<b>Healthy indexation rate sits at 88-94%, not 100%</b>

<b>Healthy indexation rate sits at 88-94%, not 100%</b>
Benchmark from 312 audited domains, measuring (indexed ÷ submitted-canonical).

— Top quartile: 94.1% ▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓░
— Median: 88.3% ▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓░░
— Bottom quartile: 71.0% ▓▓▓▓▓▓▓░░░

Counterintuitive finding: sites at exactly 100% indexed often scored worse on traffic-per-URL. A 100% rate usually meant a thin sitemap that excluded weak pages — gaming the metric, not earning it.

The healthy band tolerates a 6-12% exclusion: genuinely duplicate, paginated, or seasonal URLs Google correctly skips.

So what: stop chasing 100%. If you're below 80%, you have a quality or discovery problem. Above 96% with a large sitemap, audit whether you're hiding pages to flatter the number.