# Indexability Audit (`zerobreak/indexability-audit`) Actor
Indexability audit tool that checks robots.txt, meta robots tags, X-Robots-Tag headers, and canonical URLs for any list of pages, so SEO teams know which ones Google can actually crawl and index.
- **URL**: https://apify.com/zerobreak/indexability-audit.md
- **Developed by:** [ZeroBreak](https://apify.com/zerobreak) (community)
- **Categories:** Developer tools, SEO tools
- **Stats:** 3 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet
## Pricing
$4.99/month + usage
To use this Actor, you pay a monthly rental fee to the developer. The rent is subtracted from your prepaid usage every month after the free trial period.You also pay for the Apify platform usage, which gets cheaper the higher Apify subscription plan you have.
Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/platform/actors/running/actors-in-store#rental-actors
## What's an Apify Actor?
Actors are a software tools running on the Apify platform, for all kinds of web data extraction and automation use cases.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.
Actors are written with capital "A".
## How to integrate an Actor?
If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.
The best way to integrate Actors is as follows.
In JavaScript/TypeScript projects, use official [JavaScript/TypeScript client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js.md):
```bash
npm install apify-client
```
In Python projects, use official [Python client library](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python.md):
```bash
pip install apify-client
```
In shell scripts, use [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md):
````bash
# MacOS / Linux
curl -fsSL https://apify.com/install-cli.sh | bash
# Windows
irm https://apify.com/install-cli.ps1 | iex
```bash
In AI frameworks, you might use the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/platform/integrations/mcp.md).
If your project is in a different language, use the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md).
For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below.
For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt).
# README
## Indexability Audit: Check Which Pages Search Engines Can Index
Indexability audit tool that scans any list of URLs and tells you which pages Google and other search engines can actually crawl and index. For each URL, it checks robots.txt rules, meta robots tags, X-Robots-Tag response headers, canonical tags, and HTTP status codes, then returns a pass or fail with the specific reason.
Run it before a site launch, after a migration, or when organic traffic drops and you need to know which pages have gone dark in search.
### Use cases
- **Site audits**: scan hundreds of pages to confirm that product pages, blog posts, and landing pages are all indexable
- **Pre-launch checks**: verify pages before go-live so you don't ship with accidental noindex tags baked in
- **Post-migration recovery**: after a domain move or CMS switch, confirm canonical tags and robots.txt rules are set up correctly
- **Traffic investigation**: when rankings drop without warning, check whether key pages are still visible to search engines
- **Ongoing monitoring**: run on a schedule to catch noindex regressions before they affect rankings
### Input
| Parameter | Type | Default | Description |
|-----------|------|---------|-------------|
| `url` | string | | A single URL to audit. Use this, `urls`, or both. |
| `urls` | array | | A list of URLs to audit, one per line. |
| `checkRobotsTxt` | boolean | `true` | Fetch and check the robots.txt file for each domain. |
| `maxUrls` | integer | `100` | Maximum number of URLs to process per run. Hard cap: 1000. |
| `timeoutSecs` | integer | `300` | Total actor timeout in seconds. |
| `requestTimeoutSecs` | integer | `30` | Per-request timeout in seconds. Increase for slow sites. |
| `proxyConfiguration` | object | Datacenter (Anywhere) | Proxy type and location for requests. Supports Datacenter, Residential, Special, and custom proxies. Optional. |
#### Example input
```json
{
"urls": [
"https://apify.com",
"https://apify.com/blog",
"https://apify.com/about"
],
"checkRobotsTxt": true,
"maxUrls": 100,
"requestTimeoutSecs": 30,
"proxyConfiguration": { "useApifyProxy": true }
}
````
### What data does this actor extract?
The actor saves one result per URL in the dataset.
