Every Search Console issue, in plain English.

“Crawled – currently not indexed” in Google Search Console means Google saw your page but chose not to index it. Here's why it happens and exactly how to fix it.

“Discovered – currently not indexed” in Google Search Console means Google knows your page exists but hasn't crawled it yet. Here's why — and exactly how to fix it.

How long Google actually takes to index a new or updated page — by site age and authority — plus what genuinely speeds it up and what doesn't.

“Indexed, not submitted in sitemap” in Google Search Console means Google indexed a page you never listed in your sitemap. Here's why it happens and whether you need to fix it.

“Not found (404)” under Not indexed in Google Search Console means Google found a URL some other way and it 404s — different from a submitted-sitemap 404. Here's why it happens and exactly how to fix it.

“Page with redirect” in Google Search Console means the URL redirects elsewhere, so Google indexes the destination instead. Here's when that's fine — and when it's not.

Google isn't required to crawl or index every URL in your sitemap. Here's why it skips them anyway, and the checks that find the real cause.

“Alternate page with proper canonical tag” in Google Search Console means Google chose a different version to index. Here's when it's fine, when it's a problem, and how to fix it.

“Duplicate without user-selected canonical” in Google Search Console means Google found duplicate pages and picked one for you. Here's why — and exactly how to fix it.

“Google chose different canonical than user” in Google Search Console means Google overrode your canonical tag and picked a different page to index. Here's why — and how to fix it.

How to add a rel=canonical tag correctly in WordPress, Shopify, Next.js, and Webflow — plus the mistakes that make Google ignore it.

“Blocked by page removal tool” in Google Search Console means someone requested a temporary removal of this URL from search results. Here's how it works, how to find who requested it, and how to undo it.

“Blocked by robots.txt” in Google Search Console means your robots.txt is telling Google not to crawl this page. Here's when it's intentional, when it's a problem, and exactly how to fix it.

“Blocked due to access forbidden (403)” in Google Search Console means your server refused Googlebot with a 403. Here's why it happens — and exactly how to fix it.

“Blocked due to unauthorized request (401)” in Google Search Console means your server asked Googlebot to authenticate before it would serve the page. Here's why — and exactly how to fix it.

“Excluded by 'noindex' tag” in Google Search Console means a noindex directive is keeping your page out of the index. Here's when that's correct, when it's a mistake, and exactly how to fix it.

“Indexed, though blocked by robots.txt” in Google Search Console means Google indexed your page without being able to crawl it. Here's why it happens — and how to fix it.

noindex and robots.txt do different jobs — one stops indexing, the other stops crawling. Using the wrong one (or both together) is a common way pages get stuck in Google's index by accident.

Soft 404s on thin pages — empty category filters, zero-result search pages, sparse location pages — need a different fix than a broken template. Here's the practical playbook.

“Redirect error” in Google Search Console means Googlebot couldn't follow your redirect to a working page. Here's why it happens — and exactly how to fix it.

“Server error (5xx)” in Google Search Console means Googlebot got a 5xx response trying to crawl your page. Here's why it happens — and exactly how to fix it.

“Soft 404” in Google Search Console means a page returns a 200 OK status but looks empty or missing to Google. Here's why it happens and exactly how to fix it.

“Submitted URL not found (404)” in Google Search Console means you submitted a URL that returns a 404. Here's why it happens — and exactly how to fix it.