How To Solve The Google Search Console Issues?

How To Solve The Google Search Console Issues?


Making sure that your website is as fast as possible and passes all possible standard tests from the Google Search Engine is one of the best way to start with your SEO strategy, as your website won't reach an audience as large as you wished before you'll have solved all the possible technical issues that are discovered by the Google Search Console system.

But sometimes the error messages might seem obscure and the errors impossible to solve - however, that is not the case!

Make sure that you solve all your Search Console errors with below guides, and then take a depeer look at your  Google PageSpeed Insights   score to have your website as optimized as possible, and get higher on the Google results.

Categories of Google Search Console issues to solve

Solving the Google Search Console Coverage issues

The coverage issues basically means that some of your web pages are not accessible by the Google bot for some reason - these are usually the easiest issues to solve of all, as they do not involve deep changes but only some server troubleshooting.

Solving the Server error (5xx) issues

The Search Console Server error (5xx) issue usually simply means that the server was not accessible at time of the check by the Google bot.

It might be nothing wrong with your website, but simply that too many requests took part at the same time, and server was not able to receive or respond.

It might also be the case that your server is down, in which case you should check what happened with your website host, and get the  best cheap web hosting   in case your host is not able to solve the problem.

Solving the Redirect error issues

If you are getting a redirect error issue in the Google Search Console, it might be because one page is redirecting to another page that isn't properly redirected itself, thus creating an infinite loop that cannot be solved.

Make sure that the origin page and the destination page are working fine, and double check your .htaccess file which contains the redirection instructions for your website.

You can check that you have activated your  HTACCESS force HTTPS   setting correctly, as a redirection from non secure to secure page, and having the same inverse setting setup, might lead to a redirect error issue.

Solving the Submitted URL has crawl issue

A submitted URL has crawl issue typically means that Google could access your page, but the page somehow did not return an answer that could be understood by the Google crawl spider.

It might mean that data has been compromised somewhere along the way, but in most cases it will be mostly because the answer took too long, and Google could not get the full answer from your server on time.

In that case, make sure that you are using the  best cheap web hosting   that will be fast enough to answer on time, and that your website is optimized for optimal  Google PageSpeed Insights   score and that you are getting green if possible, for example using a Site Speed Accelerator system to make your website fast enough.

Solving the Google Search Console Core Web Vitals issues

Solving the Core web vitals LCP issue: longer than 4 s (mobile)

The LCP issue: longer than 4 s on mobile mean that your website page needs more than 4 whole seconds to get anything printable to display on the mobile device that requested it, and that duration is considered far too long to suit any valid web page.

LCP meaning: Largest Contentful Paint

The easiest way to solve it is to make sure that your  Google PageSpeed Insights   score is green and that your page load time is as fast as possible, by implementing all the Web speed best practices, such as lazy loading images, optimizing Javascript and CSS, and much more.

In order to get all of these things applied on your website and pass the Core Web Vitals LCP issues, the fastest and most reliable solution is to implement the Site Speed Accelerator that will solve all these issues – and even more – on your behalf, and also implement any future optimization that will arise.

Solving the Google Search Console Mobile Usability issues

Mobile usability issues are only related to your website design, and while it might display perfectly on your desktop while playing around your themes and stylesheets, it might not work on mobile devices for different reasons.

Solving these issues will ensure your website to get as much mobile traffic as it deserves!

Solving the Text too small to read issue

This error is pretty self explanatory, as it means that your design does not allow for a standard mobile phone to display readable text with your settings, as the text is too small for a human to read.

To solve it, you'll have to change your website theme or update your CSS to be good enough for mobile.

At the same time, you might want to use the opportunity to  eliminate render-blocking Javascript   and CSS in above the field content and therefore enhance your whole CSS strategy.

Solving the Viewport not set issue

The viewport not set might seems scary at first, as the terms is only used by designers.

However, it simply means that a short instruction in your CSS hasn't been set, and that instruction is necessary for any browser to understand how your site should be displayed in a different design configuration than the one intended on a big screen - very important for mobile phones, as nearly each single mobile phone type has a different screen size and resolution.

It can usually be solved by inserting this standard CSS instruction in your main stylesheet:

<meta name=viewport content="width=device-width,minimum-scale=1,initial-scale=1" />

Solving the Clickable elements too close together issue

The Clickable elements too close together is pretty self explanatory as well, and means that on mobile display some links are too close together.

The only way to solve it is to double check the website display on mobile, either directly in your browser (mobile mode: CTRL+M on Mozilla Firefox, and CTRL+Shift+I on Google Chrome), or on a mobile device.

Then, to separate the elements from each other, you will have to either tweek yourself the design stylesheet if you know how, or to change your website theme if you are using a CMS such as  the WordPress   blogging solution.

Search Console Help - Clickable elements too close together

Solving the Content wider than screen issue

The content wider than screen error usually means that you are including pictures or other elements that are wider than a standard mobile display.

Simply make sure that thumbnails are generated and rendered for your pictures, and that any element such as a data table can be scaled when displayed on a smaller screen - in the later case, the only solution might be to remove extra columns or to make sure that content is not too large.

