Checking index status via an API

Why check over an API

Search Console's URL Inspection tool covers only properties you have verified, one URL at a time. Backlinks live on other people's sites, and a link-building campaign can produce thousands of them. An index-check API answers the question "is this URL in Google?" for a whole list at once and returns machine-readable results that a script, spreadsheet or reporting job can act on. The method behind such tools in general is explained on the checker site's index checking via API page.

The examples below use the IndexChex v1 interface. IndexChex checks each URL against live Google search results, so the answer reflects what Google currently shows rather than a cached database. Its weekly measurements on recurring URL sets put the checker at about ~96% accuracy on average (as of October 2026).

Step 1: create the check job

POST /v1/index-check/jobs with a JSON body:

curl -X POST https://indexchex.com/api/v1/index-check/jobs \
  -H "Authorization: $INDEXCHEX_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Accept: application/json" \
  -d '{"name": "October link audit",
       "urls": ["https://example.org/post-1", "https://example.org/post-2"]}'

The reply is HTTP 202:

{
  "job_id": 90314,
  "status": "pending",
  "total_urls": 2,
  "checked_urls": 0,
  "indexed_count": 0,
  "not_indexed_count": 0,
  "name": "October link audit",
  "queued_at": "2026-10-08T10:02:44+00:00"
}

Each URL costs 1 credit, deducted when the job is created. If the balance is short the request fails with HTTP 422 and a message stating how many credits were needed and how many are available.

Step 2: wait for completion

GET /v1/index-check/jobs/{run} returns counters and a status that moves from pending through processing to completed:

{
  "job_id": 90314,
  "status": "processing",
  "total_urls": 2,
  "checked_urls": 1,
  "indexed_count": 1,
  "not_indexed_count": 0,
  "failed_count": 0,
  "progress_percent": 50,
  "completed_at": null
}

There are no webhooks, so the client polls. Interval and back-off choices are covered in polling job status.

Step 3: read the report

GET /v1/index-check/jobs/{run}/report returns the URL lists once the job is complete:

{
  "job_id": 90314,
  "status": "completed",
  "total_urls": 2,
  "checked_urls": 2,
  "indexed_count": 1,
  "not_indexed_count": 1,
  "failed_count": 0,
  "indexed_links": ["https://example.org/post-1"],
  "unindexed_links": ["https://example.org/post-2"],
  "failed_links": [],
  "completed_at": "2026-10-08T10:06:19+00:00"
}

Python: check and wait

import os, time, requests

API = "https://indexchex.com/api"
H = {"Authorization": os.environ["INDEXCHEX_API_KEY"], "Accept": "application/json"}

def check_index(urls, name=None, every=20):
    r = requests.post(f"{API}/v1/index-check/jobs",
                      json={"urls": urls, "name": name}, headers=H, timeout=30)
    r.raise_for_status()
    job_id = r.json()["job_id"]
    while True:
        s = requests.get(f"{API}/v1/index-check/jobs/{job_id}", headers=H, timeout=30)
        s.raise_for_status()
        if s.json()["status"] == "completed":
            break
        time.sleep(every)
    rep = requests.get(f"{API}/v1/index-check/jobs/{job_id}/report", headers=H, timeout=30)
    rep.raise_for_status()
    return rep.json()

report = check_index(["https://example.org/post-1", "https://example.org/post-2"])
print(len(report["indexed_links"]), "indexed")

For production code add the status handling from handling API errors rather than calling raise_for_status() on everything.

Reading the three lists

Keeping the third list separate is the point of the design. Merging failed lookups into "not indexed" inflates the miss rate and leads to paying for submissions that were never needed.

From check to resubmission

The usual loop takes unindexed_links, filters out pages that cannot be indexed for on-page reasons, and passes the rest to the submission endpoint in submitting URLs via an API. Submissions can also carry a checker value so the follow-up check is scheduled automatically. Lists above 10,000 URLs are split as shown in rate limits and batching.

Related

The general case for tools that combine submission and checking is in what backlink indexer software is. The backlink indexer API overview compares how other vendors expose checks, and the IndexChex entry summarises its API at account level.