Last month Google released a new API for Search Console — the URL Inspection API. Now you have a developer tool that can debug and optimize your web pages. Isn’t that great!
While launching this tool, Google said, “Today we’re launching the new Google Search Console URL Inspection API, which gives programmatic access to URL-level data for properties you manage in Search Console.”
The Search Console APIs are a way to access data outside of Search Console, through external applications and products. Developers and SEO tools already use the APIs to build custom solutions to view, add, or remove properties and sitemaps, and to run advanced queries on sarch performance data.
With the new URL Inspection API, we’re providing a new tool for developers to debug and optimize their pages. You can request the data Search Console has about the indexed version of a URL; the API will return the indexed information currently available in the URL Inspection tool.”
How the new API works:
You need to make an API call. The request parameters include the URL you’d like to inspect and the URL of the property as defined in Search Console. Once you make the API call, you will get a response with all relevant results or an error message if the request fails.
There is a usage limit to Search Console APIs. Specifically, with regards to the URL Inspection API, the quota is enforced per Search Console website property. Queries are limited to:
- 2,000 queries per day
- 600 queries per minute
The new API looks useful and could potentially be added to CMS platforms and SEO tool sets shortly.