Google Index Checker

What is Google Index

The Google index lists all the webpages that Google knows about. It contains hundreds of billions of webpages and is constantly updated with new pages. To appear in search results, a web page must be in the Google Index.

To be indexed, a page needs first to be crawled. Google assigns a crawl budget to every website. The crawl budget is defined as "the number of URLs Googlebot can and wants to crawl". If a website has too many pages compared to its crawl budget, not all of its pages will be crawled and indexed by Google.

What is the Google Index Checker tool

The Google Index Checker is a free SEO tool offered by Linkody to check if a page or a website is indexed by Google. You can check up to 10 URLs at a time. If a page is not indexed, the tool will check if the domain is indexed (i.e. other pages of the domain are indexed).

How to use the Google Index Checker

Enter up to 10 URLs and click the "CHECK GOOGLE INDEX STATUS" button. The tool will check the URLs and provide an indexation status for each of them. This status can be:

indexed	The page is indexed.
page not indexed	The page is not indexed but other pages on this domain are.
domain not indexed	No page on this domain is indexed.

When to use the Google Index Checker

Check if your website is indexed

If your website is not indexed by Google, it virtually does not exist. It won't appear in search engine results and won't get any organic traffic. So it's extremely important to be sure that your pages are indexed.

Use our Google Index Checker tool to check that your pages are indexed. If it is a new page and the tool says it is not indexed, try again a few weeks later. How fast a new page will be indexed depends on the authority of the site, its size, how deep the page is, and many other factors.

If the page is still not indexed after that time, work on improving it and on getting your website more authoritative in its niche. Use our free Website Authority Checker tool to check the authority of your website.

Check if a backlink is valuable

If you have a backlink or are prospecting a backlink from a page, it's important to check if the page is indexed to know if the link has any value. If the page is not indexed by Google, chances are that Google does not know about this link. So when you are working on acquiring new links, use our Google Index Checker to check first if the referring pages are indexed.

How to interpret the results

What are the reasons for a page to not be indexed?

Several reasons can explain why a page is not indexed:

• Google does not know about this page yet. This can happen if the page is new and Google hasn't crawled it yet.
• Google has crawled the page but hasn't indexed it. This can happen if the page is of low quality, or the website too large and Google does not want to waste resources on this page.

What are the reasons for a domain to not be indexed?

A domain is not indexed if none of its pages is indexed. Several reasons can explain why a domain is not indexed by Google:

• The domain is brand new and Google has yet to discover it.
• Google decided to not index the website, or the website was previously indexed but Google decided to de-index it. In both cases, this means Google considers that the website is spammy or has violated Google Webmaster Guidelines, for instance by using black hat SEO or buying links. De-indexing a website means removing it completely from search results.

Index status and SEO value of backlinks

How does the index status impact the SEO value of a link?

• If the page is indexed, a 'follow' link from this page has some SEO value. Read our guide to learn about all the criteria that influence the value of a link.
• If the page is not indexed but the domain is, a backlink from this page may or may not have some SEO value. It could be a question of time; Google may decide to index this page in the future. It is also suspected that Google follows links and passes some value even if it has decided to not index a page. Therefore links from non-indexed pages can still hold some value but it's generally better to have a link from an indexed page.
• If the domain is not indexed because the website is brand new, a backlink from this website will have little value. If the domain has been de-indexed, the website is toxic and a link from any page from this website can be harmful.

How to consider a backlink depending on the status of its page?

Use our Google Backlink Checker to check the index status of the referring pages and avoid potentially harmful backlinks:

• If the page is indexed and the link is follow, it has some SEO value. Use a tool like Linkody to monitor your backlinks and be alerted if any of your links are removed or changed.
• If the page is not indexed, wait a few weeks and check its status again. It can take some time for Google to index a page.
• If the domain is not indexed, Google may have penalized the website and the link could be toxic and harm your ranking. It is strongly advised to disavow the page or the entire domain. Read our guide on how to disavow toxic links.

What to do if you are prospecting a backlink?

Use our Google Index Checker to check the indexation status of the target page before putting the time and effort to place a link:

• If the page is indexed and you can get a follow link, go for it, the link will have some SEO value (all other criteria excluded).
• If the page is not indexed, wait a few weeks and check its status again. In the meantime, direct your effort towards another page that is indexed.
• If the domain is not indexed, avoid at all cost to get a link from this page or any other page from this website. Direct your efforts towards getting a link from a different website. Read our guide on the best way to acquire backlinks.