How to Fix Google Search Console Page Indexing Issues?

In this article, I am going to explain to you How to fix page indexing issues coming in your Google Search Console dashboard.

Google Search Console lists down all the issues a website is facing to rank on Google Search.

Now, while you can safely ignore some of these indexing issues, some are critically important and shouldn’t be ignored.

So, let’s dive deep into the list of all page indexing issues Google Search Console is giving to the webmasters.

I will also explain to you all the methods of how to resolve each of these page indexing issues one by one and make your GSC dashboard clutter free.

List of Page Indexing Issues in Google Search Console

1. Page with Redirect
2. Redirect error
3. Server error (5xx)
4. Excluded by noindex tag
5. Blocked due to unauthorized request (401)
6. Not Found (404)
7. Soft 404
8. Blocked due to access forbidden (403)
9. Blocked due to other 4xx issue
10. Blocked by Robots.txt
11. Crawled currently not indexed
12. Discovered – currently not indexed
13. Alternative page with proper canonical tag
14. Duplicate, Google Chose different canonical than user
15. Duplicate without user-selected canonical

Warnings Related to Page Indexing

1. Indexed, though blocked by robots.txt
2. Page indexed without content

So, there are a total of 15 page indexing issues a GSC dashboard might provide you and shows you, why your webpages are not getting indexed on Google. Apart from these 15 page indexing issues, there are 2 warnings that tell you the webpages are getting indexed in Google search even though it shouldn’t be.

Now, let’s talk about each of these page indexing issues one by one and how to resolve them.

Page with Redirect

Definition

When a non-canonical URL redirects to another page, the non-canonical URL will not be indexed in the search engine. However, the target URL might or might not be indexed depends on a plethora of other conditions. 

The Page with Redirect error in the search console lists down all these non-canonical URLs.

How to Resolve Page with Redirect Issue in Google Search Console?

You may not want to index these pages but if you do, you just need to do the below two things.

1. Self canonicalize these URLs
2. Delete the Redirect

After performing these two steps, you can use Google Search Console’s live URL inspection tool to check the added canonical tag and redirection status.

Redirect Error

Google Search Console shows four types of redirect errors explained below. So, if you set up redirects on your website, make sure to avoid these mistakes.

Redirect Chain

When we set up more than one URL between two URLs, we create a redirect chain. As per Google Documentation, Googlebot follows up to 10 redirect hops. If the crawler doesn’t receive content within 10 hops, Search Console will show a redirect error in the site’s Page Indexing report.

How to Resolve the Redirect Chain Issue?

To resolve the redirect chain issue, you just need to follow one rule of thumb which is, creating a redirect pointing from Source URL to Destination URL. No URLs in between.

Redirect Loop

A redirect loop occurs when you redirect a url to another url which again redirects to the earlier url.

URL A → URL B → URL A

When you create this type of setup a user never or bot reaches a page that says ERR_TOO_MANY_REDIRECTS.

What is the difference between Redirect Loop and Redirect Chain?

Well, In redirect chain, a user may land on a page after a few redirects. However, In a redirect loop, a user never reaches a live URL.

Redirect URL exceeds Max URL Length

This error occurs when the length of the target URL you set up for redirection exceeds 2048 characters.

This prevents Googlebot from following and indexing the target page incorrectly.

You can resolve this issue by simply shortening the length of the target URL.

Bad or Empty URL in Redirect Chain

When creating the redirect if you place # in the href tag of the target URL, like href=”#” then the redirection won’t work.

So, while setting up a redirection make sure to add a working link for having the redirection working properly.

Server Error 5XX

As its name indicates, this error happens when something is not working correctly from the server side.

To solve 5xx errors on your website, you need to first understand its different types.

Types of Server Errors

Below are the most common types of 5xx server errors:

1. 500 – Internal Server Error
2. 501 – Not Implemented
3. 502 – Bad Gateway
4. 503 – Service Unavailable
5. 504 – Gateway Timeout
6. 509 – Bandwidth Limit Exceeded
7. 511 – Network Authentication Required

500 Internal Server Error

This a a generic server error and can be caused by a variety of reasons listed below.

• Script errors: Errors in PHP, Python, or other programming languages.
• Configuration errors: Incorrect settings in your web server’s configuration files.
• Database errors: Problems with your database connection or queries.
• Plugin or theme conflicts: Issues with third-party plugins or themes on your WordPress or other CMS.

Troubleshooting:

• Check server logs: Look for specific error messages that can provide clues about the root cause.
• Disable plugins or themes: If you’re using a CMS, temporarily disable plugins or themes to see if the error is resolved.
• Contact your hosting provider: If you’re unable to resolve the issue yourself, contact your hosting provider for assistance.

501 Not Implemented

This error indicates that the server does not support the requested HTTP method (e.g., PUT, DELETE).

Troubleshooting:

• Check your server configuration: Ensure that your web server is configured to support the necessary HTTP methods.
• Review your application code: Verify that your application is handling the requested HTTP method correctly.

502 Bad Gateway

This error occurs when a server acts as a gateway or proxy and receives an invalid response from the upstream server.

Troubleshooting:

• Check the upstream server: Ensure that the upstream server is running and accessible.
• Verify the gateway configuration: Make sure the gateway is configured correctly to communicate with the upstream server.

503 Service Unavailable

This error indicates that the server is temporarily unavailable due to maintenance or overload.

Troubleshooting:

• Check server status: Verify that the server is online and not undergoing maintenance.
• Monitor server load: If the server is overloaded, consider scaling up your resources.

504 Gateway Timeout

This error occurs when a server acts as a gateway or proxy and does not receive a timely response from the upstream server.

