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.