✅ What Is Index Checking?
Index checking is the process of verifying whether a webpage (such as a backlink source) is included in Google’s index. If a page is not indexed, it won’t appear in search engine results — and any link from that page won’t pass SEO value to your website.
✅ What Is a Link Audit?
A link audit is a full review of all the backlinks pointing to your website. The goal is to:
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Identify harmful or spammy links
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Find broken or lost links
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Evaluate the quality and relevance of backlinks
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Improve your backlink profile for better rankings
But without checking if the linking pages are indexed, you won’t know if those backlinks are even being counted by Google.
✅ Why Index Checking Is So Important in Link Audits
🔍 1. Non-Indexed Pages Don’t Pass Link Value
Google only considers indexed pages for ranking purposes. If a page linking to your site isn’t indexed:
Example:
You get a backlink from a blog post, but that post is blocked by robots.txt or is too new to be indexed. It doesn’t help your SEO at all.
🔍 2. Helps You Prioritize Quality Links
During a link audit, you may find hundreds or thousands of backlinks. Checking which ones are indexed allows you to:
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Focus on links that actually contribute to your SEO
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Ignore or disavow links that aren’t helping
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Create a cleaner and more effective link profile
🔍 3. Detects Technical or Crawling Issues
Sometimes, a backlink might come from a website with indexing problems. Common issues include:
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Noindex meta tags
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Blocked by robots.txt
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Duplicate content
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Poor site architecture
Index checking helps reveal these problems, allowing you to:
🔍 4. Improves Link Building ROI
You may invest time and money in building backlinks through guest posts, partnerships, or content outreach. If those pages aren’t indexed:
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You get zero SEO return on your effort
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Your content marketing ROI drops
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You might lose out to competitors with better indexing
With index checking, you can:
🔍 5. Supports Disavow Decisions
In cases where you’re trying to clean up bad links (e.g., from past black-hat SEO efforts), index status helps inform which links:
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Should be disavowed immediately (spam + indexed)
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Might be ignored (spam + not indexed)
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Can be salvaged (good link + not indexed yet)
This makes your disavow file more precise and effective.
✅ How to Check If a Backlink Page Is Indexed
Here are a few methods:
1. Google Search (Manual Check)
Use site:url in Google Search.
Example: site:example.com/blog-post-title
If it appears in search results → it’s indexed.
If no results → it’s not indexed.
2. Google Search Console
If you control the linking domain, you can use the URL Inspection Tool to check its index status.
3. SEO Tools (Bulk Checking)
Tools like:
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Ahrefs
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SEMrush
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Screaming Frog
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Sitebulb
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IndexCheckr
These allow bulk URL index status checks across your entire backlink list.
✅ Best Practices for Index Checking in Link Audits
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Regularly audit your backlink profile — at least quarterly.
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Use a combination of tools to get a full picture.
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Sort links by index status to identify valuable vs. wasted links.
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Contact webmasters to fix indexing issues when needed.
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Submit unindexed high-quality pages to Google Search Console.
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Disavow harmful indexed links if they hurt your site’s credibility.
This post was edited by Veer Roy at May 19, 2025 4:51 AM PDT
