Google Webmaster Tools Adds Blocked Resources Report & Updates Fetch & Render Tool

Google announced this morning that it has launched a new report within Google Webmaster Tools called the Blocked Resources Report. This report helps webmasters discover images, CSS, and JavaScript that GoogleBot cannot reach because they are being blocked.

Google also updated the Fetch & Render tool to display how GoogleBot sees your page versus how a user sees your page.

Blocked Resources Report

The Blocked Resources Report aims to give webmasters more insight into which images, CSS, JavaScript and other resources are currently being blocked from Google. The report shows you initially which hosts are being blocked. Then by clicking on the rows, it will give you the list of blocked resources within that host.

Clicking deeper will show you the specific pages that embed those blocked resources, ultimately taking you through “the steps to diagnose and resolve,” says Google’s John Mueller.

Here is a picture of the report; keep in mind, you can drill deeper by clicking on the host name.

Updated Fetch & Render Tool:

The fetch and render tool is designed to show you how Google sees your page. But now, Google is showing you how it sees your page versus how a user sees your page, side-by-side. Google said:

When you request a URL be fetched and rendered, it now shows screenshots rendered both as Googlebot and as a typical user. This makes it easier to recognize the issues that significantly influence why your pages are seen differently by Googlebot.

Here is a picture of one of my sites that show the two side-by-side:

For more details on the new blocked resources report, click here.

About The Author

Barry Schwartz

Barry Schwartz a Contributing Editor to Search Engine Land and a member of the programming team for SMX events. He owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on very advanced SEM topics. Barry's personal blog is named Cartoon Barry and he can be followed on Twitter here.