Before knowing about index coverage status, Do you know how search engine works ?
what you need to look at in Index Coverage Status?
#1 Firstly, you need to check if there is increasing number of valid indexed pages.
#2 If there is upward graph for indexing error, check for
- Whether you have submitted sitemap for the URLs that are blocked for crawling.
- if there is change in template.
- Blocking in crawling can be caused by robots.txt, no index or if there needs login in your page.
#3 If you find drop in indexed pages and there is no error, check if your existing pages are blocked or not. This block can also be in robots.txt, no index or login requirement in your page.
4 If excluded pages are more than valid pages, know the exclusion type. Common reason for exclusion are:
- robots.txt which is blocking your URL
- A large number of duplicate pages in your website with parameters to filter.(for example: type=dress or color=green or sort=price).
What not to look in Index Coveragae ?
#1 Don’t expect for all your URLs to be indexed. Make one version of a page indexed i.e canonical version.
Duplicate page is tagged as “Excluded” in this report.
#2 If new article or content is added in the website, it takes time to get indexed.
Status in Search Console
#1 Error
If the page is not indexed, it shows error. Read specific error and its description.
#2 Warning
You get warning if your page is indexed but it has an issue of which you should be aware of.
#3 Excluded
This page is not indexed and this is also not an error.
#4 Valid
If your page is indexed, its labelled as valid. This can be taken as your good health in page index of the website.