How to check if a page is indexed by Google (and why site: lies)
URL Inspection in Search Console is the reliable check: URL is on Google or not, with the reason. A site: search shows only a partial sample.
LLaunchScaler·Published ·7 min read
To check if a page is indexed by Google, paste its URL into the URL Inspection tool in Search Console: "URL is on Google" means it is indexed, and "URL is not on Google" means it is not, with the reason listed underneath. The Page indexing report shows the same picture across the whole site, and a site: search is the least reliable of the three, because Google says it does not return every indexed URL.
The three methods differ in what they can prove, and that decides when to use each one.
Which method is most reliable?
URL Inspection, then the Page indexing report, then a search on Google itself. URL Inspection reads Google's own record for one URL, the Page indexing report summarises those records for the site, and a site: query shows a sample of what Google chooses to serve. The table compares them.
Rank
Method
What it tells you
Limits
1
URL Inspection (Search Console)
Whether one URL is in Google's index, and why not if it isn't
Needs a verified property; daily inspection limit per property
2
Page indexing report (Search Console)
How many URLs are indexed or not, grouped by reason
Example lists stop at 1,000 URLs; each status reflects Google's last crawl, not your live page
Questions, answered
What people ask about this
01
How do I check if a page is indexed by Google?
Paste the URL into the URL Inspection tool in Google Search Console. It says URL is on Google if the page is indexed, or URL is not on Google with the reason in the Page indexing section.
02
Is the site: search accurate for checking indexing?
A missing result proves nothing; site: is not a complete list
The cached copy of a page, once a popular fourth method, is gone; more on that below.
How do you check one page with URL Inspection?
Open the property in Search Console, paste the full URL into the inspection bar at the top, and read the verdict. Google's help defines them: "URL is on Google means that the URL is eligible to appear in Search results," and "URL is not on Google means that the URL can't appear in Search results." The Page indexing section below the verdict gives the reason and the last crawl date.
Select the property that contains the URL. A URL-prefix property only covers URLs that start with its exact prefix, including https:// and any www.
Paste the complete URL, including https://, into the bar at the top of Search Console and press Enter.
Read the verdict at the top.
Expand Page indexing to see the reason, Last crawl, and the User-declared and Google-selected canonical.
If you changed the page since the last crawl, click Test live URL to check the current version.
The possible verdicts:
Verdict
Meaning
URL is on Google
Indexed and eligible to appear in results
URL is on Google, but has issues
Indexed, with a problem in something like structured data
URL is not on Google
Not indexed; the Page indexing section says why
URL is an alternate version
An AMP page whose canonical non-AMP page is the indexed one
Two caveats from Google's help. "URL is on Google" means eligible, not guaranteed to show, since the tool "doesn't take into account all requirements for appearing on Google." And the indexed result is not live: it shows "the most recently indexed version of a page." If the verdict is not on Google, the URL is not on Google guide explains each reason.
How do you check many pages at once?
Use the Page indexing report for patterns and the URL Inspection API for exact answers at scale. The report groups every known URL into indexed and not indexed, with a reason per group, which is how you spot a template or rule affecting hundreds of pages. The API returns the indexed status Google holds for a URL, one URL per call.
In the report (Indexing, then Pages):
Read the indexed and not-indexed totals in the chart.
Set the sitemap filter to "All submitted pages" to see only the URLs you asked Google to index.
Open each reason in the "Why pages aren't indexed" table and read its example URLs.
Click "View data about indexed pages" for a sample of up to 1,000 indexed URLs.
The report has limits worth knowing. Google says the example lists are "limited to 1,000 items, and isn't guaranteed to show all URLs in a given status," and "you can't search or filter by URL in the Page indexing report." The page indexing report guide covers every reason in it.
For exact per-URL answers in bulk, the Search Console URL Inspection API (POST https://searchconsole.googleapis.com/v1/urlInspection/index:inspect) returns the indexed status of a URL. Google documents its quota as 2,000 queries per day and 600 per minute per site. It reports "only the status of the version in the Google index"; it cannot run a live test.
Why can't you trust a site: search?
Because Google designed it for searchers, not site owners, and says so. Its documentation states that "the site: operator doesn't necessarily return all the URLs that are indexed under the prefix specified in the query," and that for site:example.com "the list of URLs returned is not always exhaustive. Bigger sites shouldn't expect to see all their URLs in the results."
