Common Google Search Console Errors (and How to Fix Them Fast)

Google Search Console (GSC) is one of the most handy — and free — tools any website owner should take advantage of regularly. It provides direct feedback on how Google sees your website, alerts you to technical problems, and delivers a perspective that directly influences rankings.

However, therein lies the challenge — if you’ve spent any time in Search Console, then you know it’s full of alerts, errors, and warnings.

From “Crawled – currently not indexed” to “Mobile usability issues,” these messages can be a lot to digest.

Never fear — this article covers some of the most regularly encountered errors in Google Search Console, as well as how to quickly resolve them. With this information, your website can remain healthy, be indexed correctly, and perform better in searches.

1. Index Coverage Errors

What It Means:

The coverage report in GSC indicates what pages of yours are successfully indexed and what do not. Common index errors include:

• Submitted URL not found (404)
• Server error (5xx)
• Crawled – not yet indexed.
• Copy without a canonical chosen by the user.
• Soft 404
• Blocked by robots.txt

Why It Matters:

Without Google being able to index your pages, your pages will not show up in search results that is, no organic traffic to those URLs.

How to Fix:

       1.  Submitted URL not found (404):

• That is to say that you have uploaded a page in your sitemap that is not there.
• Fixed: delete the broken URL in your sitemap or redirect it to some other page by a 301 redirect. 

2. Server error (5xx):

• Google was unable to crawl your page with access to your server.
  Fix: Check your hosting provider, increase server response capacity, or reduce crawl load using the crawl rate settings in GSC. 

3. Crawled – currently not indexed:

• Google found the page but decided not to index it.
  Fix: Enhance the quality of content It should be original, detailed and valuable. Slim or duplicate pages are usually missed. 

4. Duplicate without user-selected canonical:

• Google has discovered several similar pages, which one should be shown, Google does not know.
• Fix: insert a rel=canonical tag to show your preference. 

5. Soft 404:

• The page resembles a 404 (empty or thin) but it is status 200 OK.
• Fix: Either be more useful or respond appropriately as a 404 status in case the page should not be there. 

6. Blocked by robots.txt:

• The page cannot be crawled by Google.
• Fix: Be sure your robots.txt file is correct and it does not contain disallow rules in case you want the page to be indexed.

2. “Alternate Page with Proper Canonical Tag”

What It Means:

Google saw a duplicate page, but detected your canonical tag correctly and understands that another page is the main source.

Why It Matters:

Although not considered an issue, it indicates that you have a number of similar pages. Further, duplicate pages can monopolize your budget, and lessen link equity.

How to Fix:

• Keep only one main version.
• Make sure you’re properly using canonical tags.
• Avoid duplicating content across different urls; /page and /page?ref=123

3. “Submitted URL Marked ‘noindex’”

What It Means:

You submitted a page to index via your sitemap, but your page is set to noindex.

Why It Matters:

This confuses Google — you want it to index the page, but also want it to set to noindex.

How to Fix:

• If you do want it indexed → Remove noindex
• If you do NOT want it indexed → Remove from sitemap.

4. Sitemap Errors

What It Means:

Your sitemap comprises of URLs that are blocked or invalid, or that return errors.

Why It Matters:

A sitemap helps Google locate your pages faster. If there is even a single error with your sitemap, it will slow down indexing and potentially stop the indexing process altogether.

How to Fix:

• You can easily create a clean sitemap with tools like XML-Sitemaps.com or Yoast SEO.
• When fixing your sitemap – make sure:
  • URLs return a 200 status code
  •  No redirects or pages are blocked in robots.txt or elsewhere
  • The sitemap file is under 50MB or less than 50,000 URLs

Then, once you have generated a clean sitemap, you will want to re-submit your sitemap in GSC → Indexing → Sitemaps.

5. Mobile Usability Errors

What It Means:

Google detected some issues with how your site appears on mobile devices.Common issues include:

• Clickable elements being too close together
• Your text is too small
• Your content is larger than the screen
• Your viewport is not set 

Why It Matters:

With mobile-first indexing, Google is now primarily using the mobile version of your site for ranking and indexing.

How to Fix:

• Use responsive design (CSS flex/grid).
• Set your viewport meta tag:
  <meta name=”viewport” content=”width=device-width, initial-scale=1″>
• Increase font size (16px minimum)
• Space out your clickable elements
• And you can use Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test to test your page. 

6. Core Web Vitals Issues

What It Means:

Core Web Vitals measure the actual user experience on your site. The three main metrics are:

• LCP (Largest Contentful Paint): Loading performance
• FID (First Input Delay): Interactivity
• CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift): Visual stability 

Why It Matters:

Core Web Vitals affect SEO rankings and user satisfaction.

How to Fix:

• For LCP: Optimize images (WebP, lazy loading).
• For FID: Minimize JavaScript, and use async/defer attributes.
• For CLS: Always specify image dimensions and do not insert elements above existing content.

Pagespeed Insights, Lighthouse, and other tools can identify problem pages you can test and improve.

