The URL inspection tool in Google Search Console shows what Google knows about one URL: whether it’s indexed, when it was last crawled, how it was found, which canonical Google picked, and whether a fresh fetch would succeed right now. Paste a full URL into the search bar at the top of any Search Console screen to run it. Most people read the headline and click Request Indexing. That’s the mistake. The headline answers a narrower question than it seems, and the live test ignores most of the reasons pages don’t get indexed. This guide reads every section in order.
Two Reports in One Screen
Every inspection opens with the indexed result. Google’s help page says these results come “from most recently indexed version of a page, not the live version on the web.” If you fixed something yesterday and Google last crawled the page three weeks ago, the indexed result still shows the old problem.
Click Test live URL for the second report: Google fetches the page now, using the Google-InspectionTool crawler (the same one behind the Rich Results Test), and says whether it could be indexed. The URL must belong to the open property, so you can’t inspect a competitor’s page. Google also applies daily per-property limits to inspections, live tests and indexing requests, without publishing the numbers.
Indexed Result vs Live Test: What Each One Checks
The most useful habit with the URL inspection tool is knowing which report can answer your question. Here’s the split, from Google’s documentation:
| Question | Indexed result | Live test |
|---|---|---|
| Is it in Google’s index? | Yes | No |
| Can Googlebot fetch it now? | No, last crawl only | Yes |
| Blocked by robots.txt or noindex? | As of last crawl | As of now |
| Which canonical did Google choose? | Yes | No |
| Sitemaps and referring pages | Yes | Not checked |
| Duplicate or alternate page? | Via canonical fields and indexing reason | Not checked |
| Quality guidelines, manual actions | Not shown | Not checked |
| Screenshot | No | Yes |
The bottom rows are what most guides skip. A live test that says “URL is available to Google” means nothing technical blocks the page. It says nothing about whether Google thinks the page is worth indexing.
The Headline Verdict: Four Indexed Statuses, Three Live Ones
- URL is on Google: indexed and eligible to appear, though Google notes that isn’t a guarantee it shows for any query.
- URL is on Google, but has issues: indexed, but something like malformed structured data needs attention.
- URL is not on Google: it can’t appear in Search. The page indexing section gives the reason.
- URL is an alternate version: an AMP page whose canonical non-AMP page is the one indexed.
The live test returns URL is available to Google, the same with “but has issues,” or URL is not available to Google. Google says even the first “is not a guarantee” of indexing. Read a green live test as “not blocked,” never as “will rank.”
Page Indexing: Discovery and Crawl Fields
Expand Page indexing for the line that matters most: “Page is indexed,” “Page is not indexed” with a reason, or “URL is unknown to Google.” Reasons use the Page indexing report’s labels, and two that look alike mean very different things. Discovered – currently not indexed means Google found the URL but hasn’t crawled it; Crawled – currently not indexed means it crawled the page and chose not to index it. See our guides to Discovered – currently not indexed and Crawled – currently not indexed.
- Sitemaps: sitemaps submitted in Search Console or listed in robots.txt that include this URL. Google says sitemaps “discovered through other means won’t be listed.”
- Referring page: a page Google “possibly used” to find the URL. A blank doesn’t prove nothing links to it, but a key page with no known internal links deserves some.
- Last crawl: in your local time. Compare it with your last edit before trusting anything else.
- Crawled as: desktop or mobile user agent.
- Crawl allowed?: whether robots.txt permits the crawl.
- Page fetch: Successful, Failed (with a reason), or N/A. Google notes fetching “can be successful even if the page is not indexed for another reason.”
The “Indexing Allowed? Yes” Trap
Indexing allowed? reports whether a noindex directive, in a meta robots tag or X-Robots-Tag header, blocks indexing. The catch, per Google’s documentation: if robots.txt blocks the crawl, this field always reads “Yes,” because Google can’t see the noindex.
That causes a common misdiagnosis. Someone adds noindex to remove a page, also disallows it in robots.txt “to be safe,” then sees “Crawl allowed? No” next to “Indexing allowed? Yes.” The noindex will never be read. Let Google crawl the page until the noindex is processed, then decide whether to block it. Our guide to indexed, though blocked by robots.txt covers the clean-up, and the free Robots.txt Tester shows which rule matches a URL before you edit the file.
Canonicals: User-Declared vs Google-Selected
- User-declared canonical: the canonical your page declares. “None” is fine if the page isn’t an alternate of anything.
- Google-selected canonical: the URL Google chose among similar pages; with no alternates, it’s the inspected URL. Google notes it “can be a few hours out of date.”
When they differ, Google has treated your page as a duplicate and indexed the other URL. Before you fight it, ask whether Google is right. If two pages really say the same thing, consolidate. If not, make the difference obvious in the content and point internal links, sitemaps and redirects at the URL you want, because a canonical tag is a hint, not a command. More in our canonical tag guide. The live test never shows Google’s canonical choice, so canonical problems are an indexed-result job.
