Index Coverage: Which Pages Google Indexes From Your Site
Index coverage is the Search Console report showing which of your pages Google indexes, and which it errors on, warns about, or excludes.
Index Coverage is which of your pages Google can and does index.
What It Is
Index coverage is the Search Console report that shows how many of your pages Google has indexed.
Pages are grouped into errors, warnings, valid with warnings, valid, and excluded.
The Categories
- Errors: pages Google could not index, which need fixes.
- Valid: pages indexed without issues.
- Excluded: pages Google chose not to index, not always a problem.
- Pages with warnings: indexed with issues worth checking.
Why It Matters
- Only indexed pages can rank and send search traffic.
- Errors and excluded pages reveal crawl and quality problems.
- The report turns Googles index into an actionable list.
How to Use
- Fix genuine errors like 404s and soft 404s.
- Review excluded pages before assuming they are fine.
- Watch for sudden drops in valid pages after changes.
- Prioritize fixes on pages that should bring traffic.
Before: a site relaunches and the valid page count drops by half.
After: index coverage shows whole sections returning errors.
The result: the team fixes the errors and valid pages recover.
The lesson: if it is not indexed, it is invisible.
Quick Tip
Not every excluded page needs fixing, but every error does.
Frequently Asked Questions
Index Coverage, in Short
The report tells you exactly what Google made visible.
Indexed pages are the only ones that can earn traffic.