Index Reporting stuck at 0% or showing unexpected counts

If your Index Reporting is stuck at 0% or showing unexpected numbers, start here. This guide covers both queue delays and count mismatches in one place.

Quick diagnosis

Use this table to figure out if what you're seeing is normal:

What the queue states mean

When you set up Index Reporting, you'll see one of these states:

• "In queue for processing" — Your request is accepted and waiting to begin. Normal immediately after setup or after adding new sitemaps.

• "Progress 0%" or "The indexing process has not started yet" — The system has your sitemaps but hasn't started fetching page data. Can last from a few minutes to a few days depending on queue load and sitemap complexity.

• A percentage (e.g., 45%, 78%) — Processing is actively running. The percentage reflects how many of your submitted pages have been checked so far.

How long setup takes

There's no fixed timeline—processing speed depends on your sitemap size, how many pages you're tracking (up to 5,000 per Super Site), and current queue demand.

• Initial setup: 24–72 hours for most sites.

• Updates after initial processing: Crawls run at least once every 24 hours.

If you've hit the 5,000-page limit, Index Reporting will only track the pages you've selected. Larger sites should prioritize important sitemaps or use additional Super Sites for subfolders or subdomains.

Why counts might not match

The two most common mismatches have different causes—know which one you're seeing:

Indexed + Not indexed don't add up to your total pages

If you see something like 374 total but your Indexed + Not indexed counts don't sum to 374, pages are likely in Pending Inspection. This is a transitional state where Google hasn't yet determined the index status.

What to do: Wait. Once inspection completes, each page moves to either Indexed or Not indexed, and the counts will reconcile. This is normal during active processing, especially after setup or sitemap changes.

Rule of thumb: As long as your Indexed + Not indexed counts don't exceed what you see in Google Search Console, there's no error—just processing in progress.

Index Reporting total doesn't match Google Search Console

This is expected. Index Reporting only tracks pages you've explicitly submitted via sitemap URLs:

• Pages from your submitted sitemaps only — not every URL Google has crawled

• Up to 5,000 pages per Super Site — if your sitemaps contain more URLs, only the first 5,000 are tracked

• Pages you selected during setup — you choose which sitemaps to include

Google discovers pages through links, redirects, and other signals—not just sitemaps. Those discovered pages appear in GSC but not in Index Reporting. For the full breakdown, see how Index Reporting counts pages.

When a fixed percentage is normal

If Index Reporting shows a percentage (like 78% indexed) that stays the same for a while, some pages may be:

• Published but not yet discovered by search engines.

• Crawled but not indexed — Google knows they exist but hasn't added them to the index.

• Intentionally excluded by robots.txt or noindex tags.

This is normal SEO behavior, not a reporting error. Use the indexed/not indexed breakdown to spot patterns, and check how to detect decaying content if you're concerned about pages dropping out of the index.

Troubleshoot a stuck report

If your report has been stuck at 0% or "in queue" for more than 72 hours with no movement, work through these steps:

1. Fix sitemap validation failures

Go to Settings → Super Site Page Selection and click Validate Sitemaps. If validation fails, the report can't start.

Common validation failures:

• Incorrect sitemap URL — The URL returns a 404, redirect loop, or error response instead of the actual sitemap file.

• Unreadable format or invalid characters — XML works best. Non-XML formats, broken encoding, or special characters that aren't properly escaped can prevent the validator from parsing the file.

Fix the issue, save, and re-validate. Once validation passes, the queue will pick up your request.

2. Use a domain-level XML sitemap

Index Reporting works best with an XML sitemap served at the domain level (for example, https://example.com/sitemap.xml). If you're using a sitemap hosted elsewhere or relying on automatic discovery, try submitting the direct sitemap URL instead.

If your sitemap is a sitemap index file that lists multiple sub-sitemaps, try submitting the individual XML sitemap URLs directly. Index Reporting validates each sitemap individually, so direct file URLs are more reliable than an index wrapper.

3. Check your property connection

If you connected your site as an sc-domain: property in Google Search Console (e.g., sc-domain:example.com), but your sitemaps reference https://example.com/..., the mismatch can block discovery. Make sure your sitemap URLs match the property type you connected in SEO Gets.

4. Still stuck?

If you've validated your sitemaps, confirmed your property connection, and waited several days with no progress, reach out via in-app chat. We can take a look at your setup and help get things moving.

What to do next

• Understand page counts and index status

• Set up weekly index monitoring emails

• Configure Index Reporting for your Super Site

For a plain-language explanation of update timing, inspection states, and the 5,000-page cap, see Index Reporting timing, inspection states, and page limits.