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Googlebot Viewer

Fetch a page as a phone browser and with Googlebot's User-Agent, and see every signal that differs.

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One free run a day, no account needed
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Straight away
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The Bot Viewer fetches one page twice: once as an ordinary phone browser, and once announcing itself with Googlebot Smartphone's User-Agent. It lays the two answers side by side - status, final address, title, description, canonical, robots directives, headings, word and link counts, structured data - and marks every signal that differs. It also reads robots.txt first and tells you whether Googlebot is allowed to fetch the address at all.

A Name Is Not An Identity

Google recognises Googlebot by the address it crawls from, not by the name it gives. So a site that treats Google differently by address will serve this tool what it serves anyone, and two matching answers show only that the site does not change the page by User-Agent. We never call a match "no cloaking". For how Google itself fetched a page, URL Inspection in Search Console is the authority.

When The Googlebot Request Is Refused

Many firewalls, Cloudflare's among them, refuse a request that calls itself Googlebot but does not come from Google. That is the site protecting itself from impostors, and the result says so rather than reporting that Googlebot is blocked.

What Is The SBMM Bot Viewer?

The SBMM Bot Viewer shows how one page answers two different visitors: an ordinary phone browser, and a request carrying Googlebot Smartphone's User-Agent. Both answers are read the same way and compared signal by signal, so a changed title, a different canonical, a noindex that only one of them sees or a page that loses half its text is marked at once.

Before either request it reads the site's robots.txt and applies the rules Googlebot follows. If they tell Googlebot not to fetch the page, the Googlebot request is not sent, because Google would not send it either, and the result shows the rule that decided it.

What it cannot do is prove that Google sees the same thing. Google identifies its crawler by address, and a site can serve Google differently by address without this tool noticing. The result says so every time, and points to URL Inspection in Search Console, which shows the page as Google actually fetched and rendered it.

How To Use This Tool In 3 Steps

  1. Enter A Page

    Any public address. The page itself, not the home page, if that is the one you are worried about.

  2. robots.txt, Then Two Requests

    The rules for Googlebot are read first; then the page is fetched as a phone browser and with Googlebot's User-Agent.

  3. Read What Differs

    Every signal side by side, the ones that differ marked, and the text a crawler reads before any JavaScript runs.

Why Use This Tool

  • Side By Side

    Status, final address, title, description, canonical, meta robots, X-Robots-Tag, H1, headings, words, links and structured data types, for both answers.

  • robots.txt Applied

    The Googlebot group, or the * group when there is none, with the exact rule that allows or disallows the address.

  • Noise Ignored

    Word and link counts are only called different past a small margin, so a timestamp or a session token is not mistaken for a changed page.

  • The HTML Before JavaScript

    The first 2,000 characters of text a crawler reads without running scripts, and a note when the page's text seems to arrive only by JavaScript.

  • Honest About Firewalls

    A firewall refusing the Googlebot name is explained as a firewall stopping an impostor, not reported as Google being blocked.

  • No False All-Clear

    Two matching answers are never called "no cloaking": a User-Agent test cannot see a site that checks addresses.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is this what Googlebot actually sees?

It is what the site serves a request that uses Googlebot's name. Google identifies Googlebot by the address it crawls from, so a site that checks addresses may serve the real Googlebot something else. For Google's own view, use URL Inspection in Search Console.

The Googlebot request was refused but the browser request worked. Is Google blocked?

Almost certainly not. Firewalls such as Cloudflare refuse requests that call themselves Googlebot but do not come from Google's addresses. The real Googlebot passes that check. Search Console's crawl stats will show if Google itself is being refused.

Both answers match. Does that mean there is no cloaking?

It means the site does not change the page by User-Agent. It cannot rule out changes made by address, which is how deliberate cloaking is usually done.

Why is the text so short?

Neither request runs JavaScript, so a page that builds its content with scripts shows little text here. Google does render JavaScript, so it may index more than is shown.

Why was the Googlebot request not sent?

Because robots.txt tells Googlebot not to fetch that address. Google would not request it either, so the rule is the answer; the result names it.

How is this different from the Robots.txt Analyzer?

The Robots.txt Analyzer checks the whole file. This applies the Googlebot rules to one address and then fetches that page two ways.