What is the URL Inspection tool?

It's a feature inside Google Search Console that shows how Google's systems see one specific URL on a property you've verified — whether it's indexed, when it was last crawled, which canonical Google selected, and whether any issues affect it.

Can I use URL Inspection on any website, or only my own?

Only on properties you've verified ownership of in Search Console. You cannot use it to inspect a competitor's URLs or any site you don't control — it requires verified access, unlike a public search-visibility checker.

Does URL Inspection show live, real-time data?

By default it shows the last crawled and indexed version, which can be out of date if you've changed the page since. Use the separate 'Test Live URL' action inside the tool to check how Google would see the page right now.

What's the difference between URL Inspection and the Page indexing report?

The Page indexing report gives you an aggregate, site-wide view — counts of indexed pages and the various 'not indexed' categories across your whole property. URL Inspection is the single-URL, detailed drill-down for one specific page.

What's the difference between URL Inspection and a public index checker?

URL Inspection reads Google's own indexing pipeline directly and requires verified property access. A public checker, like ProURLMonitor's Google Index Checker, has no login requirement and instead infers a signal from public search results — useful for a fast check on any URL, but not an authoritative substitute for URL Inspection on a site you own.

Does requesting indexing through URL Inspection guarantee my page gets indexed?

No. It asks Google to prioritize a recrawl and reconsider the URL, but Google still applies the same crawling and indexing decisions it always does. It's a nudge, not a guarantee, and there's a daily limit on how many requests you can submit.

Google URL Inspection Tool: How to Check Indexing in Search Console

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Quick Links: Google Indexing guide · How to check if a page is indexed · Crawled - Currently Not Indexed · Discovered - Currently Not Indexed · Google Index Checker

What the URL Inspection tool is

URL Inspection is the single-URL diagnostic feature inside Google Search Console. Paste any URL from a property you've verified ownership of, and it returns Google's own view of that page: whether it's indexed, when Googlebot last crawled it, which canonical URL Google selected, whether any indexing-blocking issue applies, and details about how the page was fetched and rendered.

This is meaningfully different from checking public search results. URL Inspection reads Google's internal indexing decision directly — it isn't inferring anything from a search query. That's also exactly why it only works for properties you've verified: Google won't hand that internal data over for a site you don't control.

What it can show you

Index status — whether the URL is indexed, and if not, which specific reason category applies (including statuses like Crawled - currently not indexed and Discovered - currently not indexed).
Last crawl date — when Googlebot most recently fetched the page.
User-declared canonical vs. Google-selected canonical — the canonical URL your page names, and the one Google actually chose to index, which are not always the same.
Indexing allowed — whether robots.txt or a page-level directive blocks indexing.
Crawled as — which Googlebot user agent (desktop or mobile) fetched the page.
Referring sitemaps — which sitemap(s), if any, list the URL.
Mobile usability and enhancement data, where applicable — structured data or other enhancement eligibility Google detected.

An important limitation: it's not always live

By default, URL Inspection shows the last crawled and indexed version of the page — not necessarily what's live right now. If you've made changes since Google's last visit, those changes won't show up in the standard report.

For that, use the tool's separate Test Live URL action, which fetches and evaluates the current live version on demand. This is the right step after you've made a fix and want to confirm it actually addresses the issue, rather than re-reading a stale snapshot.

Requesting indexing

After a live test (or directly from the inspection results), you can request indexing for the URL. This asks Google to prioritize a recrawl and reconsider the page — it does not guarantee the page will be indexed, and it's subject to a daily submission limit. It's most useful after a meaningful change: fixing a real blocker, substantially improving content, or correcting a canonical or noindex issue — not as a repeated nudge on a page you haven't actually changed.

URL Inspection vs. the Page indexing report

These are two different views inside Search Console, and it's easy to reach for the wrong one:

Page indexing report — an aggregate, site-wide view: how many URLs are indexed, and counts broken down by each "not indexed" reason across your entire property. Start here to see the scale of an issue.
URL Inspection — the detailed, single-URL drill-down. Use this once you know which specific URL you want to investigate.

Google Index Checker vs. URL Inspection

These solve related but genuinely different problems, and neither replaces the other:

	ProURLMonitor Google Index Checker	Search Console URL Inspection
Access	Public, no login	Requires verified property ownership
What it checks	Whether a URL appears in public search results (a `site:` query via Google Custom Search or SerpApi)	Google's actual indexing decision, read directly
Scope	Bulk — up to 25 URLs per check, for any site	One URL at a time, only for properties you control
Result detail	Appears indexed / Not found / Uncertain	Index status, last crawl, selected canonical, indexing eligibility, and more
Best for	A fast first look at any URL, including sites you don't own	The authoritative answer, plus the why, for your own site

Use the public checker when you want a quick signal — including for URLs on sites you don't manage. Use URL Inspection when the answer actually matters for a property you own, and especially when you need to know why a page isn't indexed rather than just whether it is.