Google posted a video with three tips for using the search console to identify technical issues that could be causing indexing or ranking issues.
Three tips for solving technical problems
Google’s three tips for solving technical problems are:
Check if the page is indexed or indexable Check if the page is duplicated or if another page is canonical HTML. Review the rendered HTML for code-related issues
1. Is the URL indexable?
A common problem that is easy to overlook but important to check is whether the URL is indexable.
The URL Inspection tool in Google Search Console is great for troubleshooting whether or not a page has been indexed by Google. The tool will tell you if a page is indexed and if it is indexable. If it can’t be indexed, it will offer a suggestion as to why Google might be having trouble indexing it.
Another data point provided by the URL is the date of the last crawl which gives an idea of how much interest Google has in the page.
That said, if the page doesn’t change often, Googlebot may decide to crawl it less. This is not a big deal. It only makes sense in terms of conserving resources on Google and the target web server.
Finally, the URL Inspection Tool can be used to request a crawl.
2. Check if it is being ignored because it is duplicated and another page is being indexed
Next, Google recommends checking if a page is a duplicate or if another page is the canonical one.
The video suggests that it’s generally fine to select another page as canonical.
It explains:
“The next thing to check after crawling is if it has been ignored as a duplicate and the canonical URL is on another one most of the time, that’s fine.
Even if this isn’t the canonical URL you were expecting, the content is indexed and will be able to show up in search results, so it’s generally good.”
Additional tip: Google cautioned against using the site:search cache or operator for any diagnostic purposes. For example, a page may be indexed but not displayed in a site:search.
The site search operator, like all other site operators, is completely disconnected from the search index. This has always been the case, even when there was a site search operator to display backlinks.
Google advises:
“Do not use the cache or site lookup operators and functions because they are not intended for debugging purposes and may give you misleading results when you try to use them in debugging.”
3. Check the rendered HTML for anomalies
The last tip is pretty good. Google advises that checking HTML using source code is not the same as checking rendered HTML.
Rendered means the HTML that is generated for the browser or Googlebot to generate the web page.
If you’re trying to figure out if there’s something in the HTML, it’s helpful to look at the rendered HTML because it’ll show you what the browser and Googlebot actually see at the code level.
The difference between source HTML and rendered HTML is that the rendered variant shows you how the HTML looks after all the JavaScript has been executed.
So if there’s a problem with JavaScript or something else, you’re more likely to catch it by reviewing the rendered HTML.
Google advises:
“…check the rendered HTML and the HTTP response to see if there’s anything you don’t expect.
For example, a missing error message or missing content due to some technical problems in the server or application code.”
See HTML rendered with Search Console
Google support has a step-by-step to see the rendered HTML in the search console:
“Inspect the URL, either by entering it directly into the URL inspector or by clicking an inspect link next to a URL that appears in most Search Console reports.
Click Test Live URL > Show Tested Page.
The HTML tab displays the rendered HTML for the page.
See HTML rendered with Chrome DevTools
Chrome DevTools (in your Chrome browser) can also be used to view the rendered HTML.
Open Chrome Developer Tools via the ellipsis (three dots) drop-down menu, then: More Tools > Developer Tools Then for MacOS press Command+Shift+P and for Windows/Linux /ChromeOS press Control+Shift+P in order. to access the command menu. Type: Rendering, select the “Show Rendering” menu option
After that, Chrome DevTools shows you the rendered HTML in the bottom window, which can be grabbed with the mouse cursor and expanded, as in the screenshot below.
Three tips for debugging technical problems
There are many technical issues that can prevent indexing and ranking, and even more ways to identify and fix these issues.
Fortunately, Google makes it easy to debug technical issues with the tools provided by Search Console and Chrome DevTools.
Watch the Google Search Central video:
3 tips for debugging technical issues in Google Search
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