```json
{
"url": "https://apify.com/blog",
"finalUrl": "https://apify.com/blog/",
"httpStatus": 200,
"isIndexable": true,
"indexabilityIssues": [],
"metaRobotsContent": "",
"xRobotsTag": "",
"canonicalUrl": "https://apify.com/blog/",
"isSelfCanonical": true,
"robotsTxtBlocked": false,
"redirectChain": [],
"pageTitle": "Blog | Apify",
"metaDescription": "News and tutorials about web scraping and automation.",
"checkedAt": "2025-03-05T10:23:00.000Z"
}
```
| Field | Type | Description |
|-------|------|-------------|
| `url` | string | Original URL from input |
| `finalUrl` | string | Final URL after following any redirects |
| `httpStatus` | integer | HTTP response status code (200, 301, 404, etc.) |
| `isIndexable` | boolean | Whether the page passes all indexability checks |
| `indexabilityIssues` | array | List of issues found. Empty if the page is indexable. |
| `metaRobotsContent` | string | Content of the meta robots tag, e.g. `noindex, nofollow` |
| `xRobotsTag` | string | Value of the X-Robots-Tag HTTP response header |
| `canonicalUrl` | string | Canonical URL from the `` tag |
| `isSelfCanonical` | boolean | Whether the canonical tag points back to the same page |
| `robotsTxtBlocked` | boolean | Whether the URL path is blocked by robots.txt |
| `redirectChain` | array | List of intermediate URLs in any redirect chain |
| `pageTitle` | string | Content of the `` tag |
| `metaDescription` | string | Content of the meta description tag |
| `checkedAt` | string | ISO 8601 timestamp of when the URL was checked |
### How it works
1. Takes the input URL list, merges single and multi-URL inputs, and deduplicates
2. Fetches each page with a standard browser user-agent, tracking redirects manually to capture the full chain
3. Reads the X-Robots-Tag response header for noindex directives
4. Parses the HTML to extract the meta robots tag, canonical tag, title, and meta description
5. Optionally fetches robots.txt once per domain and checks whether the URL path is disallowed
6. Marks a page as indexable if the HTTP status is under 400 and none of the above checks fail
7. Saves the full result to the dataset
### FAQ
**What causes a page to fail the indexability check?**
Any of the following: HTTP 400+ status, meta robots noindex, X-Robots-Tag noindex, a canonical tag pointing to a different URL, or a robots.txt disallow rule matching the path.
**Does it handle JavaScript-rendered pages?**
No. It fetches raw HTML. Most sites include the meta tags that matter for indexability in the initial server response, so this covers the majority of cases. If your site injects meta robots tags only via JavaScript, those will not be detected here.
**How many URLs can I check per run?**
Default is 100. Raise it up to 1,000 with the `maxUrls` input. For larger audits, split the list across multiple runs.
**Will target sites block my requests?**
This actor sends a standard Chrome user-agent. Most sites allow normal crawling. If a site blocks repeated requests, enabling a proxy in the input usually resolves it.
**Can I audit URLs directly from a sitemap?**
Not directly. Extract the URLs from your sitemap first, then paste them into the `urls` input field.
**Does it detect noindex in HTTP headers as well as meta tags?**
Yes. It checks both the X-Robots-Tag HTTP response header and the HTML meta robots tag independently.
### Integrations
Connect Indexability Audit with other apps and services using [Apify integrations](https://apify.com/integrations). You can integrate with Make, Zapier, Slack, Airbyte, GitHub, Google Sheets, Google Drive, and many more. You can also use [webhooks](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/webhooks) to trigger actions whenever results are available.
# Actor input Schema
## `url` (type: `string`):
A single URL to audit for indexability. Use this field, the 'urls' field, or both.
## `urls` (type: `array`):
A list of URLs to audit, one per line. Combined with the single 'url' field if both are provided.
## `checkRobotsTxt` (type: `boolean`):
Fetch and check the robots.txt file for each domain to detect blocked paths. Adds an extra request per unique domain.
## `maxUrls` (type: `integer`):
Maximum number of URLs to process in a single run. Extra URLs are dropped with a warning. Hard cap: 1000.
## `timeoutSecs` (type: `integer`):
Maximum time in seconds for the entire actor run before it times out.
## `requestTimeoutSecs` (type: `integer`):
Timeout in seconds for each individual HTTP request. Increase this for slow sites.
## `proxyConfiguration` (type: `object`):
Select proxies to use for requests. Helps avoid IP blocking and rate limits. Datacenter proxies are fastest; Residential proxies are harder to detect.
## Actor input object example
```json
{
"url": "https://apify.com",
"urls": [
"https://apify.com",
"https://apify.com/blog"
],
"checkRobotsTxt": true,
"maxUrls": 100,
"timeoutSecs": 300,
"requestTimeoutSecs": 30,
"proxyConfiguration": {
"useApifyProxy": true
}
}
```
# API
You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.
