Google Lighthouse finds and flags pages that have elements that search engines cannot index. The system alert that does this is as follows:
- It’s also worth noting that Lighthouse only checks headlines and items that cause problems in all search engines. For example, sometimes a
<meta>element may also cause problems with indexing. Here is an example:
Here is a HTTP response header example that block indexing:
X-Robots-Tag: noindex
Moreover, the page may have additional <meta> elements that prevent indexing:
Lighthouse does not include such items that cause problems in specific browsers in the audit. However, this does not change the fact that these items are problematic. That’s why it’s very important that you fix these as well.
How to pass the audit? – Ensuring that search engines crawl your page
A little note: You may not want every page to be indexed. For example, sitemaps or legal content in general, that is, the pages that the user does not need to see, are not desired to be indexed. But don’t worry, even if a page isn’t indexed, it’s possible to go directly to that page if the user knows the URL. This prevents user experience and SEO from being negatively affected.
To avoid the problem with the pages you want indexed, you need to remove the following items:
- If you are setting up the HTTP response header, the HTTP response header in the source should be deleted:
X-Robots-Tag: noindex
The meta tag in the heading part of the page should be removed:
If there is a meta tag that blocks a specific crawler and it is in the page heading, it should be removed:
What about an additional control?
If you want to perform additional checks on the indexing of your pages and you want to create different systems for different pages by seeing what search engines pay attention to in the indexing process, you can take a look at the guides below.