Help Google find the right pages.

What belongs in the sitemap

Include public, canonical pages that provide value. Exclude redirects, duplicate query URLs, private areas, thin utility pages and pages marked noindex. A smaller accurate sitemap is more useful than an exhaustive list.

1. Publish the site on its final domain.
2. Open the sitemap URL and verify every entry uses HTTPS and the canonical hostname.
3. Remove staging, duplicate and redirected URLs.
4. Add the sitemap property in Search Console and submit the sitemap path.
5. Inspect a few priority URLs individually and review the discovered, crawled and indexed status.

If a page is not indexed

This comes down to a handful of concrete details. Work through the list below and flag the ones you have not covered yet.

• Confirm the page is linked from an accessible page.
• Check robots.txt and noindex settings.
• Look for canonical tags pointing elsewhere.
• Check that the server returns a successful status.
• Improve thin or overlapping content before requesting another crawl.

Ongoing monitoring routine

Use the list below as a working checklist. Each item is something you can verify or action directly on your own site.

• Check the Coverage or Pages report monthly for new exclusions.
• Compare the sitemap URL count against the actual number of live pages.
• Review the Sitemaps report for processing errors after every domain or CMS change.
• Watch for a sudden drop in indexed pages after a bulk content edit or migration.

Handover checklist for a new site owner

Here are the key things to get right. None of them are complicated on their own, but skipping one tends to undermine the rest.

• Search Console property is verified with an account the client actually controls.
• Sitemap submission is confirmed as successful, not just submitted.
• A short note explains what a healthy indexed count looks like for this site.
• Access instructions cover who to contact if the indexed count drops sharply.