Don’t Panic! Understanding “New Reasons Prevent Pages from Being Indexed” Emails and What to Actually Focus On
If you’ve ever received an email from Google Search Console saying, “New reasons prevent pages from being indexed on your site,” it might feel alarming at first. As a high-ticket e-commerce store owner, any issue with your site’s indexing sounds like it could hurt your SEO and search visibility. However, most of these notifications are not a big deal and should not cause unnecessary panic.
In this article, I’ll help you understand why these warnings aren’t as serious as they seem, explain what they usually mean, and guide you on what issues you should focus on to maintain a healthy site.
Why Google Sends These Emails
Google Search Console regularly scans your site and sends alerts about potential indexing issues. These messages are intended to help you fix issues that might prevent your pages from showing up in search results. However, not all indexing problems are worth stressing over.
Most commonly, these alerts refer to non-indexed pages, which are normal, especially for sites on platforms like Shopify. Shopify often creates canonical tags to deal with duplicate content, pointing Google toward the preferred version of a page. These canonical pages are not meant to be indexed, which is why they trigger non-indexing warnings.
What to Ignore: The “Non-Indexed Pages” Panic
Non-indexed pages are usually not an issue that requires immediate attention. When Google identifies a non-indexed page, it’s often because the page is a duplicate or a version of an existing page. Shopify’s automated canonical tags are doing their job by telling Google which version to index.
These pages won’t hurt your site’s performance or SEO because they are designed to prevent duplicate content from cluttering search results. In short, Google is being efficient in deciding which pages to index. You can safely ignore these warnings as long as the pages in question aren’t critical ones like new product listings.
What to Actually Focus On: 404 Pages and Broken Links
While non-indexed pages are typically not a cause for concern, there are some issues that you should definitely pay attention to, such as 404 errors and broken links.
404 errors occur when a page is missing or broken, which leads to a bad user experience and can lower your quality score with Google. These issues can affect your site’s ranking in search results, making it harder for customers to find your products. So, when Google sends an alert about a 404 page, that’s something you need to address immediately.
Key Steps to Take When You Receive These Alerts:
1. Check if the non-indexed pages are intentional:
For most e-commerce stores using Shopify, the majority of non-indexed pages are canonical duplicates. This is completely normal. If the pages flagged are duplicates, you don’t need to do anything.
2. Identify critical pages that may be non-indexed:
If Google has decided not to index an important page (like a new product or blog post), you’ll want to take action. Ensure these pages are properly optimized and don’t have any issues preventing them from being crawled.
3. Focus on fixing 404 errors and broken links:
These issues do impact your site’s performance and should be fixed as soon as possible. Regularly monitor Google Search Console for these alerts and correct any broken links or missing pages.
Focus on the Real Issues, Not the Noise
Emails that say “New reasons prevent pages from being indexed” sound serious, but they’re often not a big deal. Instead of panicking, review the details and see if the flagged pages are critical. For most Shopify users, non-indexed pages are often the result of canonical tags that help streamline your content, which can be safely ignored.
The real red flags you should focus on are 404 errors, broken links, and ensuring that your most important content is indexed. This will keep your site healthy, boost your SEO, and ensure a smooth experience for your customers.