Troubleshoot

SEO Troubleshooting

Diagnostic trees for common SEO problems. Start from the symptom, follow the tree to the fix.

"Page Not Indexed by Google"

Page not appearing in Google?
├─ Is the page in your sitemap?
│  └─ No → Add it to sitemap.ts, resubmit in GSC
├─ Does robots.txt block it?
│  └─ Check /robots.txt — is the path in Disallow?
├─ Does the page have noindex?
│  └─ Check metadata: robots.index should be true (or absent)
├─ Is there a canonical pointing elsewhere?
│  └─ Check alternates.canonical — must point to self
├─ Is the staging env blocking crawlers?
│  └─ Check robots.ts — VERCEL_ENV or NODE_ENV check
├─ Is the page behind JavaScript only?
│  └─ Use Server Components — content must be in initial HTML
├─ Is the page returning non-200 status?
│  └─ Google excludes non-200 pages from rendering queue (Dec 2025)
├─ Is the page new?
│  └─ Wait 2-4 weeks. Use GSC URL Inspection to request indexing
└─ Is the page thin or duplicate?
   └─ Add unique, valuable content. Check for duplicate URLs

Quick fix: In Google Search Console → URL Inspection → paste the URL → "Request Indexing". This does not guarantee indexing but puts the URL in the crawl queue.

"No Rich Snippets / Rich Results"

Structured data not showing rich results?
├─ Is the JSON-LD valid?
│  └─ Test at https://search.google.com/test/rich-results
│     ├─ Errors found → Fix the JSON-LD (missing fields, wrong types)
│     └─ Valid but "not eligible" → Schema type restrictions apply
├─ Is the schema type still supported?
│  ├─ FAQPage → Restricted to gov/health sites since 2023
│  ├─ HowTo → Desktop removed in 2023, mobile/voice only
│  └─ Other types → Check Google's supported types list
├─ Does the schema match page content?
│  └─ Google verifies schema against visible content — mismatches are penalized
├─ Is the site new or low-authority?
│  └─ Rich results require page authority. New sites may wait 1-3 months
├─ Is there competing structured data?
│  └─ Don't use two identical @types on the same page
└─ Has it been enough time?
   └─ Rich results take 2-4 weeks to appear after successful crawl

Common fix: Most rich result failures come from missing required fields. Run the Rich Results Test and fix every error and warning.

"Low PageSpeed / Lighthouse Score"

PageSpeed Insights score < 90?
├─ LCP > 2.5s?
│  ├─ Is the LCP element an image?
│  │  ├─ Missing priority prop → Add priority to hero/banner Image
│  │  ├─ Missing sizes prop → Add responsive sizes attribute
│  │  └─ Image too large → Use AVIF/WebP, configure formats in next.config
│  ├─ Is the LCP element text?
│  │  ├─ Font blocking render → Use next/font with display: swap
│  │  └─ Server response slow → Check API/database latency, use ISR
│  └─ Server-side rendering delay?
│     └─ Use Suspense with streaming, add loading.tsx skeletons
├─ INP > 200ms? (or high TBT in lab)
│  ├─ Long JavaScript tasks?
│  │  ├─ Heavy components → Use dynamic() imports with ssr: false
│  │  ├─ Large event handlers → Use startTransition, useDeferredValue
│  │  └─ Third-party scripts → Defer with next/script strategy="lazyOnload"
│  ├─ Large DOM?
│  │  └─ Target < 1500 nodes. Use virtual scrolling for long lists
│  └─ Large bundle?
│     └─ Run NEXT_BUNDLE_ANALYZE=true next build. Remove unused deps
├─ CLS > 0.1?
│  ├─ Images without dimensions → Add width/height to all Image components
│  ├─ Font flash (FOUT) → Use next/font (self-hosted, no FOUT)
│  ├─ Dynamic content injection → Reserve space with min-height or Suspense
│  └─ Ads or embeds loading late → Set explicit dimensions, use placeholder
└─ General slow?
   ├─ Not using ISR → Add revalidate to static pages
   ├─ No CDN → Deploy to Vercel or edge-enabled host
   └─ Too many third-party scripts → Audit and remove unused scripts

"Duplicate Content"

Google reporting duplicate content?
├─ Same content, different URLs?
│  ├─ www vs non-www → 301 redirect to one version
│  ├─ HTTP vs HTTPS → 301 redirect HTTP → HTTPS
│  ├─ Trailing slash inconsistency → Set trailingSlash in next.config.ts
│  └─ Query parameters → Canonical to base URL (without params)
├─ Same content across pages?
│  ├─ Category/tag pages with overlap → Canonical to primary page
│  ├─ Pagination → Canonical to page 1 (or self-referencing)
│  └─ Translated content without hreflang → Add hreflang alternates
├─ Syndicated or republished content?
│  └─ Add canonical pointing to the original source
└─ Near-duplicate pages?
   └─ Consolidate thin pages or add unique content to each

"OG Image Not Showing on Social Media"

Social media preview missing image?
├─ Is the image URL absolute?
│  └─ Must be full URL (https://...), not relative (/og.png)
│     Fix: Set metadataBase in root layout
├─ Is the image accessible?
│  └─ Try opening the URL directly in a browser
│     ├─ 404 → Image path is wrong or file missing
│     ├─ 403 → Server blocking social media crawlers
│     └─ Loads fine → Continue debugging
├─ Is the image the right size?
│  └─ Minimum 600x315, recommended 1200x630
├─ Is there a cache issue?
│  ├─ Facebook → Use Sharing Debugger to clear cache
│  ├─ Twitter/X → Use Card Validator to refresh
│  ├─ LinkedIn → Use Post Inspector to recrawl
│  └─ Slack → Append ?v=2 to URL to bust cache
├─ Is the og:image tag in the HTML?
│  └─ View page source, search for og:image
│     ├─ Missing → Check metadata export has openGraph.images
│     └─ Present but wrong URL → Check metadataBase configuration
└─ Using opengraph-image.tsx?
   └─ Test by visiting /opengraph-image directly in browser
      └─ Error → Check ImageResponse code for bugs

"Google Search Console Errors"

"Crawled - currently not indexed"

Google found the page but chose not to index it. Common reasons:

• Content is thin or duplicates another page
• Page has low quality signals
• Site has too many low-quality pages diluting crawl budget

Fix: Improve content quality, add unique value, ensure page has inbound internal links.

"Discovered - currently not indexed"

Google knows the URL exists but hasn't crawled it yet. This is normal for new pages.

Fix: Wait. Ensure the page is in the sitemap. Use URL Inspection to request crawling.

"Excluded by noindex tag"

Page has robots: { index: false } in metadata. If intentional, ignore. If not, remove the noindex.

"Page with redirect"

Page returns a 301/302 redirect. Google follows the redirect and indexes the destination instead.

Fix: If the redirect is correct, no action needed. If not, fix the redirect in next.config.ts.

"Server error (5xx)"

Page returned a 500 error when Googlebot crawled it.

Fix: Check server logs, fix the error. Common causes: missing env vars in production, database timeouts, unhandled exceptions in Server Components.

"Blocked by robots.txt"

The URL is disallowed in robots.txt.

Fix: Review robots.ts rules. Remove the page from Disallow if it should be indexed.

Diagnostic Tools