Google Search Console Tools Begin To Match URL Inspection Tool

Google has updated three of its public facing Search Console tools to match and “align” to the URL Inspection tool in Google Search Console. Specifically the AMP, Mobile Friendly, and Rich Results tools are now visually and functionality similar and the same as the URL Inspection tool.

Here is how the mobile friendly test looks like side by side in the public facing tool (image on the left) and the URL inspection tool (image on the right) – click on the image to see the full size:

Now the user interfaces and the functionality are the same, Google said it is making “changes in their designs and improving features to be fully aligned with the URL Inspection tool.” “The changes include standardization of previous features, plus new features that you may be familiar with from the URL Inspection tool. Specifically, from now on the following fields will be reported both on public testing and URL inspection tools.”

• Page availability – Whether Google was able to crawl the page, when it was crawled, or any obstacles that it encountered when crawling the URL.
• HTTP headers – The HTTP header response returned from the inspected URL.
• Page screenshot – The rendered page as seen by Google.
• Paired AMP inspection, Inspect both canonical and AMP URL.

This is a good thing because having multiple tools from Google that show different things can confuse its audience, like we saw yesterday.

Another good thing about todays update to the Rich Results testing tool is that you can choose to view the rendered HTML/screenshot for either mobile or desktop whereas URL Inspector doesn’t give you the option. Useful for debugging. https://t.co/SH2gvWMoKV pic.twitter.com/P4HDqGD8uD

— Michelle (@Shelliweb) October 11, 2021

Forum discussion at Twitter.