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What Is URL Inspection?

URL Inspection is the Search Console tool that reports Google's current knowledge of a single URL: whether it is indexed, when it was last crawled, which canonical Google selected against the one you declared, and how the page rendered. It also offers a live test that fetches the page as Googlebot right now.

Why URL Inspection matters for SEO

It is the fastest way to answer why one specific page is not behaving, and the only place Google tells you which canonical it actually picked. The gap between your declared canonical and Google's selected canonical explains a large share of confusing indexing problems.

Pro tip on URL Inspection

Use the indexed-version view for what Google already has and the live test for what your server serves now; they routinely disagree after a fix. Its limit is one URL at a time, so a template failing across hundreds of pages needs a crawl rather than repeated inspections.

Related terms

Page Indexing ReportInspection answers for one URL what the report answers in aggregateCanonical TagInspection is where Google reveals the canonical it selectedIndexationThe tool reports the current indexation state of a URL

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Inspection handles one URL at a time. CrawlRaven checks indexability across every page at once and ranks what to fix first.

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