Indexation Audit

Indexation and
Coverage Audit

Finding out which pages Google knows about — and which it's ignoring.

Where to find it: Google Search Console > Indexing > Pages | Screaming Frog > Response Codes + Indexability

What It Is

The indexation audit compares what the site has with what Google has indexed. The most important question in technical SEO is whether Google knows about and has indexed the pages that matter. The coverage audit identifies pages that should be indexed but aren't (the biggest opportunity), pages that are indexed but shouldn't be (the biggest risk), and the specific reasons Google is excluding pages. This is where the most actionable findings live — issues directly causing ranking failures.

Why It Matters

A page that isn't indexed doesn't rank — full stop. The indexation audit finds issues causing immediate ranking failures: a service page with a noindex tag from a plugin misconfiguration, a cornerstone article in 'Discovered, currently not indexed' due to low internal links, a product category canonicalized to a variant page. These findings move the needle immediately when fixed. The gap between submitted sitemap count and indexed page count is often the single most important number in the entire audit.

Common Audit Failure Points

What Goes Wrong

Understanding where audits fail — and why — is the first step to executing them correctly.

noindex Tags From Plugin Misconfiguration

SEO plugin settings applying noindex to important pages — often a checkbox accidentally enabled in a plugin's page-type settings, affecting all pages of that template type simultaneously.

Discovered But Not Indexed Due to Low Authority

'Discovered, currently not indexed' status — Google found the page but deprioritized it due to low internal link authority, thin content, or insufficient crawl budget allocation to that section.

Canonical Tags Pointing Away From Intended Canonical

Canonical tags on important pages pointing to variant pages, filtered views, or incorrect URLs — Google follows the canonical and indexes the wrong destination.

Robots.txt Blocking Indexable Content

Sections blocked in robots.txt that should be crawlable and indexable — a common residue of development configurations that weren't cleaned up before or after launch.

Interactive Standard Operating Procedure

The Audit Playbook (Interactive SOP)

Check off each step to track your audit progress live!

Audit Progress: 0% Completed (0/7)

1. Export the Full Coverage Report From Search Console

In Search Console > Indexing > Pages, export all page statuses. Categorize by status reason: Crawled but not indexed, Discovered but not indexed, Excluded by noindex, Excluded by robots.txt, Duplicate page, Canonical set by site (different from selected). Note exact counts for each category.

2. Export Non-Indexable Pages From Crawler Output

From Screaming Frog, export all URLs with non-200 status codes and all pages flagged as non-indexable (noindex, canonical mismatch). Cross-reference against the Search Console coverage data to identify patterns in which page types are excluded.

3. Audit All noindex Tags for Intent

Export all pages with noindex tags from Screaming Frog. For each, verify the noindex is intentional — low-value archive pages, admin pages, and thank-you pages should be noindexed. Flag any important pages (service pages, product pages, blog content) carrying unintentional noindex tags.

4. Investigate All 'Discovered, Currently Not Indexed' Pages

Export this specific category from Search Console and analyze the pages: do they have sufficient internal links? Is the content substantial? Are they included in the sitemap? These pages represent internal linking opportunities — connecting them to topically related pages is often the fastest fix.

5. Check Canonical Tag Implementation Sitewide

Export all canonical tags from Screaming Frog. Confirm: every page has a canonical tag, all canonical tags use absolute URLs (not relative), self-referencing canonicals match the current URL exactly, and no important pages have canonicals pointing to a wrong destination.

6. Compare Indexed Page Count to Expected Count

Compare the total indexed count in Search Console against the total URL count from the crawl. Document the gap as a percentage: 'Site has 2,400 crawlable pages; 960 are indexed — 60% exclusion rate.' Identify which page types account for the largest exclusion volumes.

7. Identify Indexed Pages That Shouldn't Be Indexed

Export the full indexed URL list from Search Console. Check for: thank-you pages, admin pages, printer-friendly variants, parameterized duplicates, and staging pages that have been inadvertently indexed. Flag for noindex or canonical treatment.

Tools

Google Search Console
Free | Coverage report with categorized exclusion reasons — the definitive source for indexation status across the full site
Screaming Frog
Paid/Free tier | noindex tag audit, canonical tag export, and indexability classification for every crawled URL
Google URL Inspection
Free | Checks individual page indexation status including last crawl date, rendered HTML, and canonical selected by Google — essential for investigating specific pages

Time Investment

2–4 hours

Coverage Analysis

Highest-impact audit section

Priority Finding

Pro Tip

The sitemap-to-indexed gap is the most important number in the indexation audit.

A sitemap with 2,000 URLs and 800 indexed pages means 60% of submitted content isn't indexed. That gap needs a documented explanation — and it's almost always findable in the Coverage report, categorized by exclusion reason. Present this gap in your executive summary as the headline finding: 'Google is ignoring 60% of your submitted content.' That lands with clients in a way that 'there are 1,200 coverage issues' doesn't.

Ep 2: Crawl Configuration and Execution Ep 4: On-Page Technical Audit

Indexation andCoverage Audit