Google Search Console (GSC) is a free tool. It helps you keep an eye on how well your website is doing on Google. GSC checks if your site is working right and helps you find and fix any issues that might stop it from showing up in Google’s search results. I’ve gathered a list of common problems GSC tells you about. I’ll also help you figure out why there’s a problem and, in most cases, how to fix it.
URL Problems: Pages Not Showing Up After Submission
There are three reasons why Google might not be showing certain pages from your site. Why does it matter? If a page can’t be shown in the search results, you’re not getting any SEO benefits.
Pages Blocked by robots.txt Issue: You asked Google to show this page, but it’s being stopped by the robots.txt file. This file gives rules for Google’s “bot” (also called Googlebot) to follow. If any rule says not to show a page, it won’t be shown. This creates a conflict since you wanted the page to show.
How to Fix: Use the robots.txt tester to check the problem. You might have a rule blocking more pages than you know. To show a specific page, change the robots.txt file or the page itself so it follows the rule.
Page Is Marked “No Index” Issue: You wanted Google to show this page, but it has a “noindex” directive, found in a meta tag or HTTP header. This is like the previous issue – you’re giving Google mixed signals about what to do with the page.
How to Fix: If you want the page to show, remove the “noindex” tag or header.
Page Has a Crawl Issue: Google faced an unknown problem when checking the page. There could be various reasons, but Google doesn’t give more details.
How to Fix: Use the URL inspection tool in Google Search Console to understand the issue. You might need to talk to your developers to figure out the real problem behind this error.
Page Not Found: Understanding 404 Errors
When Googlebot encounters a “404 error,” it means it can’t find a page. This can happen if the page is no longer where the bot can reach it, or the page is now empty. 404 errors are quite common as websites evolve and change. They are not always a big issue. Let’s break down when this error might happen and what you can do (if anything) to fix it.
Submitted URL Seems to Be a Soft 404
Issue: You wanted this page to show up in searches, but the server now returns a blank or nearly blank page.
Fix: If the page is gone with no clear replacement, make your server return a 404 (not found) or 410 (gone) response code. If the page moved or has a clear replacement, set up a 301 redirect (a permanent redirect).
Submitted URL Not Found (404)
Issue: A URL in your sitemap doesn’t exist anymore. Sometimes, it’s okay to remove a page (creating a 404). For instance, if you discontinued a product without a replacement or deleted old blog posts with no traffic, links, or keyword ranking.
Fix: Not all 404s need fixing. If a URL should exist but moved, add a 301 redirect. Do the same if a discontinued product has a good replacement (like a newer model). If the URL is unknown or you want to delete the content permanently, you can ignore the 404 error. Eventually, Googlebot will stop searching for these pages.
Server Trouble: Understanding 5XX Errors
When Google Search Console tells you about a server error (5XX), it means Googlebot couldn’t reach your URL. This might happen if the request took too long or your site was too busy, causing Googlebot to give up. There are various reasons for this error, and sometimes you might need help from your development team or server host to fix it.
Issue: Your server gave a 500-level error when the page was requested. Here’s how to fix these errors:
Dynamic page requests can slow things down. Check them and reduce the page load time if needed.
Make sure your site’s hosting server is not down, overloaded, or set up incorrectly.
Check that your site is not unintentionally blocking Google.
Be smart about allowing search engines to crawl and index your site. Some website owners intentionally block Googlebot from accessing their sites to control how it’s crawled and indexed. Talk to your developers to ensure your site is working at its best.
Fixing Page Moves: Understanding Redirect Errors
When you shift or delete a page on your site, it’s a good idea to create a 301 redirect. This tells the web browser that the page has moved and guides it to the new location.
However, problems can arise if pages move too many times or end up back where they started.
Issue: Redirect errors usually happen because of:
A redirect chain that’s too long (keep it to 3 max).
A redirect loop (like A pointing to B, which points back to A).
The redirect URL becomes too long, especially with layered navigation or added query parameters.
A bad or empty URL in the redirect chain.
Fixing these errors: Review all your redirects and aim for a single redirect whenever you can. The “Ayima” Chrome Extension is helpful. It can spot if a page has been redirected, where it goes, and how many redirects happened. This way, you can find and solve problems on a page-by-page basis.
Troubles with New Products
Google Search Console has warnings and errors related to your product details, called Structured Data Markup (SDM). Use the Structured Data Testing Tool to find out what’s missing or set up incorrectly. Refer to schema.org and Google Search Console’s guide to understand how structured data works and get help fixing these problems.
Missing “Offers,” “Review,” or “aggregateRating”
Issue: Product pages must have at least one of these elements in the SDM.
How to Fix: Add one of these elements to the page or template HTML. These are usually parent elements with child elements like type, URL, ratingValue, or reviewCount.
