URL Inspection tool

What the URL Inspection tool returns

For any URL you query, the report shows:

• Coverage status — Indexed, Excluded, or Error
• Page indexing — submitted via sitemap? discovered through links?
• Canonical URLs — the canonical you declared vs the canonical Google chose
• Last crawled — date, user agent (mobile vs desktop)
• HTTP response — 200, 404, 301, etc.
• Mobile usability — passes / fails for mobile rendering
• Rich results — which schema types Google detected and any errors
• Page resources — JS, CSS, image fetch status during render

Two views: indexed page vs live page

• Indexed page — what Google currently has in its index (potentially stale)
• Live page (button: “Test live URL”) — what Google sees if it crawls the page right now

If the two diverge significantly, Google’s index is behind. Common cause: rapid recent changes that haven’t been recrawled.

When to use URL Inspection

The high-value use cases:

1. “Why isn’t this URL indexed?” — the tool tells you exactly which exclusion reason
2. “Did Google see my recent change?” — Test live URL compares index vs current
3. “Did my canonical work?” — shows canonical-Google-chose vs canonical-you-declared
4. “Are my rich results validating?” — schema validation in context
5. “Is JavaScript content rendering?” — Rendered HTML view shows post-render DOM

Request Indexing button

After fixing an issue, the tool offers a “Request Indexing” button. This adds the URL to Google’s crawl queue. Limits:

• Quota of ~10 requests per day per Search Console property
• Doesn’t guarantee indexing (Google still applies quality filters)
• Can be 1-7 days before recrawl actually happens

For large-scale reindex needs (e.g., 1000+ URLs after a migration), the Indexing API is more efficient.

Common patterns we see

In typical audit work, URL Inspection reveals:

• Pages declared canonical but Google chose a different URL (~ canonical conflict)
• Pages marked indexed but with “Submitted URL not selected as canonical” — Google demoted to non-canonical
• Pages with 200 OK server response but treated as soft 404 — content too thin
• Mobile-usability failures on responsive sites (CSS overrides causing layout breaks)
• Schema validation errors that the Rich Results Test didn’t surface

The tool is the truth-teller for indexation debugging. Anything else is inference.

API access

The Search Console URL Inspection API allows programmatic checks — useful for sitewide audits at scale. We use it in our nightly Resocial monitoring to flag indexation regressions automatically.

Resocial perspective

URL Inspection is one of our daily-use tools for client troubleshooting. The “canonical Google chose vs declared” comparison is the single most valuable signal — it reveals where Google disagrees with your canonical declarations. Our Technical SEO service integrates this into the continuous-audit workflow.