Search Console Help Content wider than screen

Solving the Viewport not set to device-width issue

That issue is similar to the Viewport not set issue, and can be solved as explained above by adding a simple line of instruction in your CSS stylesheet.

Search Console Help Viewport not set to device-width

Solving the Google Search Console AMP issues

There are many different AMP issues, as this technology might be complicated to implement and is still in development.

However, making sure that your website validates for AMP is a great way to have your pages included in Google Discover or in Google News, provided that your content is eligible.

That might just brought you an amazing additional viewvership that you wouldn't get by only optimizing your website for desktop!

Solving the Referenced AMP URL is not an AMP

This error is the mother of all AMP errors, and simply means that the page has had at some point any AMP error, and therefore isn't considered yet as an AMP valid page.

AMP meaning: Accelerated Mobile Pages 

First of all, make sure that all other AMP errors are solved, as any single AMP error would make the page not suitable to render in the AMP system.

Solving the Disallowed attribute or attribute value present in HTML tag.

Only a defined set of attributes are allowed in the AMP HTML tags, and some of them might be allowed in standard HTML.

Make sure that your AMP code matches the AMP code requirements, and that any extra attribute is removed from all your content.

This error typically occurs from plugins or other kind of code that modifies your content for different reason, and hasn't been optimized for AMP - the easiest solution might be to deactivate them for AMP display.

Solving the The tag 'img' should be replaced with an equivalent 'amp-img' tag.

All images in AMP pages must use a specific tag called AMP-IMG, instead of the standard IMG tag in HTML. Make sure that all your images are respecting this AMP rule, and include all mandatory attributes such as width and height.

Solving the Disallowed tag present.

This issue usually means that your design forgot to exclude any content that cannot be displayed by an AMP page, and therefore is unnecessary extra content.

Example of forbidden tag in AMP: tbody 

Solving the An AMP component 'script' tag is present, but unused.

Avoid including scripts that aren't necessary for your page display and aren't used at all in your page, as this slows down the whole page load and content rendering to potential visitors.

Solving the AMP HTML Tag is missing layout attributes.

Some AMP mandatory attribute is missing in one of the HTML content of your web page, such as the height or width for a picture in an IMG tag.

Make sure that all AMP mandatory content and attributes are present in your HTMl code.

Solving the Crawl issue

As for standard pages, the Google crawl has troubles reaching your page. Make sure that your website host is working properly, that your site isn't down, and that your  Google PageSpeed Insights   score is good enough to ensure a timely data download from any other server or visitor.

Solving the The document is too complex.

That happens when your DOM is too long, meaning that your HTML document includes too many elements, and too many sub elements.

To solve it, double check that you are not including unnecessary content in your page, such as extra links automatically generated.

An AMP page should focus on the essential, and should not be too long to ensure a swift loading.

Solving the A mandatory attribute is missing from an HTML tag.

AMP necessitates several attributes that are not necessary in standard web pages.

For example, it is mandatory to declare the width and height of all the pictures included in your web pages, while this is not even important in a standard web page.

This issue must be checked case by case, and a deeper look in the AMP manual might be necessary.

Solving the A tag on this page requires an AMP component 'script' tag, which is missing.

Make sure that the AMP script component is included, in case you are embedding scripts in your pages - and make sure that these scripts are allowed.

AMP Accelerated Mobile Pages documentation

Solving the Custom JavaScript is not allowed.

AMP pages does not allow for your own scripts to be included, but only standard text, images, and a few interactive elements.

You must make sure that your custom JavaScript is excluded from your AMP pages to continue.

It might be the case that you are including external libraries, that are not optimized for AMP, and therefore will prevent your pages from being validated unless you remove these scripts for AMP display – you can still keep them for standard display, but they must be excluded from AMP.

Fixed: Custom JavaScript is not allowed AMP, Google Search Console

Solving the Server error (5xx)

As above, this means that your server was not accessible, and might be only a temporary issue due to network congestions, or a deeper one that might necessitates you to change for the  best cheap web hosting   provider to solve it.

Solving the Google Search Console Enhancements issues

The Google Search Console enhancements issues are not really problematic and might get the least focus, as they are not preventing your websites from displaying correctly or being ranked appropriately.

However, solving them might lead your sites to be better understood by browsers, search engines, or robots that are crawling your Web properties, as these enhancements are generally meant to add invisible rich data to your multimedia content.

Solving the video enhancements issues

Solving the missing field description issues

This issue means that the VideoObject schema markup for your embed videos is not filled in properly, as a description is mandatory for any video included on a Web page.

If you are including videos on your webpages that are automatically embed on your website by an external service such as the Ezoic video player then it is simple to solve – head to your video hosting provider and make sure that the input fields are correctly filled.

Frequently Asked Questions

How can I fix mobile usability issues detected for site?
Mobile usability issues found for a site can be fixed using Google Search Console using the guides above.

Yoann Bierling
About the author - Yoann Bierling
Yoann Bierling is a Web Publishing & Digital Consulting professional, making a global impact through expertise and innovation in technologies. Passionate about empowering individuals and organizations to thrive in the digital age, he is driven to deliver exceptional results and drive growth through educational content creation.



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