Google Search Console is one of the most underrated technical SEO tools out there. It shows you everything that is working and everything that is not on your website. However, many marketers fail to address the most common Google Search Console errors which secretly hurt their ranking and performance.
Everyone is always busy with creating fresh content and monitoring algorithms while some simply forget about GSC and use other technical SEO tools but the reality is: your website will never be able to rank if Google is unable to crawl and index your pages. Technical SEO is key to having a healthy website.
In this article, you will learn how to resolve Google Search Console errors, why do they happen, and how to avoid them in the future. Let’s find out the seven most important Google Search Console errors that you should fix right away.
1. Crawled – Currently Not Indexed Error
What does this mean?
Crawled Currently Not Indexed
This is the most critical error in google search console. It shows that Google bot has crawled your page but has decided not to index it. In other words, Google knows about the existence of this page but thinks that it is not worth adding to the index.
Why this error happens:
- Thinness, duplicity, and poor-quality of the content
- Pages that add no or little value
- Poor internal linking or orphan pages
- Over-optimized or spammy content
How to solve this problem:
To fix this problem you will need to:
Improve page content making it more quality, informative and unique; don’t forget to add internal linking.
Remove all unnecessary or duplicate URLs, if the page is not needed, either delete it or add a canonical URL.
If you have ever been curious why certain pages are not indexed on Google, now you know the answer.
2. Discovered – Currently Not Indexed
What it means:
It is also the most important error which implies that Google bot knows about the presence of your page but hasn’t crawled it yet. The page is “discovered” but hasn’t got into the crawl queue. One of the more annoying indexing problems in Google Search Console and how to index your website in Google
Why it happens:
- Wasted crawl budget on duplicates or irrelevant URLs
- Poor internal linking
- Too many low quality pages trying to be indexed
- Content theft
How to solve it:
Remove low quality URLs from your sitemap. Make your internal linking from the homepage or category page better. Also make sure there are no unnecessary “noindex” tags or blocked URLs in robots.txt.
Once you solve this problem you’ll experience indexing faster and will know the reason why certain pages aren’t indexed on Google.
3. Soft 404 Errors
What it is all about:
Everything you should know about the soft 404 error involves situations in which the page looks like missing yet is still being served up as a 200 page status code. Such pages include those which only have a few lines of content or some incomplete sections with images. Such pages are consuming the crawling budget, and Google views them as broken pages despite the server view on them.
Why does it happen?
- Product or category pages with no results displayed
- Empty blog pages
- Product pages with no information due to being out of stock
- Pages for login and restricted areas which do not give the appropriate status code
How to solve it:
Give the correct 404 or 410 status code for deleted pages. When there is a temporary problem like out of stock products, ensure that there is useful information on the pages like product description, other products or FAQs.
4. Redirect Errors (Chains and Loops)
The meaning:
It refers to redirects that occur through a series of redirects, such as 301 redirect or site migrations or in an endless circle of redirects (redirect loops). This causes inefficiency for crawlers and frustration for the user.
Reasons for this error:
- Poor management of redirects in case of migration
- Conflicts among plugins or CMS systems
- Stale redirects
How to fix it:
For fixing this issue, your redirects must be in a way such that it leads to the final destination immediately without any extra hops. You can use tools such as Ahrefs or Screaming Frog for testing.
5. Server Errors (5xx)
What it means:
This is a server-related issue where Google cannot reach your site due to server load or technical server problems. It indicates the inability of the website server to properly respond, thus not allowing Googlebot to crawl or render the pages.
Why it happens:
- Host overload during high traffic
- Conflicts between the plugin and PHP
- Database load problem
- Shared hosting with fewer available resources
How to solve it:
Review the server log to find patterns. In case you see such errors during busy times, consider upgrading your hosting or opting for the dedicated server. In case you have WordPress, test your plugins individually.
6. Blocked by robots.txt
What it means:
This warning implies that some key pages or other assets on your website are blocked due to a robots.txt file. When Google is not able to crawl these pages, it will prevent them from showing up in search results.
Why it happens:
- Incorrect directives in the robots.txt file in the early stages of development
- Blocking whole folders such as /blog/ and /category/
- Preventing access to CSS or JS files required for rendering on mobile devices
What to do:
Check your robots.txt file at digichefs.com/robots.txt and ensure that only the areas which are not essential, such as /admin/ and /search/, are blocked. Also make sure that CSS and JS files are accessible so that Google can render pages.
7. Mobile Usability Issues
What it means:
If you have mobile usability issues, then your website does not display correctly on a mobile device, which could seriously damage your SEO since Google employs mobile-first indexing.
Why it occurs:
- The text is too tiny to read
- Buttons are too close to one another
- Content width is too wide
- Missing viewport settings
How to solve it:
Perform a test on Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test. Implement responsive design, increase the text size, and have appropriate spacing for clicks.
The Benefits of Google Search Console
However, many SEO specialists forget about the advantages of Google Search Console and usually only use it to track traffic and queries or for technical SEO using some other tools, while Google Search Console is one of the most powerful free tools there are. With Google Search Console, you can:
- Find indexing and crawl issues
- Monitor mobile usability
- Review Core Web Vitals and site performance
- Submit sitemaps for better crawling
- Track keyword impressions and clicks
Learning how to fix Google Search Console errors will be one of the best things you can do for your site’s SEO.
Is Solving Google Search Console Errors Effective?
Without a doubt. This will not only allow Google to better comprehend your website, but also significantly improve user experience, page loading time, and visibility. There are many cases where websites receive higher rankings just after resolving their issues.
But by neglecting these errors, you are allowing potential traffic to go to waste. However, after learning how to resolve Google Search Console errors, you will notice steady progress in your SEO.
Final Thoughts
Fixing Google Search Console issues might not be exciting but it is the foundation of good SEO practices. No matter how high-quality or relevant your content or backlinks may be, they won’t work if your website cannot be crawled and indexed by search engines.
It is important to make it a practice to check the Google Search Console regularly to find and correct any technical issues before starting a new campaign.
A clean, fast, and error-free website will be well-rewarded by Google.