Troubleshooting:

• Check the upstream server: Ensure that the upstream server is responding within a reasonable time frame.
• Verify the gateway timeout settings: Adjust the gateway’s timeout settings if necessary.

509 Bandwidth Limit Exceeded

This error indicates that the server has reached its bandwidth limit.

Troubleshooting:

• Upgrade your hosting plan: If your website is experiencing high traffic, consider upgrading to a hosting plan with more bandwidth.
• Optimize your website: Reduce the size of your website’s files and images to improve loading times and reduce bandwidth usage.

511 Network Authentication Required

This error indicates that the client needs to authenticate with the network before accessing the server.

Troubleshooting:

• Check your network configuration: Ensure that your network is configured correctly to require authentication.
• Provide authentication credentials: If necessary, provide the required authentication credentials.

Excluded by noindex tag

The excluded by noindex tag occurs when you put a noindex meta tag (<meta name=”robots” content=”noindex”>) in the head section of an html webpage, you basically ask the search engine not to index it.

So, if you want to index a webpage make sure the noindex meta tag is not placed inside it (especially in the head section).

To check whether a noindex tag is present on the webpage, you can simply use our meta tag extractor tool.

Blocked due to unauthorized request 401

This error occurs when the Googlebot is trying to access a webpage that requires authentication. For example, login credentials.

How to Resolve Blocked due to unauthorized request (401)?

Make sure to allow Googlebot to access the webpage without requiring authentication.

However, if you want to restrict Googlebot to access the webpage, you can add the disallow directive for such pages.

Not Found 404

This error occurs when the webpage or URL Googlebot is looking for is not present.

How to Resolve 404 Not Found Error?

Check URLs: First do check the URLs are correct and free from any typos.

Fix Broken Links: Update any broken internal or external links.

Implement 301 redirects: Use 301 redirect to redirect users and search engines to the correct page if it has been moved.

Soft 404

When a page returns a 200 status code but has little or no content or is difficult to access, then a soft 404 error occurs.

How to Resolve Soft 404 error?

1. Make sure the webpage has a substantial amount of valuable content.
2. Check whether the webpage has any slow loading issues or Javascript errors that might prevent Googlebot from accessing the content.
3. Use a canonical tag when multiple versions of the same page exist.

Blocked Due to Other 4xx Issues

When Googlebot encounters a general 4xx error while trying to access a webpage, this error occurs.

How to Resolve Blocked Due to Other 4xx issues?

1. Check out the server logs for specific error messages to get more clues about the issue.
2. Check out the errors in your website’s code that might cause the 4xx error.

Blocked by Robots.txt

This error occurs when your robots.txt file is preventing Googlebot from accessing or indexing certain pages.

How to Resolve Blocked by Robots.txt error?

1. Review your robots.txt file and make sure it doesn’t block (with disallow directive) the pages you want to be indexed.
2. If you want Googlebot to index a web page, make sure to remove it from the blocked section.

Crawled Currently Not Indexed

This error means that Googlebot has crawled the webpage but hasn’t indexed it for a variety of reasons listed below.

1. Insufficient Content
2. Lack of High Quality Informative content.
3. Slow loading times
4. Javascript Issues
5. Non-inclusion in Sitemap

How to Resolve Crawled Currently Not Indexed Error?

The crawled currently not indexed issue can be resolved by taking the following steps below:

1. Make sure the webpage is included in the sitemap
2. The webpage has high quality useful content relevant to the user.
3. Make sure the web page is loading in time.
4. You can modify the web page and add more content in it to resolve this issue.

Discovered Currently Not Indexed

It means the Googlebot has discovered the webpage through links or sitemaps but hasn’t yet crawled or indexed it.

How to resolve Discovered Currently not Indexed error?

1. Include the webpage in the sitemap for improving the webpage crawl rate.
2. Add relevant helpful content in it to increase its chances of ranking in search engines.
3. Share these pages on other highly authoritative websites like Twitter, Threads, LinkedIn and more to increase its chances of ranking because users may interact with it.

Alternative Page with Proper Canonical Tag

When Googlebot identifies an alternative page with proper canonical tag then it indexes the webpage whose link is present in the canonical tag.

For example, if you put the URL B in the canonical tag of a webpage whose URL is A, then when Googlebot crawls the URL A it will index URL B.

This happens because of the definition of the canonical tag. URL A basically saying that URL B is its original version and it should be indexed.

How to resolve Alternative Page with Proper Canonical Tag error?

Well, it doesn’t mean if it falls in the indexing errors then it should be resolved.

Sometimes, we put the canonical tag on a purpose.

For example, In Paginated Pages we put the canonical tag of the first page in all the paginated pages unless and until we are sure that the other paginated pages have unique content.

Canonical tags are also applied to resolve duplicate content issues.

Duplicate without user selected canonical

This error happens when Googlebot has identified duplicate content but there is no user-specified canonical tag.

How to resolve Duplicate Google Chose different canonical than user?

1. Make sure to add proper canonical tags in the webpages.
2. If multiple pages have similar content, merge them and redirect all of them to the merged one.

Duplicate Google Chose Different Canonical than User

It happens when Googlebot has identified duplicate content and chosen a different canonical URL than the one you specified.

How to Resolve Duplicate Google chose different canonical than user?

1. Make sure the canonical tags are set correctly.
2. If multiple pages have similar content, merge them and redirect all of them to the merged one.

So, these are all the Google Search Console Page Indexing issues. You can use Google Search Console’s Coverage report for more detailed information about indexing issues and affected URLs.

This is it for the article, if you have any suggestions or thoughts make sure to have it in the comment down below.

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