Introduction

Interpreting errors in the Google Search Console is crucial to maintaining and optimizing a website's performance. For seasoned web developers and SEO experts, a comprehensive understanding of these errors can provide invaluable insights into how search engines interact with their websites. 

This article delves into the significant principles and specific error types you may encounter in Google Search Console, offering detailed guidance on addressing them efficiently. By mastering these techniques, you can ensure your website remains accessible, fast, and user-friendly, improving its visibility and performance in search engine results.

1. Major principles

You see an error; how to fix it?

If you want to fix errors, you should google the error.

If the message is in a language other than English, go to Google Search Console and see the exact text in English. When searching, try it in English, as it has the most predictable answers.

You’ll likely reach some people with a similar issue when googling the error.

On the other hand, by searching for all the errors on Google Search Console, do note that you’ll need to spend quite some time on each issue in order to understand it.

What’s the next step?

Generally, in Google Search Console, there should be a button labeled “Validate Fix” next to your error. 

Press the button, and Google should re-crawl the URL to see if the problem is fixed.

They will send another notification if it’s not fixed.

2. What kind of things can you discover in Google Search Console?

Follow the legend below:

• ONCE – one time.
• RARELY – you should check this very rarely, once every few months or so.
• AVERAGE – this is something between RARELY and OFTEN.
• OFTEN – check one or multiple times a month. 

The first step to take is go to https://search.google.com/search-console/ and connect your website if you haven’t already done so.

You will see an interface like this, where you can even inspect URLs:

Tip - check from time-to-time the messages displayed on the pages in the menus on the left.

We’ll detail below.

AVERAGE Performance => Search results - to see how your website fares.

Clicks: These represent clicks that Google sends to your website.

Total impressions: How many times was your website shown in search results? 

Consider looking at Search Type: Web and also Search Type: Images.

The most important reports are down the page, on Queries / Pages.

See what keywords people use when searching for your website and what pages they land on.

OFTEN Indexing => Pages

Does Google have an issue with indexing your pages?

A sample report from a random website:

You should consider that Google first crawls a website (navigates it from one page to another page), then indexes it (saves it in a database).

You should ensure that Google doesn’t have a big issue with navigation on your website.

ONCE Sitemaps

Add your sitemap, once in there, and you’re all set.

RARELY Experience => Page experience and Core Web Vitals

Does your website load fast enough?

We suggest manually testing your website (homepage and a few internal pages, like a category and a product page) with this tool: https://pagespeed.web.dev/ 

Google Search Console doesn’t give you enough insights on website loading speed issues.

Also, you can test your real site speed with https://treo.sh/sitespeed

Also, you can compare your website against some competitors by using https://reddico.co.uk/tools/serp-speed/ 

RARELY Schema.org

It’s important to do your best to keep the Schema.org errors to a minimum, or zero.

You should test individual pages from the reports in Google Search Console with a tool like https://search.google.com/test/rich-results

Once you fix the errors, you only need to do it rarely— typically, errors don’t just randomly reoccur.

Controversially, if you only see a very small percentage of pages giving errors, while not the optimal solution, you can sometimes just ignore them.

OFTEN Security & Manual Actions 

It’s important to take notice and easy to check security. Do this rather often; make sure you don’t have issues in these sections.

RARELY Settings => Crawl stats 

If you want to see how Googlebot crawls your website, check it out here.

Once you fix the major errors, you won’t need to recheck the stats frequently. Note that it is natural to see changes, variances, etc.

3. On the messages and reports, Google Search Console provides

Sometimes, you might receive emails and see reports about errors in Google Search Console.

We provided a list of essential things to check and with what frequency.

It’s perfectly fine that an extensive website has some errors.

Getting to “zero errors in Google Search Console” is useless.

You should allocate some resources to maintain a healthy website, run some crawls, and periodically check if everything is fine. Slicedbread agency can help.

However, you shouldn’t focus too much on every message you receive from Google.

Conclusion

In conclusion, effectively interpreting and resolving errors in Google Search Console is vital for advanced web developers and SEO professionals. You can significantly enhance your website's performance and search engine ranking by diligently monitoring and addressing these errors. Remember to validate your fixes and regularly check your website's health. While it's impossible to eliminate all errors, focusing on the most critical issues and maintaining a proactive approach will ensure your website remains robust and competitive in the ever-evolving digital landscape.