Enhancements and Video Indexing
Enhancements lists structured data Google detected on the last crawl, such as breadcrumbs, product or review snippets, plus AMP, each valid or with issues. Only rich result types Google supports are listed, and an issue here affects rich result eligibility, not indexing. If you remember a Mobile Usability section: Google retired the Mobile Usability report and Mobile-Friendly Test from 1 December 2023, and the current help page lists no mobile usability check.
Video indexing only appears when Google detects a video. “No video indexed” comes with a reason, for example “Video is not the main content of the page,” a reason Google introduced in December 2023 when it limited video results to pages where the video is the main content, or thumbnail problems such as a missing, invalid or robots-blocked thumbnail.
View Crawled Page vs View Tested Page
View crawled page belongs to the indexed result and only works when the URL is on Google; Google says a disabled link means there was a problem fetching the page. View tested page belongs to the live test. Both show the HTML Google received, HTTP response headers, and under More info, page resources and JavaScript console messages. Only the live test adds a screenshot, taken from the mobile version of the page.
- Search the HTML for your main content. If body text or internal links are missing, that’s a JavaScript rendering problem, not a content problem.
- Check the headers for an X-Robots-Tag noindex a plugin or CDN added.
- Read the resources list for blocked scripts or stylesheets.
- Compare with your source using view page source to see what your server sends before JavaScript runs.
One quirk: the live test follows redirects silently and doesn’t display the final URL. If results look like a different page, check for a redirect.
Request Indexing: When It’s Worth the Quota
Request indexing asks Google to recrawl the URL. Google runs a quick live check first, and you can’t request indexing for a page the live test finds non-indexable. You need to be a property owner or full user. Google’s own guidance is modest:
- “Requesting a crawl does not guarantee that inclusion in search results will happen instantly or even at all.”
- “Crawling can take anywhere from a few days to a few weeks.”
- “Requesting a recrawl multiple times for the same URL won’t get it crawled any faster.”
- There’s an unpublished daily quota per property. For many URLs, submit a sitemap with
<lastmod>instead.
Spend the quota where a fresh crawl changes something: a new money page, a removed noindex, a fixed title on a page that already ranks. It’s wasted on Crawled – currently not indexed with a clean live test. Google already has that page and decided against it. Improve the page or its internal links first.
A Symptom-to-Field Cheat Sheet
| What you see | Field to read | Likely fix |
|---|---|---|
| URL is unknown to Google | Sitemaps, Referring page | Sitemap entry, internal links |
| Crawl allowed? No | Live test | Edit the robots.txt rule |
| Indexing allowed? No | Tested page headers | Remove the noindex |
| Page fetch: Failed | Fetch reason | Fix server error, redirect or 404 |
| Canonicals don’t match | Both canonical fields | Consolidate, or align signals |
| Live test green, not indexed | Indexing reason, Last crawl | Quality, duplication, links |
Worked example (hypothetical): a month-old service page gets no impressions. Inspection says “URL is not on Google,” reason Discovered – currently not indexed, no last crawl, no referring page, sitemap listed. The live test is green. The trap is to keep clicking Request Indexing. The fields say Google knows the URL from the sitemap, sees no internal links to it, and hasn’t spent a crawl on it. Link it from the services hub and two related posts, make one request, and watch Last crawl. The full sequence for missing pages is in website not showing on Google.
Checking Many URLs at Once
The URL Inspection API, announced in January 2022, returns the indexed information the tool shows, limited to 2,000 queries per day and 600 per minute per site. It doesn’t run live tests or request indexing. Nor does the Indexing API help: Google restricts it to pages with JobPosting or livestream BroadcastEvent markup.
For a whole site, find causes rather than inspecting symptoms one URL at a time. The SEO Rocket site audit crawls every URL with JavaScript rendering and flags noindex directives, canonicals pointing elsewhere, 404s, soft-404 candidates, redirect chains and broken internal links. With Search Console connected, the dashboard shows which pages actually lost clicks. Then use the URL inspection tool to confirm Google’s view of the pages that matter, and the Page indexing report for the site-wide picture. It’s the playbook proven across 1,000,000+ ranking pages: crawl to find, inspect to confirm, request only after a real change.
FAQ
Why does the URL inspection tool say indexed when I can’t find the page in Google?
“URL is on Google” means eligible to appear, not ranking for your query. Search a distinctive phrase from the page in quotes. If it appears, the problem is ranking, not indexing.
How long after Request Indexing will Google crawl?
Google says a few days to a few weeks, with no guarantee. Watch the Last crawl date rather than resubmitting.
Does a green live test mean my page will be indexed?
No. The live test doesn’t check duplicates, quality, manual actions or canonical selection, and Google says “available to Google” is not a guarantee.