7. “Excluded by ‘noindex’ Tag”

What It Means:

Pages have been excluded from indexing on purpose by a noindex tag.

Why It Matters:

If your important pages (blog, products, etc.) are being excluded accidentally, you are missing out on important visibility.

How to Fix:

• Check the pages with noindex tags by using SEO auditing tools.
• Keep the noindex tag for admin, thank-you, or test pages.
• Remove the noindex tag for any content you want to rank.

8. “Blocked Due to Access Forbidden (403)”

What It Means:

Your webpage has denied access by Googlebot.

Why It Matters:

This may be simply a misconfiguration that blocks Google from accessing areas of your site that are important.

How to Fix:

• Make sure your .htaccess file doesn’t have any restrictions by IP or bot. 
• Your firewall or security plugins (if you have any) aren’t blocking Googlebot either. 
• Try using the URL Inspection Tool → “Test Live URL” to see the response code.

9. “Submitted URL Returns Unauthorized (401)”

What It Means:

Page requires a login, or is being restricted.

Why It Matters:

Google cannot crawl behind login walls — meaning these pages cannot be indexed, and private pages will not be indexed.

How to Fix:

• Remove authentication on pages that you want to be public. 
• If you have a members-only section and want these pages to have some authority, you can use structured data and gated-content SEO best practices.

10. “Page with Redirect”

What It Means:

A link provided in your sitemap redirects to another page.

Why It Matters:

Redirects utilize crawl budget and create confusion for Google.

How to Fix:

• You should remove redirected URLs from your sitemap. 
• Leave the URL for the destination only. 
• Additionally, always use 301 redirects when you want to permanently move a page and reserve 302 redirects for temporary moves.

11. “Alternate Page with Canonical Tag” vs “Duplicate Page without Canonical”

What It Means:

Both refer to duplicate content with the only difference being that one is done correctly (tagged with a canonical tag) and one is not.

Why It Matters:

Duplicate pages dilute ranking signals.

How to Fix:

• Always set rel=”canonical” on duplicate or similar pages. 
• Consolidate thin pages into one authoritative version.

12. “Discovered – Currently Not Indexed”

What It Means:

Google is aware of the page’s existence but is yet to crawl it.

Why It Matters:

Most of the time, it means that your site has low authority or limitations in crawl budget.

 How to Fix:

• Add internal link targeting to your page. 
• Manually submit the page through URL Inspection → Request Indexing. 
• Additionally, improve the quality of the page (unique content, fast loading).

13. “Submitted URL Seems to Be a Soft 404”

What It Means:

Google considers that there is no valuable content on your page, even if it has returned a “200 OK”.

Why It Matters:

Soft 404s can negatively affect your SEO if they impact your legitimate content.

How to Fix:

• Add content to the page that is useful and relevant to the target audience. 
• If the page is not valuable, change the response code to 404 instead.

14. “AMP Errors”

What It Means:

Your Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) are not correctly set up.

Some common AMP issues include:

• Invalid HTML tags
• Missing mandatory attributes
• Structured data errors

How to Fix:

• You can use the AMP Test Tool, available on the “GSC” site, to see what your issues are. 
• You can also validate your AMP code at amp.dev/validator. 
• You would correct any syntax errors and resubmit the affected URL.

15. “Manual Actions”

What It Means:

Google’s human reviewers have determined that you violated webmaster guidelines (e.g., spammy links, or cloaking).

Why It Matters:

Manual actions can lead to pages or the site itself being completely de-indexed.

How to Fix:

• Go to Search Console → Security & Manual Actions → Manual Actions.
• Identify the problem (e.g. unnatural links, thin content, hidden text, etc.).
• Resolve it, and then click “Request Review” (here’s the important part), make sure to include detailed information in the provided field with instructions so Google can properly investigate and verify that the problems have been resolved.

How to Prevent Future Google Search Console Errors

1. Submit a Clean Sitemap monthly. Make sure that you constantly keep your URLs fresh and remove URLs for deleted pages.
2. Regularly carry out Technical SEO Audits – check and see what tools like Ahrefs, Screaming Frog, and Sitebulb will help you in your reporting and analysis.
3. Monitor Core Web Vitals via Search Console, especially after any design or layout changes.
4. Make sure your robots.txt file does not block important sections of the site (for example, the site’s stylesheets).
5. Set up email alerts in Google Search Console for any issues or errors that come up – that way you could be made aware of any changes immediately. 
6. Make sure to check out “URL Inspection”, often or prior to a new piece of content going live – it’s a great way to check for indexation and rendering issues for specific pages.

Final Thoughts

Google Search Console is not a mere SEO reporting tool, but it also serves as a direct connection between your site and Google.

Overlooking mistakes may cost you status, reputation, and traffic.

The trick is to do it quickly: find the problem, correct it correctly, and check it in GSC.

By making vigilant upkeep and by regular vigilance, you will be assured that your site is error-free and search-optimized in the coming five years – in 2025 and onwards.

FAQs on Google Search Console Errors