Recommendations

For more information, see Favicon.

The site isn't optimized for mobile devices

If the site isn't adaptive, it will display incorrectly on mobile devices.

How to fix

To solve the problem:

1. Look through the list of pages that don't meet the requirements for display on mobile devices.

2. Make any necessary edits to the pages from the list.

3. Check the changes you’ve made:

   1. Go to Tools → Audit pages for mobile compatibility.
   2. Enter the URL of the modified page in the search bar and click Check.

If the indexing bot doesn't find any issues with optimization the next time it crawls your site, the message in Yandex Webmaster will disappear.

To learn more, see Issues related to site optimization for mobile devices

Robots.txt file not found

The indexing bot checks the robots.txt file several times a day and records any changes. If it can't access that file when it crawls your site, a warning will appear in Yandex Webmaster.

How to fix

In Yandex Webmaster, go to Tools → Robots.txt analysis and check that robots.txt is available:

• If it's not, add it.
• If you can't add the file yourself, contact your hosting provider or domain registrar.

Once you add the file, the information in Yandex Webmaster will be updated within a few days.

Errors were detected in the robots.txt file

Errors in robots.txt can lead to the following problems:

• Important site pages will disappear from Yandex Search.
• Pages that shouldn't appear in search results will be indexed.

How to fix

In Yandex Webmaster, go to Tools → Robots.txt analysis page and check the robots.txt file. The detected errors will be displayed under Results of robots.txt analysis.

To fix them, use directives.

No Sitemap files are currently used by the indexing bot

The Sitemap file helps the indexing bot find new pages on your site. If you see this warning, it means the robot isn't using any Sitemap files for your site.

How to fix

Add a Sitemap file to Yandex Webmaster and wait for the robot to check it. Typically, this process takes up to two weeks. After that, the warning in Yandex Webmaster will disappear.

Errors found in Sitemap files

Errors in Sitemap files prevent search engines from finding and indexing your site's pages, which can hinder its visibility in Yandex Search.

How to fix

Check the Sitemap of your site.

If you see the "Unknown tag" error, this means the file contains elements that aren't supported by Yandex. Such elements are ignored by the indexing bot, but the rest of the data will be processed. There is no need to update the file, since all supported elements are already taken into account. For more information, see Using the Sitemap file.

Incorrect display settings for non-existent or deleted files and pages

The site doesn't return HTTP 404 code for non-existent or deleted pages and files. Because of that, the bot considers such pages active and indexes them.

This can create duplicate pages, which increases the load on the server and makes indexing slower.

How to fix

Check the code returned for non‑existent pages. To do this, use the Check page tool. Enter the address of a page that does not exist on your site. You can use any combination of letters and numbers, for example, https://example.com/kugbkkrfck. In robots.txt, prohibit the bot from accessing these pages and files.

If you can't set HTTP code 404:

• Set any other 4xx code, except 429.

  We don't recommend using response codes 429 and 5xx. They inform the robot that the server is overloaded, and indexing may slow down.

• Use the noindex directive or set up a 301 redirect.

  In this case, Yandex Webmaster may display warnings, but the pages won't appear in search results, and this won't affect the site's ranking. Use the noindex directive and set up a 301 redirect only in extreme cases, because these methods increase server load and slow down indexing.

The title element and the description metatag are missing

The title element and description metatag generate the site description in search results. For more details, see Snippet.

How to fix

If one or both elements are missing, add them to the HTML code of the pages and save the changes.

If the elements have already been added to the site, wait a bit. Once the robot crawls the pages, the message will disappear. For details, see Site errors.

Pages have the same titles and descriptions

A message is displayed if many pages on the site have identical titles or descriptions. The list of such pages is shown in Yandex Webmaster on the Website optimization → Site diagnostics page.

How to fix

1. View the list of pages with identical titles and descriptions next to the recommendation.

2. Create unique a title and description for each page to help users find the pages they need in search results faster.

   Learn more:

   • How to create the title element correctly;
   • How to create a description meta tag correctly.

When the indexing bot visits the site again and sees the changes, the message in Yandex Webmaster will disappear. To speed up the process, submit important pages for reindexing or configure page crawling via Yandex Metrica.