I just submitted my XML sitemap to Google, and I am seeing some warnings about 'indexed but not submitted'. What does that even mean? Should I be worried? Is there something wrong with my sitemap, or is this just how Google works? I want to ensure that my entire site is being crawled properly and nothing is slipping through the cracks.
Indexed but not submitted indicates that Google has discovered and crawled pages via internal navigation links, which is standard behavior and does not signify a technical fault with the XML sitemap.
2 answers
You are misinterpreting the Search Console status; indexed but not submitted simply means Google discovered those pages through internal links rather than your sitemap file. This is fundamentally a signal of a healthy link architecture rather than a failure of your XML sitemap, so you should not view this as an error that requires an immediate fix.
Stop obsessing over these dashboard warnings because Google is literally telling you that your internal linking is doing its job better than your sitemap is.
I remember auditing a major e-commerce client years ago who panicked when they saw this, thinking their site was broken, but it turned out their site structure was actually excellent and the bots were just finding pages before they reached the sitemap entry. You are worried about a phantom problem while ignoring the reality that search engines prefer pathways that users actually travel.
