4xx error pages don’t help with your website’s reputation… Visitors coming to your website for specific content won’t be happy if they end up with a 404 error. Moreover, backlinks pointing to this page are negated and the link juice that goes with it is also stopped.
How to fix it ?
Check your internal links and update broken links, set a permanent redirection (e.g. 301) to an active, content relevant, URL.
It is a server error, 5xx errors happen when a user request is made and the server fails to respond. Most of the time the issue comes from the server, sometimes the crawl report shows 5xx errors when the page is on maintenance while being crawled.
When facing a server error, search engine robots as well as visitors tend to react the same way: they stop exploring. Such errors are quite rare and marginal, yet worthy of an investigation if they seem to be recurring.
How to fix it ?
Server errors should be dealt with your system administrator in order to find the issue and solve it as soon as possible. If your server is fine, check your server configuration and set it to allow crawlers.
A page redirecting, to a redirection, redirecting to a redirection, again and again. This is what a redirecting chain does.
Obviously it’s annoying for visitors. But it also causes you to lose ranking in the search engines, the credit accorded to the page is jumping from one redirection to another, losing a part of it after each jump.
How to fix it ?
Redirect chains are most of the time the result of multiple conflicting redirect rules. Go through your code and rework your multiple redirections into a single rule. Take a close look at your www / non-www / HTTPS / non-HTTPS / 301 / 302 redirections and make sure they are not overlapping each other.
The URL was attempted to be crawled but an error occurred: timeout (> 30s), URL unreachable or unknown HTTP status code.
These are critical technical errors blocking any visitor from accessing the webpage. They are often associated with a bad server configuration or programming errors, and are perceived very negatively by users as well as search engines.
How to fix it ?
Server errors should be dealt with by your system administrator, in order to identify the issue and solve it as soon as possible. You may have to update your server hardware and software.
Crawled URLs which are not HTML pages, based on the Content-Type HTTP header.
The « disallow » is not the default value for a robots.txt. Hence, it may not be an issue that needs to be fixed. However it could negatively impact your ranking. As the links present on the page are not explored, your page is divested from a potential ranking power transmission.
How to fix it ?
If you did not intend to block this page from the crawler exploration, check your robots.txt file and set the value to allow: User-agent: * Allow : /YourURL/
Do not block pages with Robots.txt if you dont want them to be indexed, because search engines need to access your page to find the Noindex instruction.
The crawler has been instructed not to follow the links found on the page, the instruction can be set in the HTML
The « Nofollow » is not the default value for a meta robots tag. Hence, it may not be an issue that needs to be fixed. However, it could negatively impact your ranking. As the links present on the page are not explored, your page is divested from a potential ranking power transmission.
How to fix it ?
If you did not intend to block this page from the crawler exploration, check the < head > and change the value to follow : or remove it.
The crawler has been instructed not to follow the links found on the page, the instruction can be set in the HTTP header X-Robots.
The « Nofollow » is not the default value for a X-Robots HTTP header. Hence, it may not be an issue that needs to be fixed. However, it could negatively impact your ranking. Because the links present on the page are not explored, your page is divested from a potential ranking power transmission.
How to fix it ?
If you did not intend to block this page from the crawler exploration, check your HTTP header and set the X-Robots-Tag header to « follow » : Header set X-Robots-Tag "follow" , or remove it.
The crawler has been instructed not to follow the link with a rel=Nofollow attribute, the instruction can be set in the HTML directly in a single link.
The « Nofollow » is not the default value for a rel attribute. Hence, it may not be an issue that needs to be fixed. However, it could negatively impact your ranking. Because the link with rel=Nofollow attribute is not explored, your page is divested from a potential ranking power transmission.
How to fix it ?
If you did not intend to block this link from the crawler exploration, check your HTML body and set the rel attribute to « follow » : Primary Keyword .
The URL couldn’t be crawled because the URL format doesn’t match the crawl configuration: URLs with “GET” parameters.
The URL hasn't been crawled or analyzed although it could have been indexed. This error is inherent to your crawl configuration and may not need to be fixed if you intentionally blocked it.
How to fix it ?
Change the crawl configuration to request the analysis of pages according to certain parameters.
The meta robots tag is set to « Noindex », which means it gives instructions to search engines not to index the page. The instruction can be set in the HTLM
When the meta robots is set to « Noindex » the exploration bots are forbidden to index your page, therefore nobody can find your page in the search results. If it’s a deliberate choice you made then this is not an error that needs to be fixed.
How to fix it ?
If you did not intend to block this page from indexation, check your HTML
and set the meta robots tag to « index » : or remove it. Plus if you want search engines to not index or follow the links on your page, set your meta to « Noindex, Nofollow ».
