In today’s digital world, having a website is essential to businesses and organisations. However, managing a website can be challenging, and one of the tools used to monitor website performance is Google Search Console. This tool can help identify any problems with your website, but it can also be problematic.
In this blog post, we’ll discuss some common issues associated with Google Search Console and how you can address them.
1. Crawl Errors
Crawl errors are errors generated when Googlebot attempts to crawl a webpage and encounters some issues. This could be due to several reasons, such as a broken link, server malfunction, URL issue, or any other issue preventing the web page from crawling.
To address crawl errors, the first step would be to identify the exact nature of the problem. For example, if the error is related to a broken link, the webmaster must check for any broken links on their website and fix them accordingly.
Similarly, if the error is related to an incorrect URL, they should try to fix or redirect it appropriately. In cases where a server malfunction causes the issue, they should contact their web host and ask them to investigate the matter further.
2. Blocked Resources
Blocked resources is an error message in the Google Search Console indicating that a specific resource is blocked from crawling and indexing by Googlebot. This means that the issue affects the performance of your website in the search engine result pages (SERPs). Fortunately, blocked resources can be quickly addressed so your website can get back on track.
To address this issue, you must first identify which page or resource the error affects. The Search Console dashboard will provide the URL of the affected page or resource. Once blocking is placed, you need to review your robots.txt file, as this is likely the source of the issue.
The robots.txt file specifies which webpages are allowed or disallowed for crawling by web crawlers like Googlebot. Check if URLs have been mistakenly excluded from crawling in your robots.txt file. If so, edit the file accordingly. Remember that it may take time for Googlebot to recognise the changes made to your robots.txt file, so give it time before checking the results.
3. Incorrect Meta Tag
An incorrect meta tag does not accurately capture the main topic of the webpage or needs to be completed in some way.
For example, if you have a webpage about cats and your meta description tag reads “learn about dogs,” this is considered an incorrect tag. As a result, when someone searches for “cats” on Google, that page may not appear in the search results.
To address these errors, you must first identify which meta tags are incorrect using Google Search Console. This tool will tell you which tags are causing problems and suggest how to improve them. Once you have identified and fixed the incorrect tags, submit a re-crawl request so that Google will pick up on the changes.
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Conclusion
We have outlined some of the most common issues with Google Search Console and provided potential solutions for addressing them. By being aware of these issues and taking proactive steps to manage them, web admins can ensure that their website remains in its best health and continues to reap the benefits of being indexed by Google.
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