How to Check If Your Website Is Indexed by Google
If a page isn't indexed, it can't rank. Here's how to check indexing for one page or your whole site, what the common 'not indexed' reasons mean, and how to fix them.
Key takeaways
- URL Inspection in Search Console is the reliable way to check a single page.
- The Page indexing report shows indexed and non-indexed pages and the reasons.
- A site: search is a rough check only, not an accurate count.
- 'Crawled – currently not indexed' usually points to quality or duplication; 'Discovered' usually to crawling or priority.
Google can only rank pages it has indexed: crawled, processed and stored in its index. If important pages aren’t indexed, nothing else in SEO matters for them.
Check a single page
In Search Console, paste the URL into the URL Inspection bar at the top:
- “URL is on Google”: indexed
- “URL is not on Google”: not indexed, with a reason
- Test live URL: checks the current version for problems
- Request indexing: asks Google to crawl it (useful for new or updated pages, not a guarantee)
Check your whole site
Indexing → Pages shows how many pages are indexed and not indexed, grouped by reason. Click a reason to see example URLs.
A site:yourdomain.com search gives a rough idea, but the count is an estimate. Don’t rely on it.
Common “not indexed” reasons
| Reason | What it usually means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Excluded by ‘noindex’ tag | You told Google not to index it | Remove noindex if the page should rank |
| Blocked by robots.txt | Google can’t crawl it | Unblock if needed (robots.txt) |
| Alternate page with proper canonical | Duplicate pointing to another URL | Usually fine |
| Duplicate, Google chose different canonical | Google thinks another URL is the main one | Check canonicals and internal links |
| Not found (404) | The page doesn’t exist | Fix links or redirect (broken links) |
| Page with redirect | URL redirects elsewhere | Fine if intended; update links |
| Crawled – currently not indexed | Google saw it and chose not to index it | Improve quality and uniqueness; strengthen internal links |
| Discovered – currently not indexed | Google knows the URL but hasn’t crawled it | Improve internal linking; check crawl budget and server speed |
| Soft 404 | Page looks empty or like an error | Add real content or return a proper 404 |
Not every page should be indexed
Tag archives, filtered URLs, thank-you pages and internal search results often shouldn’t be. Focus on making sure your important pages are indexed.
Speeding up indexing of new pages
- Link to new pages from relevant existing pages and your homepage/blog
- Include them in your XML sitemap
- Use URL Inspection → Request indexing for key pages
- Make sure they’re unique and genuinely useful
Indexing is the first check in our technical SEO audit.