Pages not indexing, blocked by robots.txt

[kenkai]

Hi all,

I keep getting emails from Google Search Console in regards to this. Does anyone know what I should do?

[Moira]

Hey @kenkai,

Welcome to the Shopify Community!

It's important to address these Google console issues promptly as they can negatively impact your website's visibility in search results. Here are some steps you can take to fix the errors you shared:

• Page with redirect: This issue occurs when a page is redirected to another page instead of being served directly. To fix this, update the redirect to point to the correct page or remove the redirect altogether.
• Alternate page with the proper canonical tag: This issue occurs when multiple pages have the same content but different URLs. To fix this, specify a canonical URL for each page indicating the preferred URL for the content.
• Excluded by 'noindex' tag: This issue occurs when a page has a 'noindex' tag, which tells search engines not to index the page. To fix this, remove the 'noindex' tag from the page.
• Not found (404): This issue occurs when a page is not found on your website. To fix this, either restore the missing page or redirect the URL of the missing page to a relevant page on your website.
• Blocked by robots.txt: This issue occurs when search engines are blocked from crawling certain pages on your website through your robots.txt file. To fix this, review your robots.txt file and make sure that it's not blocking any important pages.
• Crawled - currently not indexed: This issue occurs when a page has been crawled by Google but hasn't been indexed yet. To fix this, make sure that the page is useful and relevant, and consider optimizing it for search engines.

For further guidance, refer to the help doc below:

• A Guide To Fixing Google Search Console Errors in 2023

Let me know how you get on!

[Cmatias]

You explain 'what is needed to be done. But how do we do this within shopify admin??

[Moira]

Hey @Cmatias!,

You will need to action the suggestions above via your Google Search Console

[stefaneldridge]

@moira This is incorrect and potentially harmful advice.

These are technical SEO issues that might not be issues at all.

Undertaking some of the "fixes" suggested here could be very damaging to your website's organic performance. Furthermore, you absolutely cannot "action the suggestions above via your Google Search Console".

@kenkai I understand they can be disturbing, but it's highly likely that leaving these issues alone will do no harm whatsoever. Here's an article that explains each in more detail: https://www.lyricalhost.com/blog/google-search-consoles-page-indexing-statuses-explained/