## JavaScript example
```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';
// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});
// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
"url": "https://apify.com",
"proxyConfiguration": {
"useApifyProxy": true
}
};
// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("zerobreak/indexability-audit").call(input);
// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
console.dir(item);
});
// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs
```
## Python example
```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient
# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")
# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = {
"url": "https://apify.com",
"proxyConfiguration": { "useApifyProxy": True },
}
# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("zerobreak/indexability-audit").call(run_input=run_input)
# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print("💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/" + run["defaultDatasetId"])
for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
print(item)
# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start
```
## CLI example
```bash
echo '{
"url": "https://apify.com",
"proxyConfiguration": {
"useApifyProxy": true
}
}' |
apify call zerobreak/indexability-audit --silent --output-dataset
```
## MCP server setup
```json
{
"mcpServers": {
"apify": {
"command": "npx",
"args": [
"mcp-remote",
"https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=zerobreak/indexability-audit",
"--header",
"Authorization: Bearer <YOUR_API_TOKEN>"
]
}
}
}
```
## OpenAPI specification
```json
{
"openapi": "3.0.1",
"info": {
"title": "Indexability Audit",
"description": "Indexability audit tool that checks robots.txt, meta robots tags, X-Robots-Tag headers, and canonical URLs for any list of pages, so SEO teams know which ones Google can actually crawl and index.",
"version": "0.0",
"x-build-id": "hWGiBguV4AhsUEUq5"
},
"servers": [
{
"url": "https://api.apify.com/v2"
}
],
"paths": {
"/acts/zerobreak~indexability-audit/run-sync-get-dataset-items": {
"post": {
"operationId": "run-sync-get-dataset-items-zerobreak-indexability-audit",
"x-openai-isConsequential": false,
"summary": "Executes an Actor, waits for its completion, and returns Actor's dataset items in response.",
"tags": [
"Run Actor"
],
"requestBody": {
"required": true,
"content": {
"application/json": {
"schema": {
"$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema"
}
}
}
},
"parameters": [
{
"name": "token",
"in": "query",
"required": true,
"schema": {
"type": "string"
},
"description": "Enter your Apify token here"
}
],
"responses": {
"200": {
"description": "OK"
}
}
}
},
"/acts/zerobreak~indexability-audit/runs": {
"post": {
"operationId": "runs-sync-zerobreak-indexability-audit",
"x-openai-isConsequential": false,
"summary": "Executes an Actor and returns information about the initiated run in response.",
"tags": [
"Run Actor"
],
"requestBody": {
"required": true,
"content": {
"application/json": {
"schema": {
"$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema"
}
}
}
},
"parameters": [
{
"name": "token",
"in": "query",
"required": true,
"schema": {
"type": "string"
},
"description": "Enter your Apify token here"
}
],
"responses": {
"200": {
"description": "OK",
"content": {
"application/json": {
"schema": {
"$ref": "#/components/schemas/runsResponseSchema"
}
}
}
}
}
}
},
"/acts/zerobreak~indexability-audit/run-sync": {
"post": {
"operationId": "run-sync-zerobreak-indexability-audit",
"x-openai-isConsequential": false,
"summary": "Executes an Actor, waits for completion, and returns the OUTPUT from Key-value store in response.",
"tags": [
"Run Actor"
],
"requestBody": {
"required": true,
"content": {
"application/json": {
"schema": {
"$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema"
}
}
}
},
"parameters": [
{
"name": "token",
"in": "query",
"required": true,
"schema": {
"type": "string"
},
"description": "Enter your Apify token here"
}
],
"responses": {
"200": {
"description": "OK"
}
}
}
}
},
"components": {
"schemas": {
"inputSchema": {
"type": "object",
"properties": {
"url": {
"title": "URL",
"type": "string",
"description": "A single URL to audit for indexability. Use this field, the 'urls' field, or both."
},
"urls": {
"title": "URLs",
"type": "array",
"description": "A list of URLs to audit, one per line. Combined with the single 'url' field if both are provided.",
"items": {
"type": "string"
}
},
"checkRobotsTxt": {
"title": "Check robots.txt",
"type": "boolean",
"description": "Fetch and check the robots.txt file for each domain to detect blocked paths. Adds an extra request per unique domain.",
"default": true
},
"maxUrls": {
"title": "Max URLs",
"minimum": 1,
"maximum": 1000,
"type": "integer",
"description": "Maximum number of URLs to process in a single run. Extra URLs are dropped with a warning. Hard cap: 1000.",
"default": 100
},
"timeoutSecs": {
"title": "Actor timeout (seconds)",
"minimum": 10,
"maximum": 3600,
"type": "integer",
"description": "Maximum time in seconds for the entire actor run before it times out.",
"default": 300
},
"requestTimeoutSecs": {
"title": "Request timeout (seconds)",
"minimum": 5,
"maximum": 120,
"type": "integer",
"description": "Timeout in seconds for each individual HTTP request. Increase this for slow sites.",
"default": 30
},
"proxyConfiguration": {
"title": "Proxy configuration",
"type": "object",
"description": "Select proxies to use for requests. Helps avoid IP blocking and rate limits. Datacenter proxies are fastest; Residential proxies are harder to detect."
