Summary: The Indexability Checker reads a URL the way Googlebot does: it follows the redirects, checks the HTTP status, the robots.txt rule for Googlebot, the robots meta tag, the X-Robots-Tag header and the canonical. You get a clear verdict, can be indexed or not, and the exact signal to change.
A page can be well written and still never appear in Google. Most of the time, one technical signal is enough to keep it out: a forgotten noindex after a staging launch, a robots.txt rule written too broadly, a canonical that points elsewhere. The checker puts those signals side by side so that the blocking one stands out.
The signals it reads
- HTTP status and redirects: only a page that answers 200 is indexed; a redirect hands the job to its target.
- robots.txt: the most specific group for Googlebot and the longest matching rule, as Google applies them.
- noindex: in the robots meta tag, the googlebot meta tag or the X-Robots-Tag HTTP header.
- The canonical tag: in the HTML or the Link header, whether it points to the page itself, and whether its target works.
Reading the verdict
- Can be indexed: nothing blocks Google. If the page is still missing, the cause is quality or links, not a technical block.
- Another page will probably be indexed: the canonical names another URL as the main version. Keep it only for real duplicates.
- Cannot be indexed: at least one red signal stops Google. Fix it, then ask for indexing in Search Console.
Being indexable is the first step of indexing, not a guarantee. To dig into one signal, use the robots.txt checker, the HTTP headers checker or the canonical tag checker.
