URL Inspection Tool: The Complete Guide

The URL Inspection tool in Google Search Console shows what Google knows about one specific URL: whether it is indexed, when it was last crawled, how it was discovered, which canonical Google chose and whether structured data was read correctly. It has two modes. The default view shows the indexed version from Google's last crawl, and Test live URL fetches the page as it is right now. Mixing up the two is the most common source of confusion.

Opening the tool

There are three ways in:

1. Paste a full URL into the search bar at the top of any Search Console page.
2. Click URL inspection in the left menu.
3. Click the magnifier icon next to any URL in a report, such as the Page indexing examples.

The URL has to belong to the property you have open. With a URL-prefix property for https://www.example.com/, you cannot inspect https://example.com/page. A Domain property accepts every protocol and subdomain.

The verdict at the top

Verdict	Meaning
URL is on Google	Indexed and eligible to appear in results
URL is on Google, but has issues	Indexed, with problems in an enhancement such as structured data or HTTPS
URL is not on Google	Not indexed. The Page indexing section gives the reason
URL is an alternate version	Indexed as an alternate of another canonical, for example an AMP or mobile or desktop variant

"URL is on Google" does not promise that the page shows for any query. It means nothing at the indexing stage stops it.

The Page indexing section, field by field

Expand Page indexing for the details. These fields answer nearly every indexing question.

Discovery

• Sitemaps: sitemaps in which Google saw this URL. "No referring sitemaps detected" can also mean the data has not been connected yet, so do not read too much into it for a day-old sitemap.
• Referring page: a page through which Google may have discovered the URL. It is an example, not a list. "None detected" for a page that has been live for a while hints at an orphan page.

Crawl

• Last crawl: date and time of the most recent crawl of the version in the index. Empty for URLs that were never crawled, as with "Discovered - currently not indexed".
• Crawled as: Googlebot smartphone or Googlebot desktop. Nearly always smartphone now.
• Crawl allowed? Whether robots.txt permitted the fetch.
• Page fetch: Successful, or a failure type: Soft 404, Not found (404), Blocked by robots.txt, Server error (5xx), Access forbidden (403), Redirect error and so on.
• Indexing allowed? "No: 'noindex' detected in 'robots' meta tag" or "in 'X-Robots-Tag' http header" tells you exactly where the noindex is.

Indexing

• User-declared canonical: the URL in your rel="canonical" tag or header. "None" if you did not set one.
• Google-selected canonical: the URL Google decided represents this content. "Inspected URL" means Google picked this one. If another URL is shown, that URL is the one that appears in search, and this one is treated as a duplicate.

A mismatch between those two lines is one of the most valuable things the tool can show you. Check what you declared with the Canonical Tag Checker, then read the canonical tags guide for why Google overrules canonicals.

View crawled page

Opens a side panel with the HTML Google stored at the last crawl and More info (HTTP response and page resources). For the indexed version there is no screenshot. That appears only in the live test. Search this HTML for a sentence from your main content. If it is missing, Google did not index that content, which on JavaScript-heavy sites is a regular finding.

Enhancements and experience

Below Page indexing, the tool lists what else it detected on the page: HTTPS, and any structured data types such as Breadcrumbs, FAQ, Product snippets, Review snippets or Videos. Each opens to show the detected items with errors (item invalid, no rich result) and warnings (optional fields missing, still eligible).

Only types that can produce Google rich results are listed. Schema.org types that Google has no feature for do not show up, which does not mean they are broken.

Test live URL

Click Test live URL at the top right. Google fetches and renders the page in real time, which takes up to a minute or two. You then get a second tab, Live test, next to Google index.

What the live test gives you:

• Whether the page can be indexed right now: fetchable, not blocked, no noindex.
• The rendered HTML, a screenshot, and More info: content type, HTTP response headers, page resources that could not be loaded, and JavaScript console messages.
• Structured data as it parses now.

What it does not give you:

The live test cannot tell you	Why
Whether the page will be indexed	Indexing involves duplicate detection and quality evaluation, which happen later
Which canonical Google will select	The live result shows only the user-declared canonical. Selection happens at indexing time
Sitemaps and referring pages	Those are index data
Whether there is a manual action or removal	Not tested live

So "URL is available to Google" in a live test means "no technical block". It is a necessary condition, not a verdict.

