Library·SOP·SEO
Use the Page indexing report to decide which groups of missing URLs are expected, investigate representative pages that should appear, and give the site owner an ordered fix or monitoring plan. The report reflects Google's processed data, so a recent change or a small site may show limited results.
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Clarity, structure and references reviewed in this version. This is not a test in a live account.
Use the Page indexing report to decide which groups of missing URLs are expected, investigate representative pages that should appear, and give the site owner an ordered fix or monitoring plan. The report reflects Google's processed data, so a recent change or a small site may show limited results.
This SOP covers:
This does not cover:
Search Console groups URLs by reason. Start by confirming which website property you are viewing and how recent the report data is.
Open the supplied Technical SEO Action Plan workbook and use its Action plan tab to record which pages matter.
Open the supplied Technical SEO Action Plan workbook and make your own copy. Use Start here to enter the website and today's review date.
In Action plan, enter one important page or page type in Page or issue and the owner-provided business reason in What you found. Examples might be the main service page, a key product category, or a current article that brings in useful visitors. If you do not know which pages matter, ask the owner before ranking report findings.
Open Google Search Console, choose the property for this website, and open the Page indexing report.
Use the property selector at the upper left. A Domain property covers the domain and its subdomains; a URL-prefix property covers only its exact protocol, host, and path prefix. If no available property covers the page URLs you need, ask a property owner for access before continuing.
In the left menu, open Indexing and select Pages or Page indexing, depending on the current menu label. Read the Why pages aren't indexed table and the indexed/not-indexed trend summary.
In Start here, copy Search Console's visible last-update text into Indexing report last updated. If the report does not show it, write Not shown. Record this even when there are no reason rows.
An unindexed URL is not automatically a problem. Decide whether the exact URL should be Google's main version of useful content before planning a fix.
Record the report reasons that could affect pages the business cares about, then choose representative URLs for each reason.
For a reason that might include an important page, add a row to Indexing review. Copy the reason name exactly into Reason in Search Console, the affected-page count into Pages affected, and a report example into Example URL. Normally use one row per reason group, not one row per URL. Add another row for that reason only when representative URLs have materially different index decisions; repeat the reason and count and label each URL's finding.
If there are no reason rows, write No reason rows shown and the report’s update date in Action plan > What you found. Set Status to No change needed if no other page issue is known. If the report has only a few URLs, review those URLs in the next steps. If an important page is missing from the report, use the linked single-page guide to inspect its exact URL.
For each reason group, decide whether its example URL should be Google's main address for that content (its canonical URL) before you call the group a problem. A reason group may contain both expected and unexpected URLs, so judge the example rather than assuming every URL in the group is alike.
An exclusion is expected when it matches the site's plan. Examples: a duplicate or alternate URL points to the intended main page; a redirect sends visitors to the replacement page; a page has an intentional noindex setting; or a removed page should stay gone. A canonical URL is the main address Google should use for that content. Ask the owner when that choice is unclear.
When an important page should appear but has an accidental robots.txt block, unintended noindex, server error, broken redirect, access-denied response, or 404, mark it Yes and record the obstacle. Copy the report's Source value (usually Website or Google) into Inspection finding; Website issues are often ones the site owner can fix, while Google-source issues need more context.
For Discovered - currently not indexed, Google knows the URL but has not crawled it yet. For Crawled - currently not indexed, Google crawled it but has not included it. Either label alone does not prove a technical fault; check whether the page is unique, useful, current, and meant to be the main address.
Use Search Console's single-page inspection to check representative pages, then record the finding for each reason group.
Start with the report's example URL if it represents an important page type. If it does not, inspect a known important URL that shares the same reason. If both examples are useful but point to different decisions, give each one a separate row with the same reason and count. Do not inspect every URL in the group. Follow the linked single-page guide if you are unsure how to read an individual result.
Record each checked URL's indexed status, crawl/access reason, and Google-selected canonical in Inspection finding when shown. Label which result belongs to which address. Use the linked single-page guide for the exact inspection sequence. Mark Not available if Search Console cannot inspect the example.
Use business importance, affected-page scope, and evidence together. The report supplies a count; the owner supplies which pages matter.
Compare the important pages affected, the count shown, and how clearly the example explains the cause before you choose what to do first.
Compare the owner’s priorities, how many important pages are affected, how clearly URL Inspection shows the cause, and how practical a fix is. Put the confirmed problem on the highest-priority page first, then the next worthwhile issue. In Indexing review > Next action, write Monitor when evidence is thin or the report may not have refreshed. For an intended exclusion, write No change there and set Status to Expected exclusion.
Example: an important service page and a set of old tracking-parameter URLs both appear under different reasons. If URL Inspection shows the service page is accidentally blocked but the clean service URL is the one the owner wants found, that block is a stronger first action. If Google chose the clean service URL as canonical for the tracking versions, those exclusions are expected. This example is illustrative; use your site's pages and reported counts.
Write one next action for each important reason group, put useful actions in the Action plan tab in priority order, and name an owner and review date.
Choose an action that matches the finding: correct an accidental noindex setting; review an important page blocked by robots.txt with the linked robots.txt guide; ask the site or hosting maintainer about server, access, or unclear duplicate-canonical issues; or improve a page only when you can name a real content or usefulness problem. For a moved page, ask the site owner to confirm the right destination before requesting a redirect.
After a real fix to one important URL that should be indexed, ask the site's Search Console operator to inspect the page and consider URL Inspection's Request indexing action only if the current live test says the page can be indexed. If the test still shows an access or indexing block, keep that fix in Action planned. When the operator confirms a request was submitted, record its date in Inspection finding, set Status to Waiting for Google, and set a later Recheck date. For many changed URLs, ask the owner to use the site's sitemap process; for a WordPress site, use the linked sitemap chooser. A request asks Google to crawl again; it does not confirm that Google has indexed the page.
Review the ordered Action plan and the completed Indexing review rows with the site owner.
