What are Google Search Console Errors?

Understanding Google Search Console Page Indexing Messages

Google Search Console helps you understand how Google discovers, crawls, and indexes your website. Some of the messages in the Page Indexing Report can look alarming at first, but many of them are normal and do not indicate a problem with your site.

This article explains the most common Google Search Console Page Indexing messages, what they mean, and whether you need to take action for your PhotoBiz website.

Please Note:

PhotoBiz is not affiliated with Google. Our Support Team can help you install or verify your Google Search Console verification code. For questions about how Google Search Console works or why Google chooses to index certain pages, we recommend reviewing Google’s official Search Console documentation.

GOOGLE'S GUIDE ON PAGE INDEXING REPORT

About the Page Indexing Report

The Page Indexing Report shows how Google is handling individual pages on your website.

Only indexed pages are eligible to appear in Google search results. However, not every page on your site needs to be indexed. Google’s goal is to index the main (canonical) version of each page and ignore duplicate or alternate versions.

Because of this, many Page Indexing messages are informational, not errors.

Canonical Tags and PhotoBiz Websites

PhotoBiz automatically generates a canonical tag for every page created in the Website Builder and for every blog post.

Canonical tags are also consistently associated with:

Your website sitemap
Your RSS feed

This helps Google understand which version of each page should be treated as the primary version and prevents duplicate content issues across your site.

As a result, most canonical-related messages in Google Search Console are expected and do not require changes in PhotoBiz.

Alternate Page with Proper Canonical Tag

What it means:
Google found a duplicate or alternate version of a page and correctly indexed the main version based on the canonical tag.

What to do:
Nothing. This message confirms that your canonical tags are working as intended.

Duplicate Without User-Selected Canonical

What it means:
Google detected duplicate content and did not find a user-defined canonical preference.

What to do:
In most cases, no action is required. PhotoBiz automatically applies canonical tags to website pages and blog posts, and Google may still choose the correct version to index.

If this message appears, it usually relates to URLs generated outside of the main page structure (such as tracking parameters or alternate URL formats) rather than a problem with your site content.

Learn More:

Duplicate, Google Chose Different Canonical Than User

What it means:
Google selected a different URL as the canonical version than the one it detected.

What to do:
This does not necessarily indicate a problem. Google may choose a different version if the pages are not similar enough or if it determines another URL is a better representation of the content.

Since PhotoBiz automatically manages canonical tags, this message typically does not require changes unless the page content itself is inconsistent.

Not Found (404)

What it means:
Google attempted to access a page that no longer exists.

This commonly occurs when:

A page was deleted
A URL was changed
An old link still exists elsewhere on the internet

What to do:
Set up a 301 redirect from the old URL to a relevant, active page.

Check out our step-by-step guide to fixing 404 errors

Soft 404

What it means:
Google found the page but determined it does not contain enough meaningful content to index.

What to do:
Either:

Add useful, original content to the page, or
Set up a 301 redirect to a more relevant page

Learn how to fix Soft 404 pages

Page with Redirect

What it means:
The URL redirects to another URL. Google will index the final destination page.

What to do:
Nothing. This is normal and expected behavior.

Server Error (5xx)

What it means:
Google tried to access a page, but your site gave it a server error. This usually means the page was temporarily unavailable.

Common 5xx errors include:

500 – Internal Server Error
502 – Bad Gateway
503 – Service Unavailable
504 – Gateway Timeout

(There are more, but these are the most common.)

What to do:
If you keep seeing these errors, contact your web hosting provider or reach out to PhotoBiz Support. You may need to check your site’s server settings or performance.

Crawled – Currently Not Indexed

What it means:
Google crawled the page but chose not to index it.

What to do:
No immediate action is required. Google may index the page later, or it may have determined that the content is not necessary for search results. Make sure the page has clear, original, and helpful content.

Discovered – Currently Not Indexed

What it means:
Google knows the page exists but has not crawled it yet. This can happen when Google is pacing crawl activity or prioritizing other pages.

What to do:
If the page is important, use the URL Inspection Tool in Google Search Console and select Request Indexing.

Learn More: How To Use Google Search Console URL Inspection Tool

Helpful Notes

Many Page Indexing messages are informational, not errors
Google ultimately decides which pages to index and when
Indexing status does not guarantee rankings, and lack of indexing does not always indicate a site issue

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