How to See if Your Page Has Been Indexed on Google

Think your website’s (or a client’s website is) a big deal?

Not if Google can’t find it.

Let’s make sure your pages are indexed and ready to rank in search.

How to Check if a Page Is Indexed

You can check if a web page is indexed in a few different ways. We’ll start with the simplest method and then explore some more advanced options.

1. “site:” Search Operator

Want a quick and easy way to see if a page is indexed? The “site:” search operator is your go-to tool.

Here’s how to use it:

1. Type “site:” followed by your domain name. For example, if a website’s domain name is www.thisisatest.com, you’d type site:www.thisisatest.com into the search bar. To check if a specific page is indexed, add the page’s URL after your domain name. For example, site:www.thisisatest.com/blog/seo-tips.
2. Hit Enter, and Google will then display a list of pages from the website that are currently indexed.

FYI: While the “site:” operator is a handy tool, it’s not foolproof. Here are a few things to keep in mind:

• Google might not display every single indexed page from your site, especially if you have a large website.
• Unlike Google Search Console, the “site:” operator doesn’t give you insights into why a page might not be indexed or any potential errors.
• The results you see might not reflect the most up-to-date index status of your website.

For a more complete picture of a website’s indexing status, Google Search Console is the way to go.

2. Google Search Console

Google Search Console (GSC) is your one-stop shop for all things indexing. So, let’s fire it up and see if your page is on Google’s radar.

1. Log in using the Gmail account you use to manage your website. (Here’s a handy link to the platform)
2. From the navigation bar on the left, click URL Inspection.
3. Type in the URL you’d like to inspect and hit enter.
4. The URL Inspection tool will then do its thing and show you whether or not the web page is indexed in Google.

The URL Inspection tool will work its magic and show you whether or not the web page is indexed in Google. If it’s all good, you’ll see a green tick and a message saying, “URL is on Google.”  If not, you’ll see a warning sign and a message saying, “URL is not on Google.”

To see why the web page isn’t indexed, hit the TEST LIVE URL button. This will run a live test and reveal any issues that might be preventing Google from indexing your page. In this case, GSC tells me that there is a DNS error: Host unknown. This makes sense, I canceled the hosting for this website a few months back.

Other Tools and Methods

If you’re managing a larger website or are a more “down and dirty into the trenches” type, these options might be more up your alley.

Screaming Frog

Another method is to lean on our old friend, Screaming Frog. Here’s what you’ll need to carry this out:

1. Screaming Frog—here’s a download link.
2. Access to a website through GSC (FYI: because of the GSC API limit, you’ll only be able to check the status of 2,000 pages/day).

And here’s how to do it:

1. Download, install, and open Screaming Frog.
2. From the dashboard, click Configuration > API Access > Google Search Console.
3. From the pop-up window, select Connect to New Account and sign in using the email account you use to manage the website through GSC. A new confirmation message, “Received verification code.” will appear after choosing the account connected to the GSC account, confirming that the GSC account has been connected to Screaming Frog. Go ahead and close it.
4. Go back to Screaming Frog, and to confirm everything worked on this side of the equation, you’ll see the website’s domain name within the Available Properties dropdown menu. Select it.
5. In the same window, click the URL Inspection tab, select Enable URL Inspection, and then click OK to complete the configuration of GSC’s API with Screaming Frog.
6. You can now go ahead and do a complete site crawl, or if you want to do a more targeted crawl (not a bad idea because of GSC’s daily crawl limit), use the list mode. Do this by selecting Mode > List from the menu bar.
7. Then, select Upload > Enter Manually… option.
8. Paste the URLs you wish to check into the URL List window (I’ve chosen four random pages from our blog) and click Next. Screaming Frog will then read the URLs. Once done, click Ok. The software will go ahead and crawl these pages.
9. Click on the dropdown icon and select Search Console.
10. Here, you’ll see a column on the right-hand side called Indexability. If a page is indexable, the Indexability column will label the page “Indexable.” The opposite is true for an unindexable page. The tool will label a page “Non-indexable” if this is the case.

More Third-Party Index Tools

Aside from Screaming Frog, there are several third-party index checkers available online. A quick Google search will reveal a bunch of options.

However, keep in mind that these tools might not be as accurate or comprehensive as Google Search Console or Screaming Frog. They might also limit the number of pages you can check or the depth of information they provide.

Pro Tip: Always use a combination of tools and methods to get a complete picture of your website’s indexing status. Don’t rely solely on one tool or metric, and always double-check your findings with Google Search Console.

Common Reasons Why Pages Aren’t Indexed (and How to Fix Them)

So, you’ve checked your page’s index status, and it’s not looking good. Your page is MIA in Google’s search results. Don’t panic just yet!

Let’s investigate the common culprits behind indexing issues.

1. Noindex Tags and Directives

Noindex tags and directives are like a “Do Not Disturb” sign for your web pages. They’ll literally tell search engines, “Hey, don’t index this page!” The complete opposite of what we’re trying to achieve here.

