How to find and fix index coverage errors

Gita Das
3 Feb, 2023

When it comes to SEO, having a website with high index coverage is essential for success. Unfortunately, even if you have the best content on the web, if no one can find it, it won’t do you much good.


Index coverage errors are one of the most common but often overlooked issues that can prevent your website from being indexed by search engines. These errors can be caused by a variety of factors, such as incorrect robots.txt files, no-index meta tags, or missing sitemaps.


Fortunately, finding and fixing index coverage errors is relatively simple, and can be done in just a few steps.


Check Your Robots.txt File


Your robots.txt file is the first place to look for index coverage errors. This file tells search engine bots which pages they can and cannot index. If you’ve accidentally disallowed certain pages or directories, they won’t be indexed.


Check your robots.txt file and make sure there’s nothing blocking pages from being indexed. If you’re not sure how to do this, you can use a tool like Google’s Search Console to test and debug your robots.txt file.

How to Check Robots.txt File

Robots.txt is a text file used by website owners to control the crawling of their pages by search engines. The file is located at the root of your website and is typically in the form of a text file with a .txt extension. The file is used to specify the search engine robots that are allowed to crawl your website.


To check your robots.txt file, open it in a text editor such as Notepad and look for the following line:


User-agent: *

This line specifies that all robots should be allowed to crawl your website. If this line is missing, then only specific robots, such as Googlebot and Bingbot, should be allowed to crawl your website. You can also add your own robots.txt file by following these instructions.


If you want to disable crawling by a specific robot, you can add the following line:


User-agent: *; robots=off


This line will disable crawling by all robots, except for Googlebot and Bingbot.


Check for No-Index Tags


No-index tags can also prevent your pages from being indexed. These tags are used to indicate to search engines that a page should not be indexed.


You can check for no-index tags by inspecting the source code of each page. Look for <meta name="robots" content="noindex"> tags and remove them if they’re blocking important pages from being indexed.

How to Check for No-Index Tags

No-index tags are tags that are automatically removed from a search engine result when a web page is indexed. They are used to indicate that a page does not contain any relevant information.


If you want to check whether a given page contains no-index tags, you can use the Google Search Engine Indexing Status Tool. This tool allows you to view the indexing status of a given web page. If the page is not indexed, the tool will show that as a no-index tag.


Check Your Sitemap


Your sitemap is a list of all the pages on your website. It’s essential for getting your website indexed correctly, as it tells search engines which pages should be included in their index.


If your sitemap is out of date or incomplete, it could be causing index coverage errors. Make sure your sitemap is up-to-date and includes all the pages you want to be indexed.


How to Check Sitemap

There are many online tools that can help you check your website's sitemap. One popular tool is Google's sitemap generator. You can also use a website audit tool like Webpage Auditor.


Regardless of which tool you use, the basic process is the same. You will first need to log in to your website's admin area. Once you are logged in, you will need to find the "Sitemap" page. On this page, you will need to click on the "Generate Sitemap" button.


After you generate your sitemap, you will need to upload it to a web server. You can do this by using a web hosting service or by using a free web hosting provider like Google Drive.


Once your sitemap is online, Google and other search engines will use it to index your website. This will help people find your website when they are searching for information about your topic.


Check Google Search Console


Google’s Search Console is a great tool for finding and fixing index coverage errors. It provides detailed reports on your website’s index coverage and can help you identify and fix any issues.


In the Index Coverage report, you can see which pages are being indexed and which are being excluded. It also provides detailed information about why certain pages are being excluded, so you can make the necessary changes to get them indexed.


Check Google Search Console

Google Search Console is a web-based tool that helps you manage the quality of your Google search results. You can use it to check the accuracy of your site’s titles, description, and other metadata, as well as to identify and fix any problems that may be causing your site to rank poorly.

To get started, open Google Search Console and click the “Search” tab. In the “Search results” section, click the “Site” tab.

In the “Site” tab, click “Meta data”.

In the “Meta data” section, click “Titles & descriptions”.

In the “Titles & descriptions” section, click the “Title” tab.

In the “Title” tab, click the “Metadata” button.

In the “Metadata” dialog box, click the “Indexed” checkbox.

In the “Indexed” dialog box, make sure that the “Title” field is set to “Title” and the “Description” field is set to “Description”.

In the “Metadata” dialog box, click the “OK” button.

In the “Titles & descriptions” section, click the “Meta data” button.

In the “Meta data” dialog box, click the “OK” button.

In the “Site” tab, click the “Search” tab.

In the “Search” tab, click the “Advanced” button.

In the “Advanced” dialog box, make sure that the “Search robots” checkbox is checked.

In the “Search robots” dialog box, click the “OK” button.

In the “Advanced” dialog box, make sure that the “Check web pages” checkbox is checked.

In the “Check web pages” dialog box, make sure that the “Indexed” checkbox is checked.

In the “Indexed” dialog box, make sure that the “Title” field is set to “Title” and the “Description” field is set to “Description”.

In the “Advanced” dialog box, click the “OK” button.

In the “Site” tab, click the “Search” tab.

In the “Search” tab, click the “Results” tab.

In the “Results” tab, click the “Page” tab.

In the “Page” tab, click the “Title” column.

In the “Title” column, make sure that the title that you entered in the “Title” field is displayed in the “Title” row.

In the “Title” row, make sure that the title that you entered in the “Description” field is displayed in the “Description” row.

In the “Description” row, make sure that the description that you entered in the “Description” field is displayed in the “Description” row.

If you find any errors in your site’s titles or descriptions, you can fix them by clicking the “Fix errors” link in the “Meta data” section of Google Search Console.


Submit an Updated Sitemap


Once you’ve fixed any issues with your robots.txt file, no-index tags, and sitemap, the next step is to submit an updated sitemap to search engines. This will help them quickly re-index your website and fix any remaining index coverage errors.

Update your sitemap

If you are like most website owners, you probably have an outdated sitemap that doesn't reflect the current state of your website. Updating your sitemap can help you identify any problems with your website's structure and make sure that your website is displaying accurately in search engines.

To update your sitemap, follow these steps: 

  • Log in to your website's admin panel. 
  • Click on "Sitemaps" in the left-hand menu. 
  • Click on "Update Sitemap" in the top menu. 
  • In the "Sitemap Source" field, select "Web Site." 
  • In the "Sitemap Title" field, enter a title for your sitemap. 
  • In the "Sitemap Description" field, enter a brief description of your sitemap. 
  • In the "Sitemap URL" field, enter the URL of your website. 
  • Click on "Update Sitemap" to generate your new sitemap. 
  • Verify your new sitemap by clicking on "View Sitemap" in the "Sitemaps" menu.

Conclusion


Finding and fixing index coverage errors is essential for getting your website indexed correctly. Fortunately, it’s relatively easy to do, and can be done in just a few steps.


Check your robots.txt file, look for no-index tags, update your sitemap, and use Google Search Console to identify and fix any remaining issues. Once you’ve done this, submit an updated sitemap to the search engines to help them quickly re-index your website.


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