When to use which

Task	Use
Find out why a page is not indexed	Google index tab
Check whether a fix is live before asking for a recrawl	Live test
See whether Google renders your JavaScript content	Live test > View tested page > HTML and Screenshot
Find which canonical Google chose	Google index tab
Debug blocked resources or JS errors	Live test > More info
Check when Google last fetched the page	Google index tab

A note on the screenshot: it shows only the top part of the page, and some resources may be listed as "Other error" because the live test runs with tighter limits than real indexing. A handful of failed third-party resources is normal. Failed first-party scripts and stylesheets are worth a look.

Request indexing

The Request indexing button runs a quick live check and, if nothing blocks the page, adds the URL to a priority crawl queue.

What Google's help page says about it:

• There is a daily quota per property. Google does not publish the figure. When you hit it you see a quota exceeded message and have to wait until the next day.
• Requesting a recrawl does not guarantee indexing, or even immediate crawling.
• Requesting the same URL multiple times does not help.
• For many URLs, submit a sitemap instead.

Use it for: a new important page, a page where you just fixed a noindex or canonical mistake, a page with a major content update. Do not use it as a daily ritual for the whole site. More on the limits in request indexing limits.

The URL Inspection API

Everything in the Google index tab is also available through the Search Console API:

POST https://searchconsole.googleapis.com/v1/urlInspection/index:inspect

{
  "inspectionUrl": "https://www.example.com/page",
  "siteUrl": "sc-domain:example.com",
  "languageCode": "en-US"
}

The response carries verdict (PASS, PARTIAL, FAIL, NEUTRAL), coverageState (the same text as the Page indexing report, such as "Crawled - currently not indexed"), robotsTxtState, indexingState, pageFetchState, lastCrawlTime, googleCanonical, userCanonical, crawledAs, sitemap and referringUrls, plus rich results data.

Three facts to keep in mind:

1. Quota: 2,000 queries per day and 600 per minute, per property. The limit is shared by every user and app that inspects that property. A subfolder added as its own URL-prefix property has its own quota, which helps on large sites.
2. Indexed version only. The API has no live test and no Request indexing. It is read-only.
3. Any permission level works. Owner, full or restricted users of the property can call it. Without access you get a 403.

With 2,000 checks a day, a 10,000 URL site can be fully checked in five days. That is how TurboIndex tracks real index status for each URL in your sitemaps: it spends the daily inspection quota on URLs whose status is unknown or stale and records the coverage state over time. You can do the same with a script if you prefer. For a quick check of a small list, the Google Index Checker runs URL Inspection for up to 25 URLs of your site at once after a Google sign-in.

Troubleshooting with the tool: common patterns

"URL is not on Google: URL is unknown to Google." Google has never seen it. Check it is in the sitemap and linked internally. See URL is unknown to Google.

Last crawl is months old and the content changed. Google does not think the page changes. Update lastmod in the sitemap honestly, link to the page from fresher pages, and request indexing once.

Indexing allowed: No, and you cannot find the noindex. Look in the HTTP headers (X-Robots-Tag), then in the rendered HTML from a live test. Tag managers and JavaScript frameworks can inject it after load.

Page fetch: Failed, and it works in your browser. Something treats Googlebot differently: firewall, bot protection, geo blocking (Googlebot crawls mostly from US IP addresses), or rate limiting. Check server logs for the Googlebot request and its status code.

Google-selected canonical is another page. Compare the two pages. If they are near duplicates, either merge them or make them clearly different. If they are different languages or regions, check hreflang.

Live test passes, index tab still shows the old error. Expected. The index tab updates only after Google recrawls. Request indexing once and wait.

Mistakes to avoid

• Treating a passing live test as proof of indexing.
• Inspecting the wrong URL variant (with or without the trailing slash, http instead of https). Inspect the exact canonical URL.
• Requesting indexing before fixing the cause. The request fails, or succeeds and changes nothing.
• Judging a whole site from three inspected URLs. Use the Page indexing report for the big picture and the inspection tool for individual cases.