}
}
},
"runsResponseSchema": {
"type": "object",
"properties": {
"data": {
"type": "object",
"properties": {
"id": {
"type": "string"
},
"actId": {
"type": "string"
},
"userId": {
"type": "string"
},
"startedAt": {
"type": "string",
"format": "date-time",
"example": "2025-01-08T00:00:00.000Z"
},
"finishedAt": {
"type": "string",
"format": "date-time",
"example": "2025-01-08T00:00:00.000Z"
},
"status": {
"type": "string",
"example": "READY"
},
"meta": {
"type": "object",
"properties": {
"origin": {
"type": "string",
"example": "API"
},
"userAgent": {
"type": "string"
}
}
},
"stats": {
"type": "object",
"properties": {
"inputBodyLen": {
"type": "integer",
"example": 2000
},
"rebootCount": {
"type": "integer",
"example": 0
},
"restartCount": {
"type": "integer",
"example": 0
},
"resurrectCount": {
"type": "integer",
"example": 0
},
"computeUnits": {
"type": "integer",
"example": 0
}
}
},
"options": {
"type": "object",
"properties": {
"build": {
"type": "string",
"example": "latest"
},
"timeoutSecs": {
"type": "integer",
"example": 300
},
"memoryMbytes": {
"type": "integer",
"example": 1024
},
"diskMbytes": {
"type": "integer",
"example": 2048
}
}
},
"buildId": {
"type": "string"
},
"defaultKeyValueStoreId": {
"type": "string"
},
"defaultDatasetId": {
"type": "string"
},
"defaultRequestQueueId": {
"type": "string"
},
"buildNumber": {
"type": "string",
"example": "1.0.0"
},
"containerUrl": {
"type": "string"
},
"usage": {
"type": "object",
"properties": {
"ACTOR_COMPUTE_UNITS": {
"type": "integer",
"example": 0
},
"DATASET_READS": {
"type": "integer",
"example": 0
},
"DATASET_WRITES": {
"type": "integer",
"example": 0
},
"KEY_VALUE_STORE_READS": {
"type": "integer",
"example": 0
},
"KEY_VALUE_STORE_WRITES": {
"type": "integer",
"example": 1
},
"KEY_VALUE_STORE_LISTS": {
"type": "integer",
"example": 0
},
"REQUEST_QUEUE_READS": {
"type": "integer",
"example": 0
},
"REQUEST_QUEUE_WRITES": {
"type": "integer",
"example": 0
},
"DATA_TRANSFER_INTERNAL_GBYTES": {
"type": "integer",
"example": 0
},
"DATA_TRANSFER_EXTERNAL_GBYTES": {
"type": "integer",
"example": 0
},
"PROXY_RESIDENTIAL_TRANSFER_GBYTES": {
"type": "integer",
"example": 0
},
"PROXY_SERPS": {
"type": "integer",
"example": 0
}
}
},
"usageTotalUsd": {
"type": "number",
"example": 0.00005
},
"usageUsd": {
"type": "object",
"properties": {
"ACTOR_COMPUTE_UNITS": {
"type": "integer",
"example": 0
},
"DATASET_READS": {
"type": "integer",
"example": 0
},
"DATASET_WRITES": {
"type": "integer",
"example": 0
},
"KEY_VALUE_STORE_READS": {
"type": "integer",
"example": 0
},
"KEY_VALUE_STORE_WRITES": {
"type": "number",
"example": 0.00005
},
"KEY_VALUE_STORE_LISTS": {
"type": "integer",
"example": 0
},
"REQUEST_QUEUE_READS": {
"type": "integer",
"example": 0
},
"REQUEST_QUEUE_WRITES": {
"type": "integer",
"example": 0
},
"DATA_TRANSFER_INTERNAL_GBYTES": {
"type": "integer",
"example": 0
},
"DATA_TRANSFER_EXTERNAL_GBYTES": {
"type": "integer",
"example": 0
},
"PROXY_RESIDENTIAL_TRANSFER_GBYTES": {
"type": "integer",
"example": 0
},
"PROXY_SERPS": {
"type": "integer",
"example": 0
}
}
}
}
}
}
}
}
}
}
```