# .nojekyll + Canonical Tag: My Simple Fix for Indexing Errors **๐Ÿ—“๏ธ Date: June 27, 2025 | ๐Ÿ•ฆ Time: 11:30 AM** Two days back, I received a mail from **Google Search Console** saying that **two of my website pages werenโ€™t being indexed**. The report showed that both pages were **stopped from being crawled** due to an error. ๐Ÿ“ธ *\[Search Console error message\]* ![](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1751005138799/fb47e431-32f2-450b-85b5-f26203819df5.png align="center") --- ### ๐Ÿ” Investigating the Issue After some research, I discovered that this could be happening due to a **redirecting issue**. To fix it, I added a **canonical URL** to the `` section of both HTML pages. This helps tell search engines the correct version of a page, avoiding confusion. ๐Ÿ“ธ *\[Canonical tag added in HTML\]* ![](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1751005215010/40fe4ca9-8f2f-4302-a560-37f92cd3263b.png align="center") --- ### ๐Ÿค” And Then I Found Out About `.nojekyll` While researching more about indexing issues on GitHub Pages, I came across something new โ€“ a file named `.nojekyll`. > `.nojekyll` is a special file you add to your GitHub Pages repo to tell GitHub **not to use Jekyll processing**. > Why? Because Jekyll, by default, ignores folders that start with an underscore (\_), and we donโ€™t want that. ๐Ÿ“ธ *\[Explanation of* `.nojekyll` - Reference image\] ![](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1751005268755/ea513791-0306-4d65-a728-f76c72bc4e9e.png align="center") --- ### ๐Ÿ’ป Making the Change Using Git (From VS Code) Until now, I always created files **manually using the cursor**, but this time, I wanted to do it **via the Git terminal** inside VS Code. At first, I ran: ```bash add .nojekyll ``` But got an error because the file didnโ€™t exist yet ๐Ÿ˜… ๐Ÿ“ธ *\[Git error for missing file\]* ![](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1751005474416/21ba249f-efb8-4c22-bec3-848c3fa74404.png align="center") --- ### ๐Ÿ’ก Learning to Create a File via Terminal Then I Googled it, and finally discovered the correct way to **create a new file using the command line**: ```bash echo > .nojekyll ``` And boom! File created ๐ŸŽ‰ --- ### โœ… Staging, Committing, and Pushing Changes Once the file was there, I staged the change using: ```bash git add .nojekyll ``` > *Staging simply tells Git: โ€œHey! This file exists now. Iโ€™m ready to save this change.โ€* Then committed it: ```bash git commit -m "Added .nojekyll to disable jekyll processing" ``` And finally pushed to the main branch: ```bash git push origin main ``` ๐Ÿ“ธ *\[Staging + Commit + Push process\]* ![](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1751005595418/88d8e02f-70de-4bbc-a0b2-ffe71b459a49.png align="center") --- ### ๐Ÿ” Re-submitted to Search Console After the file was live, I went back to Google Search Console and **resubmitted both pages for indexing**. ๐Ÿ“ธ *\[Reindexing request\]* ![](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1751005674034/e20f0422-266a-49ae-8b34-5ec52d302677.png align="center") --- ### Still facing the issue? Here is the solutionโ€ฆ Final Cleanup & Indexing Success! After adding the `.nojekyll` file and canonical URLs, I noticed that the **real issue** was with inconsistent URLs - especially those **missing the trailing slash** (like `/about` instead of `/about/`). ๐Ÿ”ง So hereโ€™s what I did next: * โœ… **Updated all internal links** (e.g., `/about` โ†’ `/about/`) * โœ… **Fixed URLs in the** `sitemap.xml` to include trailing slashes * โœ… **Set canonical tags** with proper URLs ([`https://ayushhardeniya.site/about/`](https://ayushhardeniya.site/about/)) * โœ… **Re-submitted URLs and sitemap** in Google Search Console ๐Ÿ“ธ *\[Updated Sitemap.xml with trailing slash\]* ![](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1751034063968/4d8a227d-0334-4fda-921f-73274c254d17.png align="center") --- ### ๐ŸŽ‰ Final Result? **Google indexed the pages successfully!** And I learned the importance of consistent URL formatting - especially on static site hosts like GitHub Pages. ๐Ÿ“ธ *\[Search Console showing indexed page confirmation\]* ![](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1751034105922/8a9fca56-4975-4710-b272-64a700e9bf65.png align="center") This was one of those small but **super insightful learning days**, and Iโ€™m glad I documented it here!; ~Ayush Hardeniya