URL Inspection — Check Any Page in Google Search Console
What is URL Inspection?
URL Inspection is the tool inside Google Search Console that reports, for a single address, everything Google currently knows about it: whether it is indexed, when Googlebot last crawled it, which canonical was selected, and what the page looks like after rendering.
It is the fastest way to turn a guess ("it probably isn't indexed because of the canonical") into a reading from Google's own system. The tool only works for URLs inside a verified property — you cannot inspect a competitor's site with it.
How to use it
- Paste the full URL into the search bar at the top of Search Console and hit enter.
- Read the indexed data — this is a snapshot from the last time Google processed the page, not a live reading.
- Click Test live URL to have Googlebot fetch the page right now. The live test bypasses the index and shows the current state of the server.
- Inside the live test, open View tested page: rendered HTML, the screenshot, and More info, where blocked resources and JavaScript console messages are listed.
- If the page is genuinely ready and Google does not know about it, use Request indexing.
The split between the indexed view and the live test is the whole point of the tool. The first answers "what does Google have on file," the second answers "what would Google see if it came back now."
What the report shows
- Index status — one of three states: the URL is on Google, is not on Google, or is on Google with issues
- Discovery — whether the URL was found through the sitemap, a referring page, or both
- Last crawl date and the crawler used (smartphone or desktop), which ties directly into crawl budget
- User-declared canonical and Google-selected canonical — when the two differ, you are looking at a ready-made canonical diagnosis
- Crawl and index permissions — whether robots.txt allows the crawler and whether a noindex tag is present
- Rendered version — the HTML after scripts execute, which is decisive for JavaScript SEO
- Enhancements — detected structured data, mobile usability, and any errors found
How to read the answers
The messages you will see most often, and what they actually mean:
- "Discovered — currently not indexed" — Google knows the URL but has not crawled it yet. Usually a crawl-priority question, not a page defect.
- "Crawled — currently not indexed" — the crawler came, and what it found was not compelling enough. The fix is the page itself, not another submission.
- "Duplicate, Google chose different canonical than user" — your canonical signals contradict each other. Check the
link rel="canonical"tag, internal links, and the sitemap. - "Alternate page with proper canonical tag" — a healthy state; the page deliberately points at another URL as the primary one.
- "Blocked by robots.txt" or "Excluded by noindex tag" — a decision made on your side, not Google's.
If the live test looks clean while the indexed data is stale, the real problem is indexing and crawl frequency rather than the page content.
What the tool does not do
- It does not guarantee indexing. Request indexing puts the URL in a queue and nothing more — Google may still skip the page, and the daily submission quota is limited. Resubmitting the same URL repeatedly does not speed anything up.
- It does not replace a sitemap. A sitemap is the bulk channel for the whole site; URL Inspection handles one address at a time.
- It is not the Indexing API. That programmatic interface is intended for job postings and livestreams; URL Inspection has its own API, but it is read-only and cannot submit anything.
- It does not show rankings or traffic — that is what the performance report is for.
Example
An illustrative example: a new blog post never shows up in results. The indexed view says "Discovered — currently not indexed," so nothing is blocking it. The live test, however, reveals that the canonical points at the category page — the template was injecting the wrong tag. Once fixed and resubmitted, the crawler returns and the Google-selected canonical finally matches the declared one.
Need help diagnosing indexing problems? Book a free consultation — we will walk through your Search Console data together.
Related terms
- Google Search Console — the platform URL Inspection lives in
- Indexing — the process whose status the tool reports
- Canonical URL — the most common source of discrepancies in the report
- Indexing API — a separate, much narrower submission channel
- Rendering — why the rendered version can differ from the source
- How to speed up Google indexing — the broader guide