Audit rules reference

Why it matters

Pages that return 404 or another client error cannot rank, waste crawl budget and frustrate visitors who follow links to them.

How to fix

Restore the page, 301-redirect it to the closest relevant page, or remove the links pointing to it.

Rule id client-error

Why it matters

Server errors tell search engines the site is unreliable. Persistent 5xx responses can drop pages from the index.

How to fix

Check server logs for the failing URLs and fix the application or hosting error.

Rule id server-error

Why it matters

The request timed out or failed (DNS, connection, SSL). Search engines see the same failure.

How to fix

Check the error for each URL: server capacity, firewall or bot protection, DNS and SSL configuration.

Rule id no-response

Why it matters

A redirect that eventually points back to itself never resolves: browsers show an error and crawlers give up.

How to fix

Break the loop so the chain ends at a page that returns 200.

Rule id redirect-loop

Why it matters

Each extra hop slows users down, and search engines may stop following long chains.

How to fix

Point the first URL straight at the final destination with a single 301.

Rule id redirect-chain

Why it matters

Temporary redirects signal the move is not permanent, so search engines may keep the old URL indexed.

How to fix

Use a 301 or 308 if the move is permanent.

Rule id temporary-redirect

Why it matters

A canonical pointing to a redirect, error or unreachable URL is usually ignored, leaving search engines to guess.

How to fix

Point the canonical at the final, 200-status version of the page.

Rule id canonical-to-error

Why it matters

This sends conflicting signals: "index that URL instead" and "don't index that URL". The page may drop out entirely.

How to fix

Canonicalise to an indexable page, or remove the noindex from the target.

Rule id canonical-to-noindex

Why it matters

When a page declares more than one canonical, search engines may ignore all of them.

How to fix

Keep a single canonical, in the HTML head or the HTTP Link header, not both.

Rule id multiple-canonicals

Why it matters

Blocked pages can still be indexed from links, but without their content, often showing a bare URL in results.

How to fix

Unblock the pages if they should rank, or stop linking to them and use noindex instead of robots.txt.

Rule id blocked-but-linked

Why it matters

These pages ask not to be indexed. Make sure that is intentional.

How to fix

Remove the noindex (meta robots or X-Robots-Tag) from pages that should appear in search.

Rule id noindex

Why it matters

These pages point their canonical to another URL, so they will not be indexed themselves.

How to fix

Confirm the canonical target is the version you want indexed.

Rule id canonicalised

Why it matters

Without a canonical, search engines choose one themselves among duplicate or parameterised URLs.

How to fix

Add a self-referencing canonical to indexable pages.

Rule id missing-canonical

Why it matters

The title is the main headline in search results and a strong relevance signal.

How to fix

Add a unique, descriptive <title> to every indexable page.

Rule id missing-title

Why it matters

Pages sharing a title compete with each other and look identical in search results.

How to fix

Write a unique title for each page that reflects its specific content.

Rule id duplicate-title

Why it matters

Without a description, search engines pick a snippet themselves, which is often less compelling.

How to fix

Add a meta description summarising the page for searchers.

Rule id missing-meta-description

Why it matters

Identical descriptions make different pages look the same in results.

How to fix

Write a unique description for each page.

Rule id duplicate-meta-description

Why it matters

The H1 tells users and search engines what the page is about.

How to fix

Add one H1 that describes the main topic of the page.

Rule id missing-h1

Why it matters

Indexable pages with identical text compete with each other, and search engines pick one to show.

How to fix

Consolidate duplicates with a 301 redirect or a canonical to the preferred URL, or make each page unique.

Rule id duplicate-content

Why it matters

Long titles are usually truncated in search results.

How to fix

Keep titles under about 60 characters, with the key words first.

Rule id title-too-long

Why it matters

Very short titles miss the chance to describe the page and include relevant terms.

How to fix

Expand the title to describe the page, ideally 30–60 characters.

Rule id title-too-short

Why it matters

Short descriptions under-use the snippet; long ones get truncated.

How to fix

Aim for 70–160 characters.

