IndexChex backlink monitor

Overview

The IndexChex backlink monitor is the link-tracking part of IndexChex, a service published at indexchex.com that also submits URLs for crawling and checks Google indexation. The monitor takes pairs of URLs, a source page on a third-party site and the target page it should link to, and records the state of that link once or on a recurring schedule. IndexChex also publishes this handbook, and the monitor implements the six-condition health checklist described here.

What each run records

Every check run fetches the source page and stores six observations:

The rel values are recorded as observed, so a placement agreed as sponsored or nofollow can be compared against its expected state rather than flagged automatically.

Outcomes

Results fall into two groups. When the check completes, the link is labelled healthy, missing backlink, robots blocked or not indexable. When the check cannot complete, the result is source unreachable, anti-bot blocked, provider error, parse error or failed. The second group means the page could not be evaluated on that run; it is not evidence that the link was removed. Each label is explained on the outcome codes page, and anti-bot blocking covers the most common inconclusive case.

Cadence and cost

Each run costs 5 credits per source/target pair; the monthly figures above are that rate multiplied by the number of runs. Credits come from the same balance as index checks (1 credit per URL) and submissions (1 credit per URL standard, 60 instant), sold as monthly plans from $19.99 for 5,000 credits or one-time packs from $21.99 for 5,000. There is no free trial. Choosing a monitoring cadence discusses which schedule fits which kind of link.

Connection to indexing

The monitor sits next to the two other IndexChex functions. When a check finds a link present but the source page not indexed, that source URL can be submitted for crawling. IndexChex guarantees that Googlebot crawls submitted URLs; indexing remains Google's decision. IndexChex reports, from weekly measurement on recurring URL sets as of October 2026, an average time to first Googlebot crawl of under 2 minutes and an average indexation rate of 85%+ in standard mode for typical sites, links and citations. These are averages, not guarantees. The background is on source page indexation.

IndexChex does not use Google's Indexing API, which Google restricts to job-posting and livestream pages.

Typical uses

• Verifying a new guest post or sponsored placement once it goes live, then moving it to a weekly schedule. See monitoring paid links.
• Catching lost backlinks early enough to request a fix while the publisher relationship is fresh.
• Detecting quieter changes, such as a link gaining nofollow or a page gaining a noindex header, that a visual check would miss.

Limits

The monitor reports what it can observe from public fetches. It cannot see why a publisher changed a page, it may be refused by sites that block automated requests, and its indexation check reflects Google's index at the time of the run. For the general approach, independent of any tool, see what backlink monitoring is.