Guide
How to check if a URL is indexed by Google
Before you try to fix an indexing problem you need to know whether there is one. There are several ways to check whether Google has a page in its index. They are not equally reliable.
1. URL Inspection in Search Console (most reliable)
Open Google Search Console, choose your property and paste the full URL into the search bar at the top. The result begins with a verdict: URL is on Google, URL is on Google, but has issues, or URL is not on Google.
This is Google’s own record of that exact URL, including when it was last crawled and which URL it chose as the canonical. It only works for properties you have access to. How to read the results.
2. The Page indexing report (many pages at once)
Under Indexing → Pages, Search Console shows how many URLs are indexed and groups the ones that are not by reason, such as “Crawled – currently not indexed” or “Excluded by ‘noindex’ tag”. Click a reason to see example URLs. It is the best way to spot a pattern across a whole site.
3. A site: search (quick, not authoritative)
Search Google for site:example.com/exact-page-url. If the page shows up, it is indexed. If it does not, that does not prove it is missing, because site: results are incomplete and can lag.
Use it for a quick look, not for a decision.
4. Search for the page title or a distinctive sentence
Put a distinctive sentence from the page in quotes, or search for its exact title. A page can be indexed and still not rank for anything you try, so a missing result is only a hint.
Common mistakes
- Indexed is not the same as ranking. A page can be in the index and still rank on page ten.
- Checking the wrong URL.
httpversushttps,wwwversus non-www, and trailing slashes are different URLs. Check the canonical one. - Trusting cached results. A page removed from the index can still show up for a while.
Checking many URLs
URL Inspection is available through the Search Console API, with a limit of about 2,000 inspections per day for each property. IndexMeNow uses it to follow your submitted pages: it checks first, to avoid spending a credit on a page that is already indexed, then again on a schedule until Search Console confirms the result.