Rule id meta-description-length

Why it matters

Several H1s can blur what the page is mainly about.

How to fix

Use a single H1 and structure the rest with H2–H6.

Rule id multiple-h1

Why it matters

Pages with very little text often struggle to rank and may be seen as low quality.

How to fix

Add useful content, merge thin pages, or noindex them if they have no search value.

Rule id thin-content

Why it matters

Pages whose text is almost the same add little value on their own and may be treated as duplicates.

How to fix

Differentiate the pages with unique content, or consolidate them.

Rule id near-duplicate-content

Why it matters

Links to 4xx/5xx URLs lead users and crawlers to dead ends and waste link equity.

How to fix

Update each link to point to a working URL, or restore the target page.

Rule id broken-internal-link

Why it matters

Linking to a redirect adds a hop for every visitor and crawler, and dilutes link signals.

How to fix

Update the links to point directly to the final URL.

Rule id internal-link-to-redirect

Why it matters

Links to dead external pages hurt user experience and look unmaintained.

How to fix

Update or remove the links.

Needs

"Check external links" turned on

Rule id broken-external-link

Why it matters

Deep pages get crawled less often and receive less internal link equity.

How to fix

Link to important deep pages from higher-level pages, categories or hubs.

Needs

A crawl that follows links (Website mode, or Sitemap mode with "Also follow links")

Rule id deep-page

Why it matters

Dead-end pages stop users and crawlers from reaching the rest of the site.

How to fix

Add links to related pages, categories or navigation.

Rule id no-internal-outlinks

Why it matters

Nofollow on internal links withholds link signals from your own pages.

How to fix

Remove rel="nofollow" from internal links unless there is a specific reason.

Rule id internal-nofollow

Why it matters

Pages linked from a single place are easy to lose and receive little internal link equity.

How to fix

Link to these pages from more relevant pages.

Needs

A crawl that follows links (Website mode, or Sitemap mode with "Also follow links")

Rule id single-inlink

Why it matters

Alt text makes images accessible to screen readers and helps them rank in image search.

How to fix

Add a short description in the alt attribute; use alt="" for purely decorative images.

Rule id image-missing-alt

Why it matters

Images that fail to load hurt user experience and look neglected.

How to fix

Fix the image URL or restore the missing file.

Needs

"Check images" turned on

Rule id broken-image

Why it matters

Browsers mark HTTP pages as "Not secure", and HTTPS is a ranking signal.

How to fix

Serve every page over HTTPS and 301-redirect the HTTP versions.

Rule id http-page

Why it matters

Browsers block or warn about insecure resources on secure pages.

How to fix

Load every resource over HTTPS.

Rule id mixed-content

Why it matters

If http:// still serves the site, it can be indexed as a duplicate and visitors browse insecurely.

How to fix

Add a site-wide 301 redirect from HTTP to HTTPS.

Rule id http-not-redirected

Why it matters

Largest Contentful Paint over 4 s means visitors wait a long time for the main content. LCP is a Core Web Vital that Google uses in ranking.

How to fix

Speed up the server response, preload the hero image and serve it in a modern format at the right size, and remove render-blocking CSS and JavaScript.

Needs

Core Web Vitals measured (PageSpeed Insights API key)

Rule id cwv-poor-lcp

Why it matters

Interaction to Next Paint over 500 ms means the page feels slow to respond to taps and clicks. INP is a Core Web Vital.

How to fix

Break up long JavaScript tasks, defer third-party scripts, and keep event handlers light.

Needs

Core Web Vitals measured (PageSpeed Insights API key)

Rule id cwv-poor-inp

Why it matters

Cumulative Layout Shift over 0.25 means content jumps around while the page loads, causing mis-clicks. CLS is a Core Web Vital.

How to fix

Set width and height on images and embeds, reserve space for ads and banners, and avoid inserting content above what is already shown.

Needs

Core Web Vitals measured (PageSpeed Insights API key)

Rule id cwv-poor-cls

Why it matters

Slow responses hurt user experience and can reduce how much of the site gets crawled.

