Story Based Question
Imagine you’ve been running a successful e-commerce site for months, but suddenly, you notice that traffic to your product pages has dropped. You investigate and find that some product pages are not showing up in Google search results. You know that your product pages are essential for sales, so you need to get them indexed quickly. Fortunately, you have Google Search Console at your disposal. How do you use it to identify and resolve indexing issues on those product pages?
Exact Answer
To resolve indexing issues on product pages using Google Search Console, identify crawl errors, submit a sitemap, use the URL Inspection Tool to check individual pages, fix any identified issues, and request re-indexing for affected pages.
Explanation
Google Search Console is a powerful tool that helps you monitor and maintain your site’s presence in search results. When product pages are not indexed or aren’t performing well, you can use Search Console to find and resolve issues. Here’s how to use it step by step:
- Identify Crawl Errors:
- What It Is: Crawl errors occur when Googlebot cannot access your pages, preventing them from being indexed. These can happen due to broken links, server issues, or incorrect configurations.
- How to Use Google Search Console: In Search Console, go to the “Coverage” report to see any errors affecting your pages. The report will show if your product pages have any issues, like “404 Not Found” or “Server Errors.”
- Example: If you see that several of your product pages are marked with “404 Not Found,” you can then investigate the URLs to see if they’re linked properly or if any redirects are missing.
- Submit a Sitemap:
- What It Is: A sitemap helps Google understand the structure of your site and ensures that all your important pages, including product pages, are crawled and indexed.
- How to Use Google Search Console: If your product pages aren’t showing up, you might need to submit or update your sitemap in Google Search Console. Go to the “Sitemaps” section and either submit your sitemap file or make sure it’s up to date.
- Example: If you’ve added new product categories or individual items, make sure your sitemap reflects these changes so Google can find them.
- Use the URL Inspection Tool:
- What It Is: The URL Inspection Tool allows you to check the indexing status of individual product pages. It shows if Google has indexed the page, or if there are any issues preventing it.
- How to Use Google Search Console: In the “URL Inspection” tool, enter the URL of your product page. Google will show you whether the page is indexed and if there are any issues like noindex tags or blocked resources.
- Example: If you find that a product page is not indexed, Google Search Console might show that it’s blocked by a “noindex” directive in the page’s HTML. You can fix this by removing the noindex tag in your CMS.
- Fix Identified Issues:
- What It Is: After identifying the issues (such as crawl errors, noindex tags, or blocked resources), you’ll need to resolve them to allow Google to index the product pages.
- How to Use Google Search Console: Once you’ve fixed the problem (e.g., fixing broken links, removing noindex tags, or resolving server issues), you can use the “URL Inspection” tool to test the page again.
- Example: After fixing a 404 error on a product page, you can re-test the URL in Search Console to ensure it is now accessible to Google.
- Request Re-Indexing:
- What It Is: After resolving issues, you can ask Google to crawl and re-index your product page.
- How to Use Google Search Console: In the “URL Inspection” tool, once you’ve fixed an issue on a product page, click the “Request Indexing” button to prompt Google to re-crawl the page.
- Example: If you’ve updated product details or fixed indexing issues, click the “Request Indexing” button. This can speed up the process of having the page re-crawled and indexed by Google.
Example
Let’s say you sell premium coffee makers on your e-commerce site, but your product pages for the latest models aren’t showing up in search results. Here’s how you’d use Google Search Console to resolve the issue:
- Identify Crawl Errors: You head to the “Coverage” report in Search Console and find that several coffee maker pages are marked as “404 Not Found.” This tells you that Googlebot can’t access these pages because the URLs are broken.
- Submit a Sitemap: You check your sitemap in Google Search Console and realize it hasn’t been updated with the new coffee maker models. You update the sitemap and submit it to ensure these pages are included.
- Use the URL Inspection Tool: You check one of the broken coffee maker pages with the URL Inspection tool. It shows that the page is marked as “noindex.” After investigating, you find the noindex tag was added mistakenly in the HTML. You remove the tag.
- Fix Issues: You update the product pages, fix the broken URLs, remove the noindex tag, and ensure all internal links point correctly to these pages.
- Request Re-Indexing: After making the changes, you go back to the URL Inspection tool and request indexing for the product pages. This lets Google know the page is ready to be crawled again.
Google Search Console is an essential tool for resolving indexing issues on your e-commerce site. By identifying crawl errors, updating sitemaps, using the URL Inspection tool, fixing issues, and requesting re-indexing, you can ensure that your product pages are properly indexed and visible in search results. This is crucial for driving traffic and improving sales.