00 / GETTING STARTED
Indexwhy is a free, stateless diagnostic tool. Enter any public URL and it fetches the page the way a search crawler does — then lists every mechanism that stops or weakens indexing, ordered by severity.
There is no sign-up, no login, no database. Every check is completely independent. Your URL is fetched, analysed, and forgotten.
HTTP status and full redirect chain · X-Robots-Tag header · <meta name="robots"> directive · Canonical tag (HTML and Link header) · /robots.txt directives · Sitemap inclusion
Go to the check page, paste the full URL of the page you are worried about, and press Check. The result appears in under two seconds.
Single-URL checks are and will remain free. No accounts, no payment, no limits on how many URLs you check.
01 / FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
The six questions below cover nearly every case we see.
My URL came back with no blocking issues — why is it still not in Google?
Indexability is the floor, not the outcome. A page can be fully indexable and still not appear because of content quality, relevance, competition, low authority, or algorithmic filtering. Indexwhy checks only the technical mechanisms that block indexing (meta robots, headers, robots.txt, redirects). It does not evaluate ranking factors, content quality, backlinks, or manual actions. If the tool reports no blockers, the issue is elsewhere — consider content quality, site authority, and using Google Search Console's URL Inspection tool to see what Google itself reports.
The tool says my page is unreachable, but my site loads fine in a browser
This usually means one of two things: (1) Your site is behind Cloudflare's network. The Workers platform cannot open a connection back into its own infrastructure, so Cloudflare-hosted sites appear unreachable. This is a platform limit, not a finding about your site. (2) Your page depends entirely on JavaScript rendering. Indexwhy fetches raw HTML — it does not execute JavaScript. If your page is a single-page application that renders all content client-side, the HTTP response may be an empty shell. In that case, consider server-side rendering or dynamic rendering so crawlers see content.
What do the severity levels mean? Blocking vs weakening vs clear?
Blocking — the mechanism definitely stops the page from being indexed. Examples: a noindex meta tag, a Disallow covering the path in robots.txt, a 404 status, a noindex in the X-Robots-Tag header. These must be fixed for the page to have any chance of appearing in search results.
Weakening — the mechanism reduces the quality or likelihood of indexing but does not absolutely prevent it. Examples: a canonical pointing at a different URL, a redirect chain of 2+ hops, absence from any sitemap.
Clear — no issue detected in that category. The mechanism is working as expected and is not contributing to any indexing problem.
Can you check my entire website at once?
No — Indexwhy checks one URL at a time. The tool is designed as a single-URL diagnostic. If you need to check multiple URLs, you can use the check page as many times as you like — each check is free, no limits. For full site audits, use a dedicated SEO crawler such as Screaming Frog, Sitebulb, or Ahrefs.
I fixed the issue — how do I tell Google to re-index my page?
Indexwhy does not submit anything to search engines. To request re-indexing after a fix, use Google Search Console's URL Inspection tool: paste the URL, click "Request Indexing". Google will re-crawl the page, usually within a few days. For Bing, use Bing Webmaster Tools. Indexwhy is a diagnostic tool only — it reads what is already there; it does not change anything on your site or in Google's index.
Is my data private? Are my URLs stored anywhere?
No. Indexwhy has no database, no user accounts, and no analytics service. The URL you enter is sent to the API, processed, and the result is returned to your browser. The URL is not stored, logged, or retained after the response is delivered. Your browser locally stores only your light/dark mode preference (indexwhy-theme). No HTTP cookies are set. See the Privacy Policy for full details.
02 / KNOWN LIMITATIONS
These are platform limits and intentional design boundaries — not bugs. Being honest about them is part of what makes the tool useful.
03 / HOW TO REACH US
If your question is not answered above, or you have a bug report, feature request, or billing question, email us:
We read every message. Because this product is maintained alongside other tools, replies are not instant — but we do reply. Please include the URL you were checking (if relevant) and as much context as you can.