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.