No “Price” Field
Issue: The necessary price field should be in the format of ##.##
How to Fix: Make sure to include the price in the SDM as “87.99” (without a dollar sign). If you don’t show prices on your site, leave out these fields.
Rating Without Required Best and/or Worst Values
Issue: If you include product ratings or reviews, you need to specify the range for “bestRating” and/or “worstRating” for each product.
How to Fix: Usually, bestRating is 5, while worstRating is 1.
Negative Value in “ratingCount” Property
Issue: This property should have the total number of ratings on the product page.
How to Fix: It’s okay if this is 0 with no reviews yet, but it can never be negative. Keep it positive.
Trouble with Video Pages: Detecting Indexing Issues
If your website has videos, you might get an error if they’re not set up correctly. Here are some common errors I’ve recently seen in Google Search Console:
No Thumbnail URL Provided or Missing “thumbnailUrl” Field
Issue: Google couldn’t make a thumbnail for the video, you didn’t say where to find one, or there’s no thumbnail info in your video structure.
How to Fix: Add a link to a thumbnail image for the video. If using VideoObject schema, make sure there’s a link to its thumbnail image.
Video Outside the Viewport
Issue: Part of the video is outside the visible area when the page loads.
How to Fix: Put the whole video in the main content area so it’s visible when the page loads.
Unsupported Video Format
Issue: Google can’t handle the video file format.
How to Fix: Use a supported format like .mp4, .mpeg, or .webm. Don’t add extra characters to the video filename.
Thumbnail Could Not Be Reached
Issue: The video’s thumbnail couldn’t be accessed from the provided URL.
How to Fix: Make sure the image isn’t password-protected or hard to reach.
Missing “uploadDate” Field
Issue: In your VideoObject structure, you didn’t say when the video was added to the site.
How to Fix: Include the date when the video was added.
It’s crucial to fix these issues quickly so your videos can show up in Google Search’s rich results.
Mobile User-Friendly Website: Spotting and Solving
In this era, many people use the internet on their mobile phones. It is important to have a fast and user-friendly website for mobile devices. Mobile usability errors can help you identify issues that may make it difficult for some users to navigate your site.
Google Search Console Errors: Identifying and Resolving Them
Clickable Elements Too Close Together
Issue: Elements like buttons are too close, making it hard for mobile users to tap without hitting the wrong thing.
To fix the problem, change the size and spacing of touch elements for people using mobile devices. Use Google’s Accessibility Styles Guidelines. Make sure the elements are at least 48 pixels in size and have a spacing of 8 pixels between them.
Viewport Not Set
Issue: Your page doesn’t define a viewport property, affecting how the page adjusts to different screen sizes.
How to Fix: Specify a viewport using the meta viewport tag. The recommended setting is. Also, avoid using large, fixed-width elements that can’t scale down, forcing users to scroll side to side.
Content Wider Than Screen
The problem is that pages need to be scrolled horizontally. This happens because of absolute values in CSS or images that are made for certain browser widths.
How to Fix: Ensure pages use relative width and position values for CSS elements.
Text Too Small to Read
Issue: Font size is too small, making it hard for mobile users to read without zooming in.
How to Fix: After setting a viewport, scale font sizes properly within it. Use relative units like em or rem instead of pixel values.
Excluded From Indexing Errors
In this report, you might spot many pages not included in Google’s list. Some are okay, but a few can be worrisome. Let’s explore the top 5 exclusions:
Crawled – Currently Not Indexed
Issue: Google checked your page but decided not to list it.
How to Fix: Use a site:search in Google to check if the pages are indexed. If not, confirm they’re in your sitemap, not blocked in robots.txt, not duplicated, and have the right meta robots tags. If everything’s fine, wait for Google to recrawl or use the URL Inspection tool when available.
Crawl Anomaly
Issue: Google couldn’t access the page(s).
How to Fix: Use the URL Inspection tool for errors or try an SEO tool like ScreamingFrog for issues.
Duplicate without User-Selected Canonical
Issue: Google found multiple versions, but none have a specified canonical tag, so it won’t index.
To fix this issue, you need to add correct canonical tags. You should redirect any unnecessary versions to the main page. Also, you can canonicalize additional variations to the primary URL. This will help preserve your crawl budget and keywords.
Duplicate, Submitted URL Not Selected As Canonical
Issue: Similar to the above, but arises when you’ve requested indexing on a URL, and Google prefers another.
How to Fix: Add correct canonical tags. If the primary URL is different, canonicalize the additional URLs to that.
Discovered – Currently Not Indexed
Issue: Google knows the page but couldn’t crawl it.
How to Fix: Ensure Googlebot can access your site, isn’t slowed down by a crawl delay, or facing overload.
While these are the main 5, there are 15 exclusion types in Google Search Console. Check the Search Console Help page for more details on each.
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