How to Fix Index Coverage Issue in Google Search Console

We will see how to fix index coverage issue in Google Search Console here.

So I got a message from Google on Google Search Console saying that my site is being affected by one new index coverage related issue. Here’s the exact snapshot of the error message that I received:

Pretty scary when someone puts it that way!

Good thing that they gave a big blue button called “Fix Index coverage issues” to click on. So I clicked.

This is the next page that Google flared:

All that red is making my eyes hurt. Let’s see how to fix Index Coverage Issue in Google Search Console quickly.

How to Fix Index Coverage Issue in Google Search Console

Step 1: Click on the Error message you are getting. In my case my error message says “Submitted URL has crawl issue”. So I am gonna click on that.

Step 2: It takes me to a similar page now with all the hurtful red. Click on the link that has issues:

Clicking on it has revealed a window to the right that says “Page Details”. These are ways to fix the issue of course. Any of these might fix your issue for sure.

As you can see it is a link that is no longer working (you can click yours open) and it has been crawled wrongfully by Google:

Removing a URL from Google Search Result

If you do not want this link to be crawled by Google you can fix it using the following steps:

Step 3: On the left side of your dashboard of Google Search Console under Google Index is the option of Remove URLs. Click on it:

It will take you to the remove URL page which might appear something like this:

Step 4: Click on Temporarily hide button.

NOTE: Since it is temporary it will hide your page url for about 90 days from Google Search Index. If you want to permanently remove the url forever you can click on More information link next above it.

Step 5: Paste the URL you want not to be shown here:

Doing so will take you to the following area.

Step 6: Select the dropdown and select the most feasible option, and then click on Submit Request.

It will open the following page:

As you can see it says that the said URL has been added for removal. The status of that will be changed to pending. You can revisit the Remove URLs tab to check on the status later.

At least our work has been done.

Step 7: Repeat the process for all the URLs that you don’t wish Google to look for in its search results.

So I did that for my second link too.

Here’s a snapshot at the end of including both the links for removal:

Validate Fix

Step 8: We need to Validate fix now. Navigate to the following page where you have the “Done fixing? Validate Fix” option:

Step 9: Click on the Validate Fix button.

Step 10: You can click on the See Details button shown above to check out the details about the validation:

Remember the above tutorial on How to Fix Index Coverage Issue in Google Search Console should be used if you are pretty sure you don’t want a said URL to be crawled or indexed by Google. In case you want the URL to be crawled and indexed, you can make use of the Yoast Plugin to index a particular tab.

Hope you have learnt a thing or two about resolving the Index Coverage issue.

Like this tip? check out our other tips and tricks as well.