Let’s look at how to correct any faults after learning how to discover them in our last article.
As was already said, errors are divided into 8 categories, and each category has a different path to fixing it.
How to Fix “Submitted URL has crawl issue” Errors
When a page has crawl issues, Google is unable to index it. You must identify the precise problem, resolve it, and then submit the page to Google once more.
- The INSPECT URL button must be clicked first.
- Then from the right menu, select MORE INFO and VIEW Crawled Page.
The inability of certain of the page resources (images, CSS, and JavaScript) to load when Google attempted to index the page is one of the most frequent causes of crawl difficulties.
Before investigating further, you should:
- Open a new browser window and visit the page. If it loads ok then most probably the errors were temporary.
- Click the TEST LIVE URL button to force Google to refresh the error report.
- Review the details in MORE INFO again.
- Click the REQUEST INDEXING button to re-submit the page to Google.
Go back to the Index Coverage Report and to the page that has issues and click the VALIDATE FIX button.
Google will send you an email to let you know how your indexing request fared.
After pressing the TEST LIVE URL button, if errors or resources are still not identified, you should correct the errors by altering your HTML code before requesting indexing and validating the correction.
How to Fix “Submitted URL not found (404)” errors
These flaws are simple to correct. It simply indicates that a page might have been discovered by the Google bot during the indexing process.
This can usually be a false alarm. Therefore, the first step is to ensure that the page is indeed not discovered.
Click the INSPECT URL button after selecting a page from the list.
Open a new browser tab and enter the URL while you wait for Google Index to retrieve the data.
If a page from your website is found and you want to add it to the Google Index, then:
- Click the TEST LIVE URL option.
- Simply click REQUEST INDEXING.
- Click VALIDATE FIX on the report after returning there.
You have two choices if this website does really return a 404 error and you don’t want Google to crawl it::
Let’s first leave it alone. The page will progressively be taken out of Google’s index. For pages that have been deleted for a legitimate reason or are no longer valid, this is anticipated and normal.
Second, use a 301 redirection to reroute the page to a relevant page on your website.
How to Fix Server Error (5xx)
The Google bot was unable to access the pages listed here either because the server was down or unavailable at the time.
Normally, no Server Errors should be reported. If you get a LOT of errors, your server is having problems, and you should look into this further to determine why.
If you have a few errors, it’s likely that the website was momentarily inaccessible; as a result, you can ask Google to re-index the page.
Observe these steps:
You will see a menu with alternatives on the right after clicking one of the impacted pages.
Url is not on Google: indexing errors
If you get the message “url is not on google: indexing errors” it means that Google has either removed the URL from their index because they could not access it or it’s not in their index because when they first tried to crawl it was not available.
Follow these steps:
Open a new browser window and navigate to the URL. If it loads ok then go back to GSC and click the TEST LIVE URL button.
Google will re-fetch the page and provide you with further information. If the problem was only momentary, you can re-submit the page to Google by selecting the REQUEST INDEXING button.
You must identify the issue if the page won’t load in your browser before returning to GSC, clicking TEST LIVE URL, and then REQUEST INDEXING.
Consider adding a “noindex” header tag to the page and removing it from your sitemap if you are unable to fix the mistake. This will tell Google to stop visiting the page and to stop informing users of any issues with it.
How to Fix Redirect Errors
Because the page redirects to a page that doesn’t exist or isn’t functioning, the Google bot was unable to reach the page when you receive a “redirect error”.
Errors in redirection are fixed using the same process as before.
- Click the “INSPECT URL” button
- Learn more about the errors
- Click the TEST LIVE URL button
- Correct the issue and hit “REQUEST INDEXING”
- Return and select “VALIDATE FIX.”
A message reading “PASSED” will appear in the validation column if everything is correct and the mistake has been repaired.
How to Fix “Submitted URL seems to be a soft 404” Errors
A soft 404 error indicates that a page could not be discovered (because it is not there), but instead of notifying search engines to ignore it, it instead returned a legitimate code.
On your website, there can be some pages that visitors can only access after carrying out a particular action.
For illustration, suppose users only see your checkout page AFTER adding an item to their shopping cart.
Google will attempt to crawl the page if it is still listed in your sitemap, but it won’t be able to because there are no products in the basket.
What to do for soft 404 errors?
- For invalid pages, you must either send a 404 error code or
- Take them out of your sitemap so that Google can’t find them.
- Send them to a legitimate page
- Avoid action. Soft 404 errors can occasionally occur and are expected.
How to Fix “Submitted URL marked ‘noindex’” Errors
This is not a mistake at all. This indicates that although a page was submitted for indexing (through your sitemap), search engines were told not to include it in their index since it contained the “noindex” directive.
Check the list of pages with the “noindex” tag to make sure you don’t want them included in the Google index.
Remove the page directive from the header of any pages that were inadvertently marked as “noindex” and REQUEST INDEXING.
How to Fix “Submitted URL blocked by robots.txt” Errors
A rule in your robots.txt file advises search engines not to index a page that is submitted for indexing (through your sitemap).
The same process as described above should be used to determine whether the pages should be excluded from Google’s index.
How to Fix “Submitted URL returns unauthorized request (401)” Errors
Your sitemap contains a page that Google cannot access because it is password-protected.
These pages are not accessible to the general public, thus you should:
- Take them off of your sitemap.
- In the page’s header, include a “noindex” directive.
- In your robots.txt file, block the directory (or protected regions).
How to Use the URL Inspection Tool
You can use the URL Inspection tool to verify the status of any page on your website’s index, troubleshoot issues, or ask Google to re-index your entire website or a specific page.
The FECTH AS GOOGLE and BLOCKED RESOURCES report tools that were formerly present in Google Webmaster tools have been superseded by the URL inspection tool.
Simply enter any URL in the INSPECT ANY URL dropdown box located at the top of the page to use the URL inspection tool.
Either your website’s domain or a specific URL can be entered.
You can use the URL INSPECTION TOOL to fix issues that are detailed in the INDEX COVERAGE REPORT (as previously mentioned) or to:
- Submit Google your webpage once more
- Resubmit Google a specific page.
How to resubmit your website to Google
You can ask Google to re-index your website when you make a lot of changes and wish to hasten the indexing procedure.
Use the URL INSPECTION TOOL to enter your domain name.
REQUEST INDEXING by clicking.
How to resubmit a web page to Google
Use the REQUEST INDEXING button and URL INSPECTION Tool to expedite the process if a page’s content has significantly altered and you want to let Google know about the changes.
The steps are the same as when you submit your website again (explained above).
When to use the REQUEST INDEXING feature?
In most circumstances, you don’t need to use the “Request Indexing” feature because Google is quite good at picking up changes made to a website or pages.
Several authorized applications include:
- When switching domains
- As soon as you switch from http to https
- When you rebuild a website
- When you publish breaking news that has to be sent to Google.
Conclusion
When you discover issues in your Google Search Console account, don’t become alarmed. Errors are frequently valid and anticipated.
Since CRAW ISSUES and NOT FOUND (404) problems directly affect your rankings, fixing them should be your top focus.
