Common Google Search Console Indexing Errors & What They Mean
Google Search Console is a free tool that allows website managers to measure and improve their website’s search performance. One useful feature of Google Search Console is the “Pages” tab under “Indexing”, which will show you how many pages on your website have been indexed, and how many have not. In the section labeled “Why pages aren’t indexed”, Google will provide you with a list of indexing errors that are occurring on specific pages on your website that are causing certain pages to not be indexed, meaning they can’t be discovered through Organic Search on Google. Below, we’ll discuss what some of the most common indexing errors are, what they mean, and provide you with some tips on how to fix them! If you have any questions about Google Search Console or are looking for assistance improving your website’s search visibility & performance, please contact our team at Boston Web Marketing today!
Server Error (5xx)
“Server Error (5xx)” means that your website’s server returned a 500-level error when the page was requested. If this is the case, try loading the page in your browser to see if it loads properly. If the page loads like normal and seems to be working properly, the issue may have resolved itself. You can then click “Validate Fix” within the error section on Google Search Console, which will tell Google to crawl the page again.
Excluded by ‘noindex’ tag
An “Excluded by ‘noindex’ tag” error means that the page in question has a ‘noindex’ directive on it, which signals to Google that you do not want the page to be discoverable in the search results. If you are getting this error on a page that you do in fact want to be discoverable in the search results, you’ll either need to find & change this setting within the page on your content management system or edit the page’s code directly to remove the ‘noindex’ tag.
Alternate page with proper canonical tag
An “Alternate page with proper canonical tag” error means that the page in question is viewed as a duplicate of a page that Google recognizes as canonical. This isn’t truly an error, as it just means that the “same” page has more than one URL. There isn’t anything that needs to be fixed here, as it means that one version of a duplicate page is still indexed and discoverable through organic search.
Page with redirect
A “Page with redirect” error means that the URL in question is being 301 or 302 redirected to another page. If you want this page to be indexed as it is rather than redirected to another page, you’ll need to remove the redirect through your content management system or by editing the page’s code directly.
Contact Boston Web Marketing!
If you have any questions about Google Search Console or search engine optimization, please contact our team at Boston Web Marketing today! Our SEO specialists help businesses in virtually every industry achieve higher search results! Give us a call today at (857) 526-0096 or fill out the contact form on our website, and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible!