Free crawlability check
Indexability Checker: can search engines index this page?
A page can be blocked from the index in four places: the status code, a noindex directive, robots.txt and the canonical link. Check all four at once and see exactly which one is the problem.
Check indexability
Enter the address of the page that is missing from search results.
Why use the Indexability Checker
Header and tag
noindex is looked for in the meta robots tag and in the X-Robots-Tag response header, where it is easy to miss.
Status after redirects
The final status code is what counts. A page that redirects to a 404 is not indexable.
Canonical target
A canonical that points at another url asks search engines to index that url instead.
robots.txt rules
The rule that blocks the path is quoted, so you know which line to change.
When to use the Indexability Checker
Page not in Google
The first thing to check when a page never shows up in search results.
After going live
Development sites often ship with noindex. Confirm it is gone.
Plugin conflicts
Two SEO plugins can each add directives. See what the page actually sends.
Headless and CDN setups
Edge rules sometimes add X-Robots-Tag to every response. Catch it.
Duplicate content
Confirm which version of a page is marked canonical before consolidating.
Client questions
Answer "why is my page not on Google" with evidence rather than guesses.
Understanding Indexability
The four gates of indexing
- 1Status code. Only pages that end in HTTP 200 are indexed. 4xx and 5xx pages drop out.
- 2robots.txt. A disallowed page is not crawled, so its content and its noindex cannot be read.
- 3noindex. A meta robots tag or an X-Robots-Tag header with noindex removes the page from results.
- 4Canonical. A canonical pointing elsewhere asks search engines to index the other url.
Why noindex and Disallow do not mix
If robots.txt blocks a page, crawlers never fetch it and never see its noindex tag. The page can then stay in the index from links alone. To remove a page, allow crawling and serve noindex until it has dropped out.
Indexable is not indexed
Passing these checks means nothing technical stops indexing. Search engines still decide whether a page is worth indexing, based on its quality and how many other pages say the same thing. Search Console shows what Google actually decided.
Privacy, safety and limits
The check runs on Aback servers as AbackAuditBot. It sends ordinary GET and HEAD requests, never a cookie, a password or a form, and it never changes anything on the site.
The result is stored as a report that anyone with its link can open, and it is deleted after 30 days. Do not check addresses that carry secrets in the path or the query string.
Related tools and guides
Frequently asked questions
Why is my page not on Google?
Start with the four technical gates this checker tests. If they all pass, the page may be new, may not be linked from anywhere, or may be judged too similar to other pages. Search Console's url inspection tells you what Google decided.
What is X-Robots-Tag?
An HTTP response header that carries the same directives as the meta robots tag. It works for PDFs and images too, and it is often added by server or CDN rules without anyone noticing.
Does nofollow stop indexing?
No. nofollow asks crawlers not to follow the links on the page. Only noindex keeps the page itself out of the index.
Is a canonical to another page a problem?
Only if it is a mistake. Pointing duplicates at one canonical url is the right thing to do. Pointing a unique page at the home page is a common bug.
Does the checker read directives for Googlebot only?
It reports the generic robots directives and the googlebot specific ones it finds in the page.
How long does it take to get indexed after a fix?
From a few days to a few weeks. Request indexing in Search Console to speed it up for important pages.
Can AI assistants find a noindex page?
Assistants that use a search index will usually not show it. Assistants that fetch a page on request may still read it, because noindex is about search results, not access.