What is indexability?
Indexability is the ability of a page to be stored in Google's search index and potentially appear in search results. A page must be crawlable (accessible to Googlebot) and indexable (not blocked by noindex, canonical pointing elsewhere, or HTTP errors) to rank.
Common indexability issues
Common indexability issues include noindex tags accidentally applied in staging environments and pushed to production, orphan pages not linked from anywhere on the site, soft 404s that return a 200 status but show "page not found" content, and canonical tags pointing to incorrect URLs.
Monitoring index coverage in Google Search Console is the primary way to identify indexability problems. The Coverage report shows indexed pages, excluded pages, and the reasons for exclusion.
Example
Example
A site migrated from HTTP to HTTPS but left noindex tags on the HTTPS pages. All 500 pages are technically crawlable but none will appear in search results until the noindex tags are removed.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between crawlability and indexability?
Crawlability is whether Googlebot can fetch the page; indexability is whether the fetched page is eligible to be stored and ranked. A page can be crawlable yet excluded by noindex, a canonical, or quality filtering.
How do I check if a page is indexed?
Use the URL Inspection tool in Google Search Console for the authoritative answer, including why an excluded page was excluded. The site: operator is a rough public proxy, not a reliable audit.