How to fix

Investigate server performance, caching and database queries for these URLs.

Rule id slow-response

Why it matters

At least one Core Web Vital is between the good and poor thresholds for real users. Pages need all three to be good to pass the assessment.

How to fix

Check the metric shown for each URL in PageSpeed Insights and work on the opportunities listed there.

Needs

Core Web Vitals measured (PageSpeed Insights API key)

Rule id cwv-needs-improvement

Why it matters

A lab score under 50 points to heavy pages or slow loading, which usually shows up in real-user experience too.

How to fix

Open the URL to see the biggest opportunities Lighthouse found, such as unused JavaScript or oversized images.

Needs

Core Web Vitals measured (PageSpeed Insights API key)

Rule id lab-low-score

Why it matters

Google could not load these pages for testing, often because of bot protection, redirects or timeouts. Googlebot may have the same trouble.

How to fix

Check the error for each URL, and make sure the page loads for the Lighthouse user agent.

Needs

Core Web Vitals measured (PageSpeed Insights API key)

Rule id vitals-failed

Why it matters

Very large documents are slow to download and parse, especially on mobile.

How to fix

Reduce inline code and markup, or split the content.

Rule id large-html

Why it matters

Sitemaps should list only indexable 200 URLs. Redirects, errors, noindex and canonicalised URLs reduce trust in the sitemap.

How to fix

Remove these URLs from the sitemap, or fix the pages so they return 200 and are indexable.

Needs

Sitemap mode

Rule id sitemap-non-indexable

Why it matters

A sitemap that returns an error or is not valid XML is ignored by search engines.

How to fix

Make sure the sitemap URL returns 200 with valid sitemap XML.

Needs

Sitemap mode

Rule id sitemap-error

Why it matters

Pages that only appear in the sitemap get no internal link equity and are hard for users to find.

How to fix

Link to these pages from relevant pages or navigation, or remove them if they are obsolete.

Needs

Sitemap mode · A crawl that follows links (Website mode, or Sitemap mode with "Also follow links")

Rule id orphan-page

Why it matters

Search engines ignore hreflang values that are not a valid language (and optional country) code, such as "en-UK" or "english".

How to fix

Use ISO 639-1 language codes with optional ISO 3166-1 country codes, e.g. en, en-GB, vi-VN, or x-default.

Rule id hreflang-invalid-code

Why it matters

Hreflang only works when both pages point to each other; one-way annotations are ignored.

How to fix

Add the reciprocal hreflang on every alternate page.

Rule id hreflang-missing-return

Why it matters

Alternates that redirect, error, are noindexed or canonicalised elsewhere break the hreflang set.

How to fix

Point hreflang only at the final, indexable URL of each language version.

Rule id hreflang-to-non-indexable

Why it matters

Each page in an hreflang set should list itself as well as its alternates.

How to fix

Add an hreflang entry for the page's own language pointing to its own URL.

Rule id hreflang-missing-self

Why it matters

x-default tells search engines which page to show users whose language is not covered.

How to fix

Add hreflang="x-default" pointing to your language selector or main version.

Rule id hreflang-missing-x-default

Why it matters

A JSON-LD block with a syntax error is ignored entirely, so its rich results are lost.

How to fix

Fix the JSON syntax (commas, quotes, brackets) and check it with Google's Rich Results Test.

Rule id structured-data-invalid

Why it matters

Items without the properties Google requires are not eligible for rich results.

How to fix

Add the listed properties to each item, or remove markup for types you do not want as rich results.

Rule id structured-data-missing-required

Why it matters

When scripts rewrite the title, description, canonical or robots tags, search engines may index either version, and the raw one is what most other bots see.

How to fix

Serve the final tags in the HTML from the server (server-side rendering or static output).

Needs

"Render JavaScript" turned on

Rule id js-changes-seo-tags

Why it matters

Links that exist only after JavaScript runs are discovered later, and not at all by crawlers that do not render.

How to fix

Output important navigation and internal links as <a href> in the server HTML.

