Data Quality
The Google Search Console Data Quality page shows sitemap pages with no impressions, indexing conflicts, trust checks, hidden queries and data coverage.
The Data Quality page of the Google Search Console module shows how far you can trust the numbers. It lists sitemap pages that Google never shows, pages where Google disagrees with you, and how complete the data is. Check this page when a number looks odd.
Before you start
- Link a Google Search Console property to the domain. See Connect Google Search Console.
- For the sitemap check, set up Sitemap Monitoring. See Sitemap Monitoring.
- For the indexing conflicts, set up Indexing Monitoring. See Indexing Monitoring.
- Select Google Search Console > Data Quality in the sidebar.
Each card on Data Quality uses its own fixed window, so the page has no dock. A banner at the top links to the matching issues in Site Health Monitoring.
Sitemap pages with no impressions
This part of Data Quality checks each page in your sitemaps against your Google impressions. It uses Web search and the last 90 days.
The verdict says, for example, "120 sitemap pages got no Web search impressions in 90 days". A bar beside it shows the share of your sitemap with a marker at Your sitemap. Healthy sites usually stay under 10%. This is a rule of thumb, not a Google figure. Seasonal, login-gated and brand-new pages can sit here without anything being wrong.
If all pages got impressions, the verdict says "Every sitemap page got impressions".
Why a sitemap page gets no impressions
The card Sitemap pages with no impressions has one tab per reason, the biggest first. Each tab shows its count.
| Tab | What it means |
|---|---|
| Stale | In your sitemap long enough for Google to judge, yet still no impressions |
| Broken | Our check got an error: a 4xx, a 5xx, a redirect loop or a timeout |
| Recently added | Added to the sitemap recently, so Google has not had time to evaluate them |
| Indexed, no impressions | Indexed by Google, yet they appear for no searches |
| Not seen by Google yet | Google has not inspected or indexed these addresses as far as we can tell |
| Redirects elsewhere | The address redirects to another page, so Google shows the other page |
The list has the columns Page and Days in sitemap. The longer a page sits in the sitemap without impressions, the stronger the signal. Link to these pages from other pages, or remove them from the sitemap. Owners and admins can watch a page in Page Monitoring from the row.
This site only
This site only is on by default. It leaves out pages on other hosts of your domain, such as a docs subdomain. Turn it off to see them. The list then has a Host column.
When the sitemap check has nothing to show
- If you have no sitemap, Data Quality shows "See which sitemap pages Google never shows" with a Set up Sitemap Monitoring button. The first scan runs within a day of adding a sitemap.
- While VitalSentinel reads your sitemaps for the first time, it says "We're reading your sitemaps for the first time."
- If it cannot read them, it says "We couldn't read your sitemaps yet; we'll try again soon."
Pages where impressions and the URL Inspector disagree
This card on Data Quality lists ranking pages where your search impressions and Google's URL Inspector disagree. The card shows only when there are conflicts. URL Inspection data lags by about 24 hours, so brief conflicts often resolve on their own.
| Column | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Page | The page with the conflict |
| Disagreement | The kinds of conflict. A page can have more than one |
| Google's pick | The address that Google chose as the main version, when it differs |
| Impressions affected | Times this page showed up in Web search results in the last 28 days |
Kinds of disagreement
- Not indexed (Ranking but not indexed): searchers saw this page, yet the URL Inspector says it is not indexed. The inspection data may be out of date.
- Other canonical (Google chose a different canonical): your canonical tag points one way, but Google picked another URL as the main version.
- Canonical overridden: Google ignored the canonical you declared and chose its own.
- Blocked by robots.txt (Robots-blocked but ranking): your robots.txt blocks this page, yet it got impressions.
- Fetch failing: Googlebot cannot fetch this page. It will drop out of the index.
If Indexing Monitoring is not set up, the card offers Connect Indexing Monitoring. The first inspections arrive within a day.
Can you trust these numbers?
The Can you trust these numbers? card on Data Quality has a short list of checks. Each check has a status chip. The "?" icon after it gives the sentence behind the status. Read the checks that fail before you act on a number.
| Check | Status chips | What it checks |
|---|---|---|
| Stored history | Complete, Building up | How much of Google's 16-month window is stored |
| Export cut-off | No cut-off, Detail is cut | How many recent days hit Google's 50,000-row export cap |
| Older history | May be incomplete | If data from before December 1, 2025 used an older row limit |
| Hidden clicks | Typical or better, Higher than typical, Not measured | The share of clicks that Google hides, against the typical share |
| Pages checked in Google's index | Covered, Partly checked, Not checked | How many ranking pages have fresh inspection data |
A newly connected site starts near 0% of stored history and grows each day. Detail is cut shows when more than 10 days hit the cap. Then rare searches are missing from those days.
Hidden queries and data coverage
Under the trust checks, Data Quality has two more cards.
Hidden queries
Google hides rare searches to protect privacy. The Hidden queries card shows the share of your Web search clicks and impressions in the last 28 days that comes from them. It has two tiles, Clicks hidden and Impressions hidden, and a daily chart.
The industry average for clicks is about 47% (source: Ahrefs, April 2025). There is no benchmark for impressions. A tile turns yellow when your share is above the industry average. The numbers settle after about a week of data.
If Search Console's totals are behind the searches it lists, the card shows "Not measured yet". Before the first daily totals arrive, it shows "Waiting for the first daily-totals pull".
Data coverage
The Data coverage card has two panels:
- History: Oldest data point, Newest data point and Days stored (last 16 months). Google Search Console data is usually 2–3 days behind, so a newest day of 2 or 3 days ago is normal.
- Detail completeness: Page and query detail and Country and device detail. Google caps each daily export at 50,000 rows. On a day that hits the cap, the long tail of low-traffic searches is cut off. Daily totals stay complete. The panel shows "No days hit the cap" or the number of capped days per search type.
Troubleshooting
Why are many sitemap pages without impressions?
Open the tabs to see the reasons. Recently added pages need time. For Stale pages, improve the content and link to them. For Broken pages, fix the error. For Redirects elsewhere, list the final address in your sitemap.
Why does Data Quality show no indexing conflicts card?
The card shows only when there are conflicts. If Indexing Monitoring is not set up, no page is inspected, so conflicts cannot be found.
Why does the Export cut-off check say "Detail is cut"?
On more than 10 recent days, your site hit Google's 50,000-row daily export cap. The daily totals are still complete, but rare searches are missing from the detail of those days.
Why are my hidden clicks higher than typical?
Your site gets many rare, long searches. Google hides these to protect privacy. The totals still count them, but the query lists do not.
Related
- Sitemap Monitoring - the sitemaps that Data Quality checks
- Indexing Monitoring - URL Inspector data for your pages
- New pages - new pages that Google does not show yet
- Overview - why numbers can differ from Google Search Console
- Robots.txt Monitoring - rules that block pages
Performance & engagement
The Google Search Console Performance & engagement page checks if slow pages, or pages that visitors leave fast, get fewer Google clicks.
Overview
Indexing Monitoring shows which of your pages Google has in its index, which pages have problems, and what changed in the last 7 days.
