Crawl errors occur when search engine bots, such as Googlebot, are unable to access certain pages on your website. These errors can prevent search engines from fully indexing your site, negatively impacting your search engine rankings and visibility. Google Search Console is an essential tool for identifying, diagnosing, and fixing crawl errors, ensuring that your website is crawlable, indexed, and optimized for SEO. In this guide, we’ll explore what crawl errors are, how to find them in Google Search Console, and best practices for fixing them to maintain your website’s SEO health.
What Are Crawl Errors?
Crawl errors happen when search engines attempt to crawl your site but cannot access certain pages due to technical issues. These errors fall into two main categories: site-level errors and URL-level errors.
1. Site-Level Errors
Site-level errors affect your entire website and prevent Google from crawling any pages. These are the most severe types of crawl errors, as they indicate fundamental issues with your site’s infrastructure or server. Common site-level errors include:
- DNS Errors: Occur when Google is unable to communicate with your website’s DNS server.
- Server Errors (5xx Errors): Indicate that your server is either down or too slow to respond to Googlebot.
- Robots.txt Fetch Failures: Happen when Google is unable to retrieve your robots.txt file, which could block crawlers from accessing parts of your site.
2. URL-Level Errors
URL-level errors affect specific pages on your website rather than the entire site. These errors typically involve individual URLs that Google cannot access, even if other parts of the site are functioning properly. Common URL-level errors include:
- 404 Errors (Page Not Found): Occur when Google tries to crawl a URL that no longer exists or has been deleted.
- 403 Errors (Forbidden): Indicate that Googlebot is blocked from accessing certain pages due to permission issues.
- Redirect Errors: Occur when redirects are broken, leading to non-existent or incorrect pages (e.g., redirect loops or 302 redirects that should be 301).
Understanding the different types of crawl errors and how they affect your site is crucial for maintaining good SEO health.
How to Identify Crawl Errors in Google Search Console
Google Search Console is the go-to tool for monitoring and fixing crawl errors. It provides a detailed overview of your site’s performance in Google search, along with specific insights into crawl issues. Here’s how to find crawl errors in Search Console:
1. Navigate to the Coverage Report
Once logged into Google Search Console, navigate to the Coverage report, located under the Index section in the left-hand menu. This report shows the indexing status of your site and provides a breakdown of which URLs are indexed successfully and which have errors.
In the Coverage report, Google categorizes pages into four main categories:
- Error: Pages that couldn’t be indexed due to crawl errors.
- Valid with warnings: Pages that are indexed but have potential issues.
- Valid: Pages that are indexed without errors.
- Excluded: Pages that Google intentionally did not index (e.g., due to a noindex tag).
The Error section is where you’ll find crawl errors affecting your site’s ability to be fully indexed.
2. Review Specific Crawl Errors
Click on the Error tab to see the list of affected URLs, along with details about the specific errors. Google Search Console provides explanations for each error, helping you understand what went wrong and which URLs are affected.
For example:
- 404 Errors will list URLs that Google tried to access but could not find.
- Server Errors (5xx) will show which pages returned a server error, preventing Googlebot from crawling them.
- Redirect Errors will highlight any problems with incorrect or broken redirects.
By reviewing these errors, you can prioritize which issues to address first.
3. Use the URL Inspection Tool
The URL Inspection Tool allows you to check the crawl status of individual pages on your website. By entering a specific URL into the tool, you can see whether the page has been indexed and identify any crawl errors affecting it. The tool also provides detailed information on how Google views the page, including any blocked resources or loading issues.
After fixing an error, you can request reindexing of the page through the URL Inspection Tool to ensure Google re-crawls the page with the corrected issue.
Common Crawl Errors and How to Fix Them
Here are the most common crawl errors found in Google Search Console and how to fix them:
1. 404 Errors (Page Not Found)
A 404 error occurs when Google tries to crawl a page that no longer exists or has been deleted. While occasional 404 errors are natural, too many can negatively impact your site’s crawl efficiency and user experience.
How to Fix 404 Errors:
- Redirect the URL: If the page was removed, set up a 301 redirect to a relevant, existing page. This helps preserve link equity and ensures users and search engines are directed to the correct content.
