How to read the Indexing Report
About this episode
The episode discusses how to interpret the Indexing Report in Google Search Console and addresses common misconceptions about indexing and 404 errors.
Should you panic when your Search Console indexing report is showing pages that aren't indexed? Is a 404 error code always a sign of a broken website? In this episode of Search Off the Record, Martin Splitt and John Mueller from the Google Search Relations team dive deep into the Page Indexing report in Google Search Console. They unpack why treating this report as a static inventory checklist to "fix" things is the wrong response, how to spot massive SEO-ruining hosting or CDN traps, and why a healthy website doesn't actually need a 100% index rate. In this episode, you'll learn: The Indexing Report Shift: Insights from the Search Console team's Hillel on why you should look for trend lines and systemic patterns rather than treating the report as a giant list of errors. When 404s are Good: Why expected 404 errors are technically correct for deleted content, and how to survive the "boss panic" of numbers that won't go down. The Domain Property Advantage: How setting up a domain property handles canonical shifts, www vs. non-www tracking, and performance data much cleaner. The Site Query vs. Search Console: Why the site: query is an artificial tool that might show old domain moves…
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