Can my page be indexed?
Paste a page address. We read everything a search engine checks before indexing it, in the order it does so, and tell you whether Google and Bing can index it and, if not, what stands in the way. Whether it is already indexed is for Search Console to say.
How to read this result
A page gets into a search engine by passing five checks, always in the same order. The first one that fails decides, which is why a tool that looks at only one of them is so often wrong.
| Order | What the search engine checks | What blocks |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | The site's robots.txt | a Disallow rule matching the address, or a server error on the file itself |
| 2 | The page's HTTP status | 404, 410, 500 and any other error; a redirect hands the check over to the landing page |
| 3 | The X-Robots-Tag header | noindex or none, for all crawlers or for this one |
| 4 | The meta robots tag | noindex or none, in robots, googlebot or bingbot |
| 5 | The canonical | another address named as the right one: the search engine indexes that one instead |
The most common trap: robots.txt and noindex together
To remove a page from results, many people add a noindex and, to be safe, also disallow it in robots.txt. The search engine is then no longer allowed to download the page, never sees the noindex, and may keep showing the address indefinitely. The right move is the opposite: leave the page crawlable, with its noindex, until it drops out.
"Nothing prevents indexing" does not mean "indexed"
This tool checks technical obstacles. It does not know whether Google chose to keep the page: a search engine also drops pages that are too thin, too close to another one, or that no link leads it to. For that answer, only Search Console is authoritative.
Search Console reasons, and what this tool checks
The Search Console “Page indexing” report files every excluded address under a reason. The ones with a technical cause can be checked here, without access to the account, and the verdict above tells you whether the cause is still there:
| Reason shown in Search Console | What this tool checks |
|---|---|
| Excluded by ‘noindex’ tag, or URL marked ‘noindex’ | the meta robots tag and the X-Robots-Tag header, for Googlebot and for Bingbot |
| URL blocked by robots.txt | the robots.txt rule that matches the address, group by group |
| Indexed, though blocked by robots.txt | the same block: Google knows the address from links but is not allowed to read it |
| Alternate page with proper canonical tag | the canonical, and the state of the page it points to |
| Page with redirect | every hop of the chain, down to the final page |
| Not found (404), Server error (5xx) | the page's HTTP status |
| Crawled - currently not indexed; Discovered - currently not indexed | nothing technical: it is the search engine's decision. If the tool finds no obstacle, the cause lies in the content or in internal links. |
What this tool does not do
- It does not tell you whether the page is actually indexed: it tells you whether something prevents it. Only Search Console knows the answer.
- It does not see what the page becomes once JavaScript runs: a page built by a script is flagged, not rendered.
- It does not check whether the page is in the sitemap: reading it in full would cost dozens of requests for a checkbox.
Frequently asked questions
My page is allowed everywhere but does not show up in Google. Why?
Because being allowed is not enough. Google may not have discovered it yet (no link points to it, it is not in the sitemap), may have judged it too close to another page, or too thin to keep. Search Console, under Pages, tells you which of these applies.
What is the difference between robots.txt and noindex?
robots.txt forbids reading the page; noindex forbids keeping it in results. For a noindex to work, the search engine must be able to read the page: the two do not combine.
What is the X-Robots-Tag header?
An indexing instruction sent by the server along with the page, instead of being written inside it. It does exactly what a meta robots tag does, but does not show when you view the source code: that is why a noindex left over from staging so often survives launch.
Does Google always follow the canonical?
No, it is a hint, not an order. Google almost always follows it when it is consistent, and ignores it when it points to a page in error, a noindexed page or an unrelated page. A self-referencing canonical costs nothing and removes any ambiguity.
How do I know whether my page is actually indexed by Google?
The official answer is in Search Console: paste the address into the URL inspection bar at the top of the screen, and it tells you whether the page is in the index and, if not, why. Without access to the account, a site: search followed by the exact address gives a hint: if the page shows up, it is indexed; if it does not, that proves nothing. This tool answers the question before that one: if it is not there, does a technical obstacle keep it out?
What does “Crawled - currently not indexed” mean?
That Google read the page and chose not to keep it, for now. No technical obstacle is involved: it is a judgement on the page, most often content that is too thin, too close to another page, or reached by too few internal links. “Discovered - currently not indexed” means Google knows the address but has not read it yet. In both cases, if this tool finds no obstacle, work on the content and the internal linking, not on the technical side.
How do I ask Google to index my page?
In Search Console, inspect the address and click “Request indexing”: Google adds it to its crawl queue, without promising to keep it. For Bing, Bing Webmaster Tools lets you submit addresses, and the IndexNow protocol does it automatically from most CMSs. Check here first that nothing blocks the page: requesting indexing for a page with a noindex achieves nothing.
The other tools
Test the robots.txt
Whether the site robots.txt allows this address to be crawled.
Robots.txt generator
A robots.txt written for your site, AI crawlers included, tested before it goes live.
Google and social media preview
Your title and description as Google, Bing, Facebook, LinkedIn, X and WhatsApp will show them, measured in pixels.
Find out the day a page becomes unindexable
On the Business plan, Expansel re-reads your pages on every monitoring pass and emails you the day a deployment adds a noindex, closes the robots.txt, changes the canonical or removes the title.