How to Understand and Fix Google Search Console Notifications
Google Search Console can sometimes display messages that are confusing, especially when you’re optimizing your website for search engines. This guide will help you understand and resolve the most common Google Search Console notifications, so your PhotoBiz website performs well in search results.
Note: PhotoBiz is not affiliated with Google. While our Passionate Support Team can help you install your Google Search Console validation code, for questions about Google Search Console functionality, it’s best to refer to Google Search Console Help.
Key Goals of Google Search Console
The primary goal is to make sure Google is indexing the main version (canonical) of each important page on your website. Any duplicate or alternative pages should not be indexed.
If you see “duplicate” messages, it usually means Google found the main page and ignored the other versions.
Learn More: How Canonical Tags Work With PhotoBiz Website Builder
Viewing Indexed Pages
In Google Search Console, you can view which of your pages are indexed. Indexed pages are eligible to appear in search results.
STEP ONE
Log in to Google Search Console and open the Page Indexing Report.
STEP TWO
Check which pages are indexed and which ones are missing.
STEP THREE
If an important page is missing, inspect the URL in Search Console to find out why. Missing pages can negatively impact your search rankings.
Alternate Page with Proper Canonical Tag
This means Google found duplicate content and used the canonical tag to pick which page to index. This is expected behavior and not an error.
Duplicate Without User-Selected Canonical
This means a page is a duplicate, but no canonical tag was set by the user. Google picked another page as the canonical one. This isn't an error, but if you prefer another page as the main version, make sure to select it manually. Otherwise, ensure that the content on both pages is different enough to prevent Google from marking one as a duplicate.
Duplicate, Google Chose Different Canonical Than User
In this case, you’ve selected a page to be the main one, but Google has chosen another URL as the canonical version. To fix this, compare the URLs using the “Inspect this URL” feature in Search Console to see why Google picked a different one.
Steps to Check Canonical URLs:
- Go to Page Indexing > Google-Selected Canonical to see the version Google chose.
- Go to Page Indexing > User-Declared Canonical to check the one you set.
- Inspect both versions in your browser to see why Google might have made this decision.
- If the Google-selected canonical is the tested page, then Google thinks that the tested page isn't similar to any other pages.
- If the user-declared canonical is not similar to the current page, then Google won't ever choose that URL as canonical. A duplicate page must be similar to the canonical. (That's what duplicate means.)
Not Found (404)
Google tried to index a page that doesn’t exist. This often happens when a page is deleted or a URL has changed.
How to Fix: Set up a 301 redirect from the old URL to the new one.
See Our Guide: How to Fix 404 Errors with 301 Redirects
Soft 404
Google found a page, but it doesn’t have enough content to be indexed.
How to Fix: Improve the content on the page or set up a 301 redirect to a relevant page.
https://support.photobiz.com/blog-post/how-to-fix-not-found-404-pages-in-google-search-console
Page with Redirect
This means a URL is redirecting to another URL. Google will only index the final URL.
If the redirect is intentional, no action is needed.
Redirect Error
This happens if Google can’t reach the final redirect destination.
How to Fix: Inspect the URL in your browser to confirm the redirect works properly.
Server Error (5xx)
Server error (5xx) can be caused by a number of reasons, but ultimately it is Google not being able to index a page because it is unavailable for Google's website crawler. Below is what each error message refers to.
- 500 – Internal Server Error
- 501 – Not Implemented
- 502 – Bad Gateway
- 503 – Service Unavailable
- 504 – Gateway Timeout
- 505 – HTTP Version Not Supported
- 506 – Variant Also Negotiates
- 507 – Insufficient Storage
- 508 – Loop Detected
- 509 – Bandwidth Limit Exceeded
- 510 – Not Extended (RFC 2774)
- 511 – Network Authentication Required
Crawled - Currently Not Indexed
Google crawled the page but didn’t index it. It may or may not be indexed in the future.
How to Fix: Use the URL Inspection Tool in Search Console and request indexing.
Discovered - Currently Not Indexed
The webpage has been found online by Google, but it hasn't been crawled yet. It is possible Google intended to crawl it but this was expected to overload the site and rescheduled indexing the page. You can manually inspect the URL using the Search Console URL Inspection Tool to see if there are any specific reasons why the URL isn't indexed, and otherwise request indexing.
