The definition of 'URL is Unknown to Google' is misleading and it needs to change.
The coverage state ‘URL is unknown to Google’ indicates to SEO teams that Google has never seen this page before.
However, this definition is misleading.
In this article, I'll explain the current definition of ‘URL is unknown to Google’ and why it needs to change. And why we need two definitions using examples from Indexing Insight data.
So, let's dive in.
‘URL is unknown to Google’ is a page indexing coverage state in Google’s Search Console.
If you do a Google search for ‘URL is unknown to Google’, many articles define this state as Google’s crawlers having never seen this URL before. Ever.
All of these definitions are just repeating the official definition from Google’s documentation:
“If the label is URL is unknown to Google, it means that Google hasn't seen that URL before, so you should request that the page be indexed. Indexing typically takes a few days.”
- URL Inspection Tool, Search Console Help
However, based on the data on Indexing Insights, this definition needs to change.
The definition of ‘URL is unknown to Google’ is misleading and needs to change.
Based on our research and analysis (see below) there should be two definitions in Google's official documentation:
Data from Indexing Insight shows that ‘URL is unknown to Google’ definition is inaccurate.
Based on our data, Google has seen pages labelled ‘URL is unknown to Google’. In some cases, Google has historically crawled and indexed these URLs.
The problem is that indexing data in the URL Inspection Tool does not give you any historic context for pages labelled as 'URL is Unknown to Google'.
At Indexing Insight, our Google index monitoring data records historic evens and provides context to Not Indexed pages labelled as 'URL is Unknown to Google'.
Our analysis of historical indexing data reveals that the 'URL is Unknown to Google' status in Google Search Console is misleading. Pages that were previously crawled and indexed can later be labeled as 'unknown,' despite Google having encountered them before.
This is because index coverage states can be reversed and change over time.
Google's index coverage status for a page can change over time.
Our 190-Day Indexing Rule research found that a page's index coverage status can change over a 190-day period if Google recrawls it. The longer it takes an indexed page to be recrawled the more a page's index coverage status is reversed.
The final index coverage status in this process is 'URL is Unknown to Google.' If a page displays this status in Search Console, it's a strong indication that Google has forgotten it.
The research highlighted that a page URL with an “unknown” index coverage state is essentially forgotten by Googlebot (according to Googlers). And that these pages have zero crawl priority.
What does all this research mean?
If an historic crawled and indexed page is not recrawled in 190-days it's 'forgotten' by Google. And this forgotten page has zero crawl priority in Googlebot's architecture.
Let’s look at examples of ‘URL is unknown to Google’.
Let’s look at a few examples of URLs marked as ‘URL is unknown to Google’.
The first example is from The SEO Sprint website.
If we test the following URL /p/product-engineering-wisdom-27 in the URL Inspection Too, we can see that it shows the coverage state ‘URL us unknown to Google’.
However, if we check the URL in the URL Inspection API, we can see that Google has, in fact, crawled it.
Interestingly, the URL historically also had the indexing state ‘crawled - currently not indexed’ in Google Search Console. This can be tracked in Indexing Insights.
This historical data provides evidence that Google definitely saw this URL.
The second example is from a programmatic SEO website.
If we test the /cities/banbury/ page using the URL Inspection tool. It gives the coverage state “URL is unknown to Google’.
However, if we check the URL with the URL Inspection API, it gives you a Last Crawl Time.
What is even more interesting is that this URL was historically indexed on June 13, 2024, and its canonical URL was dropped (changed) on October 14, 2024.
All of this historical data provides evidence that Google definitely saw this URL.
It happens a lot more than you think.
For one alpha tester monitoring 1 million URLs, the state “URL is unknown to Google” accounts for 16% of the total URLs being inspected.
In fact, when writing this newsletter, the ‘URL is unknown to Google’ is increasing…
…which is being caused by a decrease in ‘crawled - previously indexed’ submitted pages.
The increase in the number of ‘URL is unknown to Google’ and the decrease in ‘crawled—previously indexed’ indicates that Google has seen these URLs before.
At Indexing Insights, we help SEO teams identify pages that have been forgotten.
Based on our extensive research of Google indexing data we have created a report and new index coverage status to identify known pages.
This new report is called: URL is Known to Google.
Our tool automatically identifies forgotten page URLs and groups them into this new report.
In Google Search Console it's more complicated.
The only way to check if a page with the status ‘URL is unknown to Google’ is to:
The easiest way to identify if Google has forgotten a page URL is to use the URL Inspection API to check whether it has a Last Crawl date.
The current definition of ‘URL is unknown to Google’ is misleading.
In this article, I’ve provided evidence that just because a page has this state in GSC does not mean Google has never crawled or indexed the URL.
Quite the opposite.
By using Indexing Insight data, we can see that important traffic-driving pages are experiencing reverse indexing. And URLs with the state ‘URL is unknown to Google’ have the least crawl priority in Google’s systems.
The problem is that you can’t detect these problem pages in Search Console.
Hopefully, this article has inspired you to use the URL Inspection API to identify important pages with the ‘URL is unknown to Google’ coverage state.
A page with this coverage state strongly indicates that it is becoming less of a priority for crawling, indexing, and ranking in Google Search.
Adam Gent
SEO Product Manager and Technical SEO. I’m currently an independent consultant who works with organisations to plan, scope and execute SEO projects that drive results.
