VEXA — how it works

VEXA is a free tool for URLs that look indexed even though robots.txt blocks Googlebot. You paste the URLs — usually from a Search Console export — and VEXA checks each one live.

You get a clear PASS or FAIL plus a one-line Do-this. No Search Console login, no crawl credentials — just public robots.txt and live page fetches.

• robots.txt: which Googlebot (or *) rule matches the URL path.
• Blocked?: whether that rule is a Disallow for Googlebot.
• Fetchable: whether the page itself returns a usable HTTP response.
• noindex: meta robots or X-Robots-Tag saying noindex.
• Private smell: login, cart, admin, account-style paths or titles.

PASS means one of these is true:

• CLEAR — crawlable, indexable, no conflict.
• NOINDEX_OK — crawlable and correctly set to noindex.

FAIL is labelled with one verdict so you know what to do:

• TRAP — Disallow blocks Googlebot while the page says noindex (or can't be fetched) — Google can't read the noindex.
• ALLOW_PUBLIC — blocked but looks like a normal public page; lift or narrow the Disallow.
• KEEP_PRIVATE — blocked and looks private; keep the block and lock the page down.
• FETCH_ERROR — robots.txt or the page couldn't be read in time.

Same URL, same rules, same result. No guessing.

1. 01Go to the tool and sign in with your email — one-tap link, no password.
2. 02Paste up to 50 URLs (one per line), or hit Load example URLs to try it on nikkos.io.
3. 03Hit Run. Results stream with PASS / FAIL and a Do-this for each row.

Tip: paste the “Indexed though blocked by robots.txt” URL list from Search Console. VEXA never connects to Search Console — you paste the list.

The point isn't the count. It's the fix list someone can ship.

• Filter to fails, traps, or fetchable-noindex.
• Read the Do-this column — one action per URL.
• Tick the rows you want, then export CSV or a plain URL list.

Paste that straight into a robots.txt or CMS ticket. Live check in, ticket out.

• Public data only: robots.txt + live HTTP.
• Capped at 50 URLs per run.
• Free forever. Email sign-in is so we know who's using it, not to sell you anything.
• Sibling tools: LOCRA for sitemaps, RAUM for Search Console Pages reasons, KNOT for canonicals, GATE before you request indexing.