Here’s How to Fix Common Google Search Console Errors

To succeed with SEO, there is one search engine you need to appease more than any other: Google. That is obvious. What’s less obvious is the SEO tools that you should use to plan, implement, and refine your marketing strategy. After all, there are countless tools – both paid and free – on the market today.

However, there’s no denying the importance of using Google Search Console (GSC).

Google Search Console offers a range of features that can benefit your SEO campaign. One of its main features is the ability to check if Google encounters any issues when trying to crawl and index your website.

Learn more: What Is Google Search Console?

As it makes up the bulk of organic search traffic, the last thing you want is errors in Google. It’s essential your site shows up in the search engine results pages (SERPs) without any problems.

Yet errors can happen. If Google Search isn’t working, make sure to use the Google Search Console to check for these common errors. We’ll also show you how to fix them successfully.

Why Is Google Search Not Working?

Before getting into the errors that typically happen, you might be wondering why Google Search’s not working in the first place.

There are various reasons that could lead to you asking why Google Search is not working for your website. The host for your site can often be the source of the problem if it’s misconfigured, overloaded, or down for an extended period.

A common problem that results in console errors is a poor website migration. If you fail to use the right plan to migrate your site, this can lead to a whole host of problems that negatively impact your Google status. SitemapA site map is a list of pages on your site and their relative importance. Use sitemaps to make it easier for visitors to find what they're looking for, and to ensure that search engines can find all the information they need. issues, robots.txt. files, improper redirectsA redirect is a web page that loads in place of another web page., etc., can all be problematic.

That’s why you need to hire a professional outlet – like us! – if you are doing a massive undertaking such as a website migration.

Google Search Console Issues: What Is The Most Common Google Search Problem?

To know how to fix Google search results, you first need to understand what you’re dealing with in terms of errors. While there are many different types of errors that can occur, there are six common ones that require highlighting. These are:

• Redirect error
• Server error (5xx)
• Marked ‘noindex’
• Blocked by robots.txt fileA robots.txt file is a simple text document that you can use to control the behavior of search engine crawlers in your site directory.
• 404 Not Found
• Soft 404 errorA soft 404 error occurs when a URL is configured to return a 404 status code.

Let’s take a closer look at each of these console error examples.

Related content: Drop in KeywordKeywords are the words and phrases that potential customers might search for to find your business. Rankings and How to Fix It

Redirect Error

“Failed: redirect error”

“Page is not indexed: page with redirect”

“page with redirect”

Google Search Console can throw up a few different messages when it comes to redirect problems. In general, redirect errors occur when Google’s bots have failed to reach your destination URL after using the redirect you set up. Here are some of the reasons why that happens:

• Redirect loop: Redirect loops can be inadvertently created if you have been using redirects for some time. This is where redirects point to other redirects in a continual loop, never actually reaching a live URL.
• Empty or bad URL: A redirect chain can be ruined with just a single empty or bad URL present.
• A chain that’s too long: Speaking of the redirect chain, problems can also occur if too many redirects exist in a row.
• Max character length exceeded: If you use a URL redirect that is too long in character length, your website won’t be crawled by the Google bot.

How To Fix Redirect Error In Google Search Console

Fixing a redirect error involves two different elements. The first involves knowing the final URL. The second is identifying the original redirect. Although this can be done manually, it is advised to receive assistance – especially if you are dealing with a sizeable number of redirect errors.

There are many SEO tools available that can help in that regard. However, SEO Audit services are an efficient, easy way to correct Google Search Console redirect errors.

Server Error (5xx)

Server errors come in various different forms. However, if you have encountered this issue, it will usually be due to the server taking too long to respond.

It may seem harsh, but a GooglebotGooglebot is a web crawler. It follows links and indexes pages for search engines to make it easier for users to find what they're looking for. won’t wait forever for your website’s server to load. It will abandon ship if the server fails to load within a set period of time. The result: the request times out, your site isn’t crawled, and it doesn’t get indexed.

What does the 5xx refer to, exactly? Well, the most common server errors are usually represented by a three-figure code beginning with 5. These include 500, 502, and 503.

• 500: Internal Server Error. Requests are not being processed due to server technical issues. An example of this would be an improper PHP code.
• 502: Bad Gateway. If an upstream fails to respond, the request is delayed and results in a 502 error. An example would be a WordPress CMS issue.
• 503: Service Unavailable. When the server is down or too busy, this results in a 503 error. An example is if your server is overloaded with a sudden surge of traffic.

Fixing Server Errors In Google Search Console

The good news is that Google offers a free diagnostic tool you can use for this purpose. Fetch as Google is a tool that allows you to enter your website URL and see if it can crawl it without any problems. This is useful when diagnosing specific server errors.

You can try these other manual approaches to fix server errors:

• Refresh the page
• Check your CMS
• Check the PHP memory limit
• Clear the browser cache

Read more: What Is Google Cache?

Marked ‘Noindex’

The bad news: ‘noindex’ is a common issue picked up by Google Search Console. The good news: it is easy to fix.

How does a page end up being marked as ‘noindex’? Well, it could have been something you forgot about. It might even be the result of a mistake, as noindexThe noindex meta tag tells search engines not to index the page and show it in search results. pages can emanate from X-Robots-Tag.

The problem is if you tell Google to crawl a noindex-tagged page, they will quickly become confused, and that’s why the issue appears in the GSC.

Fixing Marked ‘Noindex’ Errors

All you have to do is remove the noindex tag from any affected pages. You can find noindex-marked pages through the robots.txt file and HTTP responses.

Blocked By Robots.Txt File

If the Google Search Console errors list places this one on your plate, it’s because your robots.txt file couldn’t be retrieved.

Robots.txt files are useful when you don’t want certain pages to be indexed by Google. For example, this could be an admin page, which has no value from an SEO perspective. When your robots.txt file cannot be loaded by Google, this error crops up. This needs to be corrected ASAP, as your site will no longer be crawled or indexed.

Fixing Blocked By Robots.Txt File

A robots.txt tester, as the name suggests, is one of the most suitable ways to resolve this issue. When you utilise this tool, it will alert you about the file and if it is suffering from a problem that needs fixing. A manual inspection is also recommended to configure the file correctly.

If that’s not something you fancy doing on your own, an Enterprise SEO solution could be the right fit for you.

404 Not Found

It’s highly likely you have seen a 404 Not Found page before. This is where a page no longer exists on your website, but Google still attempts to crawl it.

Although Google says 404 pages won’t necessarily damage your SERP rankings, our SEO Consultancy Team would always advise you to get rid of all 404 Not Found errors.

How To Fix 404 Not Found Pages

There are various options to fix this problem. You can correct the affected Google Search Console pages with redirects. By doing so, you simply point users to an active page on your website.

Another method is to check the affected page is published. If it remains in draft mode, this might be causing the 404 Not Found problem.

Soft 404 Error

Few have heard about a Soft 404 Google Search Console error before encountering one. So what is it, exactly? As with the aforementioned 404 Not Found error, a soft 404 also leads to the page not being available. The difference is that while it isn’t there, it says it is to the Google crawler.

How To Fix A Soft 404 Error

If your submitted URL seems to be a Soft 404, you want to confirm – and correct – this as quickly as possible. This can be done by looking at the HTTP header code and correcting it to return with a 404 or 410 code.

Conclusion

Whether it is a 404 Not Found page or redirect error, Google Search Console is an essential tool for picking up on issues that could be holding back your SEO efforts. However, the problem with technical SEO work like this is that it requires ample effort and expertise. Rather than take it on by yourself, think about using our Fully Managed SEO service. With this, you don’t have to worry about console errors any longer!