- Restore the Missing Page: If the page was deleted by mistake, restore the original content at the same URL to eliminate the 404 error.
- Update Internal Links: Check your site for internal links pointing to 404 pages and update them to point to active pages.
Regularly auditing your site for 404 errors ensures that broken pages are quickly addressed, improving crawlability and user experience. Learn more about fixing 404 errors here.
2. Server Errors (5xx Errors)
5xx errors indicate that there is an issue with your server, preventing Googlebot from accessing your site. These errors can occur when your server is down, overloaded, or misconfigured, leading to slow response times or no response at all.
How to Fix Server Errors:
- Check Server Status: Ensure your server is running correctly and that there are no outages. If your hosting service frequently experiences downtime, consider upgrading to a more reliable provider.
- Optimize Server Performance: Slow servers can cause timeouts during Googlebot’s crawl. Optimizing your server’s resources, increasing bandwidth, or using a content delivery network (CDN) can help speed up load times and reduce server strain.
- Audit Resource Limits: Ensure your server configuration allows enough resources for crawlers and user requests. For larger websites, adjust settings such as maximum connections and memory limits to accommodate more traffic.
Resolving server errors ensures that Google can crawl your site without interruptions, improving the likelihood of your content being indexed correctly.
3. Redirect Errors
Redirect errors happen when a URL points to an incorrect destination, such as a non-existent page, or when there is a redirect loop that sends users and search engines in circles without ever reaching the intended page.
How to Fix Redirect Errors:
- Check Redirects: Use tools like Screaming Frog or Ahrefs to audit your site’s redirects and identify any broken or incorrect redirects.
- Use 301 Redirects: Ensure that all permanent redirects are set up as 301 redirects, which signal to search engines that the page has permanently moved. Avoid using 302 redirects for permanent changes, as these are meant for temporary redirects and do not pass full link equity.
- Fix Redirect Chains: Eliminate redirect chains (e.g., Page A redirects to Page B, which redirects to Page C) by updating the original redirect to point directly to the final destination page.
Fixing redirect errors helps Google navigate your site more efficiently, preserving link equity and ensuring users and crawlers reach the intended destination.
4. Robots.txt Fetch Failures
A robots.txt fetch failure occurs when Googlebot is unable to access your robots.txt file. This can prevent search engines from crawling your site correctly, especially if the file is set up to control access to certain parts of your website.
How to Fix Robots.txt Fetch Failures:
- Ensure File Accessibility: Verify that your robots.txt file is accessible at example.com/robots.txt. Check for any server issues that might be preventing Google from fetching the file.
- Update Your Robots.txt File: Ensure that your robots.txt file is properly configured and does not accidentally block important pages from being crawled.
Regularly check your robots.txt file to ensure that it is correctly directing search engine crawlers to the right parts of your site.
Best Practices for Fixing Crawl Errors
Fixing crawl errors is a continuous process that requires regular monitoring and maintenance. Here are some best practices to follow:
1. Conduct Regular SEO Audits
Use tools like Google Search Console, Screaming Frog, and Ahrefs to conduct regular SEO audits and identify any new crawl errors. By staying proactive, you can catch issues early and prevent them from affecting your site’s SEO performance.
2. Prioritize Critical Errors
Not all crawl errors are equally important. Prioritize fixing site-level errors (such as server errors or DNS failures) first, as these affect the entire website. URL-level errors (such as 404s or redirect issues) can be addressed after the most critical issues have been resolved.
3. Test Fixes and Request Re-Crawling
After fixing crawl errors, use Google Search Console’s URL Inspection Tool to test the corrected pages. Once you’ve confirmed that the issues are resolved, request Google to re-crawl the affected URLs to update their status in the index.
Conclusion
Crawl errors can prevent search engines from accessing and indexing your content, which can hurt your search rankings and reduce your site’s visibility. By regularly monitoring your site using Google Search Console and addressing crawl errors as they arise, you can ensure that your site is fully optimized for search engines. Fixing errors such as 404s, server issues, and broken redirects improves your site’s crawlability, user experience, and overall SEO performance.
