Google Index Checker: Indexability Pre-check

What This URL Indexability Test Checks

The checker fetches one public URL as a diagnostic client and separates confirmed evidence from anything it could not determine:

1. Redirect and response evidence: records each redirect hop up to the displayed limit, the final URL, final HTTP status, and content type.
2. Googlebot directives: combines every generic robots meta tag, Googlebot-specific meta tag, and applicable X-Robots-Tag header.
3. Robots.txt: evaluates the final path against Googlebot rules, including Allow, Disallow, wildcard, end-anchor, and longest-match precedence.
4. Canonical target: reports the declared canonical and, for a different target on the same host, performs a bounded response, noindex, and robots check.
5. Sitemap reference: checks advertised same-host sitemaps, or the conventional root sitemap when none is advertised, within strict document and size limits.

The fetch does not render JavaScript, imitate Google’s complete systems, assess content quality, or read Google’s index. Google’s URL Inspection documentation explains the difference between its indexed view and live test.

Technical Indexability Is One Gate, Not the Index

A crawlable 2xx URL without noindex can still be absent from Google, so use this result as a focused diagnostic:

• Response and directives are observable: the tool can show what this server-side fetch received now, including scoped Googlebot directives.
• Canonicalization is selected by Google: redirects and rel=canonical are strong preference signals, but neither proves which URL Google selected or indexed.
• Sitemaps help discovery: inclusion can support discovery and canonical consistency, but Google explicitly describes sitemap submission as a hint rather than a guarantee.
• Unknown stays unknown: a timeout, inaccessible robots.txt, cross-host canonical, oversized response, or sitemap limit is not displayed as a pass.

For the underlying rules, see Google’s documentation for robots meta and X-Robots-Tag, canonical signals, and sitemap guidance.

How to Diagnose “Google Is Not Indexing My Site”

Start with the exact affected URL, not an estimated domain-wide index count:

1. Fix a non-2xx final response, redirect loop, or unintended redirect destination before interpreting page-level tags.
2. Remove an unintended noindex from generic robots, Googlebot meta, or X-Robots-Tag. If robots.txt blocks crawling, Google may be unable to see a page-level noindex.
3. Review a cross-canonical in context. Point it to the preferred duplicate only; do not assume every different canonical is an error.
4. Keep preferred canonical URLs discoverable through internal links and, where appropriate, an XML sitemap. Missing sitemap inclusion alone does not prevent indexing.
5. Inspect the exact URL in Search Console. Review the indexed status and Google-selected canonical, then run Test live URL after a fix and request indexing when appropriate.

A Google site: search is not exhaustive. Use it only as a secondary clue, never as the deciding index-status test.

When Search Console already names a status

Pick the status above the URL field and the result reads the live checks against it: Expected when the live page explains the status and nothing is wrong, Needs action when the live evidence shows something to fix, and Can’t tell from outside when the answer sits in Google’s own data, such as its crawl history or the canonical it selected.

• Duplicate without user-selected canonical, Duplicate, Google chose different canonical than user and Alternate page with proper canonical tag: the declared canonical, its target and any redirect. Read duplicate without user-selected canonical: what to check before changing either URL.
• Crawled - currently not indexed and Discovered - currently not indexed: checks the selected live signals, without establishing why Google has not indexed the URL. Follow the crawled and discovered workflow in our Search Console guide.
• Page with redirect, Excluded by ‘noindex’ tag, Soft 404 and Blocked by robots.txt: the redirect chain, Googlebot directives, response and title, and the Googlebot robots.txt rules.

Example: HTTP 200, self-canonical and in the sitemap, but still not indexed

Those observations can coexist. Record the last crawl date in URL Inspection, compare its crawled HTML with the current page, and use Test live URL to review the rendered content and resources. This checker does not run that rendering test. Then inspect any similar page and the links that help users reach this URL.

A recorded “Crawled - currently not indexed” status alone does not prove a broken canonical, technical failure or particular content-quality problem. Correct an evidenced issue, request indexing when appropriate, and wait for a new crawl before judging the change. Changing the URL or repeatedly resubmitting it does not establish a fix.