The X-Robots-Tag header is set to « Noindex », which means it gives instructions to search engines not to index the page. The instruction can be set in the HTTP header with the X-Robots-Tag.
When the X-Robots-Tag is set to « Noindex » the exploration bots are forbidden to index your page, therefore nobody can find your page in the search results. If it’s a deliberate choice you made then this is not an error that needs to be fixed.
How to fix it ?
If you did not intend to block this page from indexation, check your HTTP header and set the X-Robots-Tag to « index » : Header set X-Robots-Tag "index" or remove it. Plus if you want search engines to not index or follow the links in your page, set you header to « Noindex, Nofollow ».
301, 303 and 308 Redirect are permanent redirections.
Using a temporary redirection instead of an identified permanent redirection is bad practice.
Make sure you use this kind of redirection very carefully.
How to fix it ?
Avoid temporary redirection as much as you possible, use a permanent redirection like a 301 instead.
Meta refresh tag can be set in the HTML
, it is used to redirect a visitor or an exploration bot to another URL after a defined timing.
Redirections through meta refresh are slow and impede the visitor’s navigation. Moreover, like the temporary redirections, meta refresh doesn't transfer the link juice.
How to fix it ?
If your intention is to redirect visitors from one page to another, try using a permanent redirect since it doesn't impair your SEO.
Refresh Header is used to redirect a visitor or an exploration bot to another URL after a defined timing.
An outgoing canonical indicates that the page is a copy or an extract of a different website. Therefore if a website has too many outgoing canonical links, search engines tend to consider it as a copy of another website.
How to fix it ?
Avoid outgoing canonical links as much as possible.
In the eyes of search engines, two pages with duplicate content are considered identical. Without a clear indication (e.g. canonical tag) of which one to prioritize in rankings, bots see no reason to index the same page twice. Therefore, your page could be filtered out and you might lose some traffic on this page.
How to fix it ?
To avoid losing traffic due to duplicate page content, try canonical links using a rel=canonical tag in order to indicate which page you prefer search engines to index. You can also use a 301 redirect to the page you want people to visit, but the canonical tag is more appropriate for multiple pages with duplicate content.
50 unique words or less is considered to be insufficient to properly satisfy user’s request. As a matter of fact « thin content » pages are seen as a low quality page by search engines, inducing a poor ranking.
How to fix it ?
Rework the content of you page and try to put at least 50 unique keywords.
Exploration bots and visitors both try to extract the structure of your content, by looking at the headlines and titles. If your page has no H1 title, it’s hard for them to know what the main topic of your page is. Potentially decreasing your ranking.
How to fix it ?
Add some H1 titles (at least one), on each content page of your website. H1 Titles must be content relevant in order to foster understanding.
A link is usually a copy/paste of a URL, if you want a visitor to know where he’s landing if he reads a URL (wether it’s a link or in the address bar of your browser) the syntax of your URL must be meaningful for human. Write them to be relevant, accurate and concise.
How to fix it ?
The URLs need to be concise, and human-friendly. Try to build them around topic related keywords in order to ease the understanding. Optimal format: http://www.website.com/category/subcategory/product-name”
Two pages with very similar content are labeled as « duplicate page content ».
In the eyes of search engines, two pages with duplicate content are considered identical. Without a clear indication (e.g. canonical tag) of which one to prioritize in rankings, bots see no reason to index the same page twice. Therefore your page could be filtered out and you might loose some trafic on this page.
How to fix it ?
To avoid trafic loss because of duplicate page content, try canonical link using a rel=canonical tag, in order to indicate which page you prefer to see indexed by search engines. You also can use a 301 redirection to the page you want people to visit but the canonical remains more appropriate for multiple pages with duplicate content.
HTML title tag defines the title of the page. The title is displayed in the top bar of a web browser, on social networks, in bookmarks, and also in search engines result page.
The page title is like the brand name in the front of a shop. If you don’t have one, search engines may have some trouble to identify and associate the page with a topic. Likewise for your visitors. For that reason, your ranking is impaired, and the user experience worsen. Moreover if your title is missing, search engines sometimes display a title they consider representative, if it’s poorly relevant to your content it may be detrimental.
How to fix it ?
Use a unique and proper title on each of your page, that illustrates the content of your page, using idiomatic keywords, in a limit of 10 to 60 characters. You can set a title in the
of your HTML code : Suits - Men Clothes | Shop Name
The title is longer than 60 characters. The title help searchers quickly understand if the page is relevant to their search.
The display of a page title in search engines is set to fit into a 600 pixels frame showing the first 10-60 characters of your title tag content. If the title is longer than 60 characters, the information you want visitors to see in a result page is cropped and may represent only partially the content of your page. Beside if your title is long, search engines sometimes rework your title to display something they consider more appropriate.
How to fix it ?
