Google Search Console Adds More Detail to Error Reports

SEO

By Chris Barnhart Last updated Oct 8, 2021

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Google is adding more detail to Search Console reports in an effort to assist SEOs with resolving rich results errors.

The company made an announcement on Twitter that reads

“Today we’re adding more details to some errors on Search Console Rich Results status reports to make them more actionable and help you understand how to solve those issues. Learn more about using the rich result reports and try it out!“

Google’s tweet links to a page on what the rich results report in Search Console is and how to use it.

In short, it’s designed to identify any errors in your website’s structured data that could prevent pages from being served as rich results in SERPs.

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If you’re not exactly sure what was updated after reading Google’s announcement, you’re not alone.

The tweet is scant on details, but Google’s Daniel Waisberg followed up afterward with more information.

Here’s what you need to know.

Google Search Console Rich Results Report: What Has Changed?

When it comes to using the rich results report in Search Console to identify and fix errors, nothing has changed there.

Search Console is not reporting on new of types errors, it’s simply adding more information about errors it already checks for.

Specifically, more details are being added about the following types of errors:

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• Invalid attribute string length
• Invalid attribute enum value
• Invalid object
• Type conversion failed
• Out of numeric range

If you have any of those errors you can now learn more about them directly in Search Console.

How Can This Help?

The added information should be what SEOs need to adjust a website’s implementation of structured data and get it recognized as valid.

Only valid structured data is eligible to be served as a rich snippet in Google’s search results.

However, valid structured data does not guarantee that Google will display the URL as a rich result in SERPs.

If you’re looking at the error report thinking: “All my structured data is valid, why aren’t my pages being served as rich results?”

Well, there’s no simple answer to that question. It’s like asking “why isn’t my page ranking number one?”

That’s one of those things determined by Google’s algorithm based on a multitude of factors.

You’re doing all you can from a technical standpoint if your structured data is valid.

What you should focus on next is improving the overall quality and relevance of your pages. That could involve adding more content, or getting more links, or something along those lines.