On your Spectora website, you may occasionally see an error message like "Google has trouble indexing my site."
This may sound scary, but most of the time it's a minor issue that doesn't require any action! Sometimes this happens because the Google bot is trying to index web pages (aka URLs) that are not meant to be indexed, such as back-end links, images, redirects, etc. The most important step is to check if all canonical web pages were indexed properly. You can find the list of all indexed pages by clicking "View data about indexed pages".
Common Types of Indexing Issues
Not Found (404)
Description: A "Not Found (404)" means that the web page or file (also called a URL) you are trying to access is not available on the server. This error often occurs when the URL or path entered in the browser is incorrect, or the requested page has been moved or deleted.
Resolution: Redirect the broken URL to an existing page, or use our Website Edits Form and let us know which page addresses are broken so we can fix it for you.
Discovered/Crawled - currently not indexed
Description: Sometimes Google crawls the page but has yet to index it. In most scenarios, the indexing will follow within a week or two.
Resolution: No action is required.
Excluded by ‘noindex’ tag
Description: The URL was intentionally excluded from indexing.
Resolution: No action is required.
Blocked due to access forbidden (403)
Description: There are cases where Google tried to index URLs with restricted access (for example, back-links that require login credentials).
Resolution: Those pages typically shouldn't be indexed, so no action is required. However, if you do want those pages to be discoverable on the open web, consider making them publicly accessible without requiring logins (or reach out to our Website Edits Form so we can check it out).
What To Do When Indexing Errors Occur
Some indexing issues are false positives, meaning Google is flagging a page that doesn't need to be indexed in the first place. These typically resolve themselves!
Google can take up to two weeks for indexing to update, but in most cases, it only takes a few days.
If you're not sure how to handle the indexing issues on your site, use this guide to provide domains@spectora.com access to your Google Search Console.
Once you've followed those instructions, reach out via our chat bubble or email websites@spectora.com!
Spectora builds high-quality home inspection websites with an out-of-the-box SEO setup.
