Index checker
Index checker: has Google indexed your pages?
A page being live does not mean it can be found on Google. An index check shows which URLs are in Google’s index and which are not, and tells you where to start.
WeRankLab index checker
- Per submission
- Up to 1,000 URLs
- Result
- Indexed or not
- Search engines
- Google and Brave Search
- Access
- No Search Console needed
Figures are the features WeRankLab publishes on its product page.
Why check index status?
A page that is not in the index never appears in search results, and brings no traffic however well it is optimised. That makes index status the most basic checkpoint in SEO work. Regular checks are especially useful when you want to:
- See whether newly published pages have made it into the index.
- Find out whether pages that suddenly lost traffic are still indexed.
- Confirm new addresses are indexed after a site move or URL structure change.
- Check whether pages linking to you are indexed (a link on a page that isn’t indexed is usually invisible to Google).
- Report index status to a client or your team as a list.
Ways to check index status
| Method | Pros | Cons |
|---|---|---|
| site: search | Quick and free; gives a rough idea. | Results can be incomplete and inconsistent; not reliable for verifying individual URLs. |
| URL Inspection (Search Console) | Google’s own data, including the reason. | One URL at a time, and only for sites you own. |
| Pages report (Search Console) | Shows the overall picture and the reasons pages are excluded. | Data updates with a delay; the example URL list is limited. |
| Bulk index checker | Checks hundreds of URLs at once and works on pages you don’t own. | Doesn’t show the reason; pair it with Search Console for diagnosis. |
Why a site: search can mislead
The site: operator is a search query, not an index report. Google may not show every result for it, and the same query can return different counts at different times. To see for certain that a page is indexed, use URL Inspection or a checker that works URL by URL.
Bulk checking with WeRankLab
- 01
Paste your URLs
One address per line, up to 1,000 at a time. Check the pages in your sitemap or the ones you just published.
- 02
See the results
Indexed or not indexed, for each URL. Google and Brave Search results are shown separately.
- 03
Send the missing ones
Send pages that aren’t indexed for a crawl request from the same dashboard, then check again a few days later.
What to do with the results
An index check answers “what”; for “why” you need Search Console on your own site. For each URL that isn’t indexed, work through this order:
- Open URL Inspection and see what Google says about the page: does it not know it, has it discovered but not crawled it, or crawled but not indexed it?
- Remove technical blockers: noindex, robots.txt, canonical, redirects and error statuses. Details are in the diagnosis guide.
- Strengthen discovery: add internal links from related pages and make sure the page is in your sitemap.
- Assess the content: is the page a copy of another page, and is it original and useful enough? For “Crawled” pages this is usually the real issue.
- Send it for crawling and check again: after the fixes, submit the page and measure again a few days later.
If the status is “Discovered – currently not indexed”, this guide walks you through it; for “Crawled – currently not indexed”, see this one.
Index checker questions
How can I check for free whether a page is indexed by Google?
For your own site, the URL Inspection tool in Search Console is free and the most reliable option. For a quick idea you can search “site:yourdomain.com/page”, but the result is not definitive.
Can I check pages I don’t own?
Search Console only works for sites you have verified. For URLs you can’t access, such as pages linking to you or competitor pages, you can use a bulk index checker.
The page was indexed yesterday and isn’t today. Why?
Google updates its index continuously. A noindex being added, a canonical change, server errors, the content being merged with another page, or Google no longer finding the page valuable enough can all cause this. Check the current status and reason with URL Inspection.
How often should I check?
For new pages, checking a few days after publishing and again a week or two later is enough. Checking key pages and sections that lost traffic at regular intervals helps you catch problems early.