Google X-Ray search is a powerful tool that allows you to dig deeper into a website’s content and structure. With X-Ray search, you can see additional information about a page, such as metadata, links, images, and more. This can help reveal opportunities for SEO improvements, discover hidden pages, and gain insights into a site’s architecture.
What is Google X-Ray search?
Google X-Ray search provides an augmented view of a web page, showing you extra details beyond what you see on the surface. When you run an X-Ray search on a URL, Google crawls the page and extracts key information, presenting it in a structured format.
Specifically, Google X-Ray search shows you:
- Page metadata – Title, description, keywords
- Links – Internal, external, broken links
- Images – Alt text, file size
- Headings – H1, H2, H3 tags
- Text content – Word count, readability stats
- HTML code – Source code
This extra visibility enables you to analyze pages much more thoroughly than regular search. You can spot issues, assess on-page SEO, explore link patterns, audit content, and more.
Why use Google X-Ray search?
Here are some key reasons to use Google X-Ray search:
- SEO analysis – Check title tags, meta descriptions, H1s for optimization.
- Technical audits – Identify broken links, duplicate content issues.
- Content audits – Evaluate readability, word count, keyword usage.
- Site mapping – Uncover hidden pages, understand site architecture.
- Competitor research – Analyze competitors’ on-page SEO and content.
- Link building – Discover untapped link building opportunities.
In summary, Google X-Ray search enables deeper analysis and insight into websites, which can inform optimization efforts.
How to do a Google X-Ray search
Doing a Google X-Ray search is simple. Just follow these steps:
- Go to Google.com and do a regular search for the URL you want to analyze.
- Click on the green down arrow icon next to the result.
- Select “X-Ray” from the dropdown menu.
This will bring up the X-Ray view for that page. Here’s an example:
The X-Ray view is organized into different panels:
- Page Info – Title, meta description, keywords, word count.
- Links – Number of internal, external, and broken links.
- Images – Number of images, alt text usage.
- Headings – Breakdown of H tags usage.
- Text Content – Readability stats, keyword density.
- Code – Page source code.
You can click into each panel to get more details. For example, clicking on the Links panel shows you the full list of internal and external links on the page.
Key things to analyze with Google X-Ray search
Now that you know how to use Google X-Ray, here are some of the key elements you should analyze for each page:
Title Tag
- Is the title tag optimized with important keywords?
- Is it an appropriate length (under 60 characters)?
- Does each page have a unique title?
Meta Description
- Is there a meta description provided?
- Does it describe the page content well?
- Is it optimized with keywords?
Headings (H1, H2, H3)
- Is there a properly structured heading hierarchy?
- Are headings optimized with keywords?
- Is each page optimized with a single H1 tag?
Word Count
- Does the page have enough content? (Aim for over 300 words)
Readability
- Review the Flesch Reading Ease score – higher is better
- Check the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level – aim for 8th grade reading level or lower
Internal Links
- Are there enough internal links passing authority around the site?
- Are important pages getting linked internally?
External Links
- What sites is the page linking out to?
- Are there opportunities to replace weak links with stronger ones?
Broken Links
- Are there any broken links that need to be fixed?
- Are there broken image links?
This covers some of the key elements to look at with Google X-Ray. Running X-Ray searches regularly can help uncover SEO issues and opportunities.
Tips for using Google X-Ray effectively
Here are some tips to use Google X-Ray search most effectively:
- Add site: search operator – Use “site:” to scan your entire site, e.g. “site:www.example.com”.
- Analyze key pages – Prioritize important pages like homepage, blog, contact pages.
- Compare to competitors – Run X-Rays on competitors’ sites to analyze their SEO.
- Check mobile usability – Use the mobile user agent in Google Search Console to X-Ray the mobile version of pages.
- Automate with plugins – Use SEO tools like Moz and Ahrefs to run automated X-Ray reports.
- Download X-Ray reports – Click the download icon in the top right to save reports as PDFs.
Leveraging these tips will help you scale X-Ray search across entire sites and gather actionable SEO insights.
Limitations of Google X-Ray search
While highly useful, Google X-Ray does have some limitations to be aware of:
- Not a full crawl – X-Ray does not show completely everything about a page/site.
- Blocked by some sites – Some sites block the X-Ray user agent, preventing X-Ray data.
- Requires manual searches – Each search must be done manually one page at a time.
- May show outdated info – Data can be a few days old as Google recrawls.
- No user interface filtering – You cannot filter or customize the X-Ray view.
Despite these drawbacks, X-Ray remains an incredibly helpful SEO tool when used properly. The benefits far outweigh the limitations.
Conclusion
Google X-Ray search provides invaluable insights that can help improve your website’s SEO and user experience. With X-Ray, you can analyze page titles, metadata, content, links, and more to diagnose issues and unlock optimization opportunities.
Leveraging X-Ray for on-page optimization, site audits, content improvement, and competitor research can give you an SEO advantage. Start using it today to drill deeper into your website and unearth key insights!