That makes site: useful in one direction only:
If a URL shows up in a site: search, it is indexed and being served.
If it does not show up, you have learned nothing. Google's advice for that case: "use the URL Inspection tool to make sure the URL can be indexed."
Three more quirks from the same page. A site: query without search terms "doesn't rank the results," so the order is "relatively random" apart from short URLs near the top. The exact form matters: "site:https://www.example.com doesn't return the same results as site:https://example.com/." And a more specific prefix "may yield more results than broader prefixes," so site:example.com/blog/ can list pages that site:example.com leaves out.
Searching for the exact URL is the one search that Google's URL Inspection help endorses: "For a definitive test to see if your URL is on Google, search for your URL on Google." Treat a match as confirmation it is served; treat no match as a reason to inspect the URL, not as proof it is missing.
Can you still check Google's cached copy?
No. Google removed its documentation for the cache: search operator on September 24, 2024, and gave the reason in its documentation update log: "The cache: search operator no longer works in Google Search." Its robots meta tag documentation now says "the cached link feature no longer exists."
What replaces it for site owners is URL Inspection. On the indexed result, View crawled page shows the HTML Google stored, the HTTP response and more; on a live test, View tested page adds a screenshot of how Google renders the page now. It shows Google's own fetch of your page rather than a snapshot built for searchers.
How do you check if a page is indexed in Bing?
Use URL Inspection in Bing Webmaster Tools. Bing's help says it shows "crawling issues, index status, SEO errors and markup info," with an Index card that covers "when and where the URL was discovered, crawled, and indexed." A Live URL tab lets you "see exactly what the Bingbot sees while downloading a page from your site."
Add and verify the site in Bing Webmaster Tools; importing it from Google Search Console is the fastest way.
Open URL Inspection and enter the URL, or pick one of your last 10 inspections.
Read the Index card. If the URL is not indexed, it shows the error "along with required actions."
After fixing, request indexing from the same screen, which Bing says depends on "the availability of URL submission quota for the day."
Check how long it has been and what URL Inspection says. A page published this week that shows "URL is unknown to Google" may simply be waiting: Google's help says "indexing typically takes a few days" after you request it. A page that stays not on Google for weeks, or shows a reason such as noindex or a robots.txt block, needs a fix, not more waiting.
Read the reason in the Page indexing section of URL Inspection.
If it is unknown to Google, link it from an indexed page, add it to your sitemap and click Request indexing.
If a noindex, robots.txt rule, redirect or error is named, fix that first, then run Test live URL.
If it was crawled and not indexed, improve or consolidate the page rather than requesting again.
URL Inspection tells you Google's verdict; it helps to know what your page sends before that verdict is reached. Run the free scan on LaunchScaler: give it the URL, no account needed, and it runs 156 checks across 6 of its 7 categories at no cost. Its search checks read the signals that keep a page out of the index: a noindex in the meta robots tag or X-Robots-Tag header, a robots.txt rule blocking the page, a canonical pointing at another or broken URL, a soft 404, and main content that only appears after JavaScript runs. Fix what it flags, then confirm the result in URL Inspection.
Only in one direction. If a URL appears in a site: search, it is indexed. If it does not appear, that proves nothing, because Google says the site: operator doesn't necessarily return all the URLs that are indexed.
03
How do I check if my whole website is indexed?
Open the Page indexing report in Search Console. It counts indexed and not-indexed URLs and gives a reason for each group, though its example lists stop at 1,000 URLs and are not complete.
04
Can I still use the cache: operator to check a page?
No. Google removed its documentation for the cache: operator in September 2024 because it no longer works in Google Search, and its robots meta tag documentation says the cached link feature no longer exists.
05
How do I check if a page is indexed in Bing?
Use the URL Inspection tool in Bing Webmaster Tools. Its Index card shows the URL's index status and when it was discovered, crawled and indexed, and its Live URL tab shows what Bingbot sees now.
Add a Domain property, verify it with a DNS TXT record, submit your sitemap, inspect the homepage, then read three reports in week one. The full setup.
Google indexed the URL from links without reading it, because robots.txt blocks the crawl. Unblock it and add noindex to drop it, or unblock it to rank it.