Where to find them:

• Meta robots tags live in the <head> section of your webpage’s HTML code. Look for something like <meta name=”robots” content=”noindex”>.
• X-Robots-Tags are HTTP headers that also tell search engines not to index a page. You’ll need to check your server settings or website configuration to find this one.

The fix: If you want your page to be indexed, simply remove the noindex tag or directive.

2. Robots.txt Blocking

Robots.txt files tell search engine bots which pages they can and cannot access. If a page is blocked by robots.txt, Googlebot won’t (or, more accurately, shouldn’t) be able to crawl it, let alone index it.

How to check:

• Enter your domain name into your browser’s search bar and tack “robots.txt” onto the end of it. For example, “loganix.com/robots.txt”
• Look for lines that include “Disallow:” followed by the URL of your page or a directory containing your page.

The fix: This file contains instructions for search engine bots, telling them which pages or sections of your website they are allowed to crawl and index. By checking this file, you can identify and remove any “Disallow:” directives that are preventing Googlebot from accessing your page.

3. Duplicate Content

Google isn’t a fan of duplicate content. It’s like seeing double—confusing and not very helpful. If you have multiple pages with similar or identical content, Google might only index one of them or even worse, penalize your site for trying to game its search algorithms.

How to check:

• Use a plagiarism checker to identify duplicate content on your site.
• Search for specific phrases from your page in Google to see if similar pages appear in the results.

The fix:

• Rewrite duplicate content and make each page unique and valuable. Pretty straightforward, right?
• You could also merge pages with similar content into one comprehensive page.
• Or, use canonical tags. They tell Google which version of a page is the original and should be indexed.

4. Low-quality or Thin Content

Google claims it wants to serve up the best content to its users (debatable, for sure). If your page is thin on information, poorly written, or you’re delving into the dark arts of black hat SEO, Google might not think it’s worthy of a spot in its index.

The fix:

• Add more valuable content by expanding on topics, providing more details, and answering your audience’s questions.
• Improve readability by using headings, bullet points, and visuals to make your content easy to scan and digest.
• Make sure your content is relevant to the keywords you’re targeting.

5. Technical Issues

Sometimes, technical gremlins can sabotage your indexing efforts.

Common culprits:

• Slow page speed. Google doesn’t like to keep its users waiting.
• Broken links. If the road to a web page is blocked, Google’s bots won’t be able to discover and index it.

The fix:

• Optimize your website’s code and structure.
• Use tools like Google PageSpeed Insights to identify and resolve performance issues.
• Regularly check for and fix broken links.

Still can’t find the solution? Our “Why isn’t my website showing up on Google” guide will help you out, for sure.

How Google Discovers and Indexes Your Pages

So you can really wrap your head around this thing, let’s take a look at how Google goes about indexing:

Crawling: The Discovery Phase

Google’s bots, affectionately known as “spiders” or “crawlers,” are like little Roomba robots, diligently hoovering up any new web pages they can find. Meaning that they follow links, find websites, and collect information about each page they encounter.

These bots rely on various signals to find a website’s pages:

• Internal links within a website and backlinks from other sites act as pathways, guiding the crawlers to your valuable content.
• An XML sitemap explicitly lists the URLs of a website’s pages, ensuring crawlers are aware of their existence, even those not easily found through regular crawling.
• You can manually submit URLs to Google through GSC, giving them a heads-up about your fresh content.

Once a page is crawled, Google’s rendering engine kicks in. It processes the page’s code, including HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, to understand its content and structure. This is where technical SEO plays a role—a well-optimized site with clean code and fast loading times makes it easier for Google to render and understand your pages.

Next comes indexing. Google analyzes the rendered content, extracts relevant information (keywords, topics, entities), and stores it in its massive index—a searchable database of all the web pages it has crawled and deemed worthy of inclusion.

Ranking: The Algorithm’s Verdict

Once a page is indexed, it’s eligible to appear in search results. However, its position in those results depends on a complex algorithm that considers hundreds of factors, including:

• Relevance: How well the page’s content matches the user’s search query.
• Authority: The overall credibility and trustworthiness of the website are based on factors like backlinks and domain age.
• User Experience: How user-friendly the page is, considering factors like page speed, mobile-friendliness, and engagement metrics.

Conclusion and Next Steps

Phew, we’ve covered quite a bit, no doubt. But now you’re armed with the knowledge to ensure a website’s pages get the visibility they deserve.

Just remember, getting indexed is just the first step in the SEO marathon. It’s like getting your foot in the door—now you need to wow the crowd and climb those rankings.

That’s where Loganix comes in.

We’re waiting in the wings, ready to help you tackle those technical hurdles, optimize your content, and build a backlink profile that’ll make your competitors weep with envy.

🚀 Head over to our SEO services page, and let’s start delivering serious results. 🚀