METHODOLOGY & SELF-SERVE HELP

What a check can tell you.

IndexLatch reads the initial HTTP HTML response from a public URL, follows up to five redirects, and inspects status, title, canonical links, and robots directives. Each response is limited to 1 MB and each inspection has a 20-second overall timeout.

“Noindex observed”

This means we found a noindex or none directive in a robots or googlebot meta tag, or an applicable X-Robots-Tag response header. A noindex directive asks a supporting search engine to exclude a page after crawling it. This is not proof that a page has already disappeared from search.

Read Google’s robots directive documentation for how these instructions are used.

“Canonical points elsewhere”

A different canonical URL can be intentional. We report it as a signal to review, not a confirmed defect. Compare it with the page you intend search engines to treat as the preferred version. Canonicals are hints, not a guarantee of the indexed URL.

“Inspection incomplete” or “Unverified”

The page could not be inspected, was not HTML, exceeded a limit, or redirected somewhere we cannot access. Timeouts and bot protection can make a page unavailable to our monitor while it still works for visitors. We do not bypass login screens or anti-bot controls.

The public preview currently offers one-time page checks. The monitoring and account details below describe the upcoming service.

Two observations before an alert

A new state needs two matching observations. A possible change schedules another check after approximately five minutes; its exact timing depends on the queue. The initial baseline also needs two observations. Existing noindex and other flagged signals appear as initial findings after confirmation.

Monitoring scope

The service does not execute JavaScript, evaluate robots.txt, test checkout, inspect authenticated pages, query Google Search Console, establish actual indexing, or repair defects. “No flagged signals” only describes our limited inspection; it is not an SEO health certification.

Managing your account

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