Needs

"Render JavaScript" turned on

Rule id js-links-only-rendered

Why it matters

Most of the page text appears only after rendering. Indexing is slower and other bots see an almost empty page.

How to fix

Render the main content on the server, or pre-render pages that need to rank.

Needs

"Render JavaScript" turned on

Rule id js-content-dependent

Why it matters

The page could not be rendered in time, so its rendered content could not be checked.

How to fix

Check for slow scripts, endless loading or errors in the browser console, or raise the timeout.

Needs

"Render JavaScript" turned on

Rule id js-render-failed

Why it matters

Visitors from any channel (search, ads, email, social) land on these URLs, but they now return an error.

How to fix

Restore the page or 301-redirect it to the closest working page, and update campaigns that link to it.

Needs

Google Analytics data fetched

Rule id ga-traffic-error

Why it matters

These URLs earned clicks from Google search but now return an error, so that traffic is being lost.

How to fix

Restore the page, or 301-redirect it to the closest working page so the visits and rankings carry over.

Needs

Search Console data fetched

Rule id gsc-traffic-error

Why it matters

Google sends visitors to these URLs, but they are now noindexed, canonicalised elsewhere, redirected or blocked. Their rankings will fade.

How to fix

Check that this is intended. If the page should rank, remove the noindex or point the canonical at itself.

Needs

Search Console data fetched

Rule id gsc-traffic-not-indexable

Why it matters

Google shows these URLs in search, but the crawl could not reach them by following links: they may be orphaned or linked only from elsewhere.

How to fix

Link to the pages that should rank from relevant internal pages; redirect or remove the ones that should not exist.

Needs

Search Console data fetched · A crawl that follows links (Website mode, or Sitemap mode with "Also follow links")

Rule id gsc-not-crawled

Why it matters

People land on these URLs (from campaigns, old links or search), but they are not linked from the site, so the crawl never reached them.

How to fix

Link to the ones that matter from relevant pages; redirect retired campaign or legacy URLs to current pages.

Needs

Google Analytics data fetched · A crawl that follows links (Website mode, or Sitemap mode with "Also follow links")

Rule id ga-not-crawled

Why it matters

These pages rank on page one but get far fewer clicks than usual for their position, often because the title or description does not appeal.

How to fix

Rewrite the title and meta description to match what searchers want; add structured data for rich results where it fits.

Needs

Search Console data fetched

Rule id gsc-low-ctr

Why it matters

Pages on page two get few clicks, but a small improvement can move them onto page one.

How to fix

Strengthen these pages: better content for the main queries, more internal links from strong pages, and a sharper title.

Needs

Search Console data fetched

Rule id gsc-striking-distance

Why it matters

These pages did not appear in Google search at all in the period: they may not be indexed, or target no searched topic.

How to fix

Inspect the URL in Search Console. Improve, merge or remove pages that serve no search purpose.

Needs

Search Console data fetched

Rule id gsc-no-impressions

Why it matters

Googlebot requested these URLs and got a 4xx or 5xx response. Errors waste crawl budget, and repeated server errors make Google crawl the site less.

How to fix

Fix server errors first. Redirect or restore pages that Google still requests but no longer exist, or remove the links that point to them.

Needs

Server logs imported

Rule id log-googlebot-errors

Why it matters

In the period the logs cover, Googlebot never requested these pages, so changes to them are not picked up and new pages may not get indexed.

How to fix

Link to these pages from strong, frequently crawled pages, list them in the XML sitemap, and check they are not too deep in the site.

Needs

Server logs imported

Rule id log-not-crawled-by-google

Why it matters

Google keeps requesting these URLs, but the site does not link to them: old pages, parameter variants or orphaned content that use up crawl budget.

How to fix

Redirect retired URLs, link to orphaned pages that should rank, and block crawl traps (e.g. endless parameters) in robots.txt.

Needs

Server logs imported · A crawl that follows links (Website mode, or Sitemap mode with "Also follow links")

Rule id log-orphan-crawled