Use a unique and proper title on each of your page, that illustrates the content of your page, using idiomatic keywords, in a limit of 10 to 60 characters. You can set a title in the
of your HTML code : Suits - Men Clothes | Shop Name
The title is shorter than 10 characters. The title help searchers understand quickly if your page is relevant to their search.
The display of a page title in search engines is set to fit into a 600 pixels frame, showing the first 10-60 characters of your title tag content. If your title is shorter than 10 characters, the information you want visitors to see in a result page is cropped and may represent only partially the content of your page. Beside if your title is too short, search engines sometimes rework your title to display something they consider more appropriate.
How to fix it ?
Use a unique and proper title on each of your page, that illustrates the content of your page, using idiomatic keywords, in a limit of 10 to 60 characters. You can set a title in the
of your HTML code : Suits - Men Clothes | Shop Name
The same title is used for different pages on this website. The title help searchers quickly understand if the page is relevant to their search.
You should have a unique title on each of your page because it’s supposed to be the reflection of your page content. Identical title for different pages impairs the understanding of your content and this will have a negative effect on the user experience. Besides, if your title is not enough topic relevant, search engines sometimes rework your title to display something they consider more appropriate.
How to fix it ?
Use a unique and proper title on each of your page that illustrates the content of your page, using idiomatic keywords between 10 and 60 characters. You can set a title in the
of your HTML code : Suits - Men Clothes | Shop Name
No meta description was found in the page.The purpose of a meta description is to provide a short and attractive depiction of the page content, displayed under the title in the results page.
Beside the title, the meta description is the first informative text a potential visitor can see about a website right before clicking on it. Without a meta description tag, search engines and social network platforms will use some text they find on the page. If it’s irrelevant, the image of the website will suffer and your click-through-rate might decrease.
How to fix it ?
For an optimal meta description, set a unique description of the content (between 55-300 characters) in your HTML code. Use topic related keywords and make it appealing and concise in order to encourage searchers to click on your website in the results page.
Example:
The meta description is too long ( > 300 characters).The purpose of a meta description is to provide a short and attractive depiction of the page content displaying under the title in a result page.
Beside the title, the meta description is the first informative text a potential visitor can see about a website right before clicking on it. With too long meta description tag, just a part of it will be displayed in result pages, with partial information searchers have some trouble understanding the content of the page and you might loose some click-through rate.
How to fix it ?
For an optimal meta description, set a 55-300 characters unique description of the content in the
of your HTML code. Use topic related keywords and write it to be appealing and concise, in order to encourage searchers to click on your website in a result page.
Example :
The meta description is too short ( < 55 characters).The purpose of a meta description is to provide a short and attractive depiction of the page content displayed under the title in the results page.
Beside the title, the meta description is the first informative text a potential visitor can see about a website right before clicking on it. With a meta description tag that is too short, , search engines and social network platforms will select some text they find on the page to replace the short description you made. If it’s irrelevant, the image of the website will suffer and your click-through-rate might decrease.
How to fix it ?
For an optimal meta description, set a 55-300 characters unique description of the content in the
of your HTML code. Use topic related keywords and write it to be appealing and concise, in order to encourage searchers to click on your website in a result page.
Example :
Identical meta descriptions were found on different pages. The purpose of a meta description is to provide a short and attractive depiction of your page content displayed under the title in the results page.
Beside the title, the meta description is the first informative text a potential visitor can see about a website right before clicking on it. If the same description is used for different pages, searchers as well as exploration robots won’t know if the content is related or not with the meta description and your click-through-rate might decrease by the lack of clarity.
How to fix it ?
For an optimal meta description, set a unique description of the content (between 55-300 characters) in your HTML code. Use topic related keywords and make it appealing and concise in order to encourage searchers to click on your website in the results page.
Example:
Page weight affects loading time; the longer it is, the worse it is for the user experience.
How to fix it ?
In order to reduce your page weight, consider enabling file compression and optimizing your HTML code.
The page execution time is too slow ( > 500ms). The execution time is the time your server needs to generate the page. This time is not related to the internet connection but depends on the server configuration and the code quality.
Execution time is directly linked to the user experience, the longer a visitor waits, the more likely they will go to another website. Optimized loading time brings you a better conversion and a potential rank increase. Plus, search engines depreciate websites that load slowly.
How to fix it ?
In order to reduce this time, consider upgrading servers or try caching your pages.
Compressing your webpages enables you to optimize their loading time by decreasing the amount of data to be downloaded. The server compresses the page while sending to the customer, then the browser decompresses the page in order to display it.
How to fix it ?
This feature must be activated on the web server (gzip).
These links may result in a poor user experience and waste crawl budget. Usually broken links reflect old content, not updated recently, thus search engines tend to perceive them negatively.
How to fix it ?
Update broken links to a new target URL or remove them from the page.
