Valid with warnings | Indexed but has issues |
| Excluded | Not indexed (intentionally or not) |
| Error | Can't be indexed due to errors |
Sitemap Monitoring
Sitemap List
- All submitted sitemaps
- Submission date
- Last read date
- URL count
Sitemap Health
- Submitted: URLs in sitemap
- Indexed: URLs actually indexed
- Ratio: Indexing success rate
Common Issues
Coverage Errors
| Error | Cause | Solution |
|---|---|---|
| Server error (5xx) | Server issues | Fix server stability |
| Not found (404) | Page removed | Remove from sitemap or redirect |
| Soft 404 | Thin content | Add content or noindex |
| Blocked by robots.txt | Robots rules | Update robots.txt |
| Redirect error | Chain/loop | Fix redirect issues |
Coverage Exclusions
| Exclusion | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Crawled, not indexed | Google found it but chose not to index |
| Discovered, not crawled | In queue but not yet crawled |
| Duplicate without canonical | Needs canonical tag |
| Blocked by robots.txt | Intentionally blocked |
| noindex tag | Page has noindex |
Actions to Take
For Errors
- Identify the error type
- Fix the underlying issue
- Request re-crawl in GSC
- Monitor for resolution
For Low Indexing Rate
- Check content quality
- Improve internal linking
- Remove low-value pages from sitemap
- Build external links
Sitemap Best Practices
- Keep under 50,000 URLs per sitemap
- Use sitemap index for larger sites
- Update regularly (at least weekly)
- Only include canonical URLs
- Remove redirecting or error URLs