How to Fix Crawl Errors and Improve Site Indexability

If Google can't crawl your pages, it can't rank them. Crawl errors prevent search engines from discovering and indexing your content, directly hurting your organic visibility. This guide walks you through identifying and fixing the most common crawl errors so your site gets indexed properly.

What Are Crawl Errors?

Crawl errors occur when Googlebot or other search engine crawlers fail to access a URL on your site. These errors can be temporary (like a server timeout) or permanent (like a deleted page without a redirect). Common types include:

404 Not Found: The page doesn't exist.
500 Internal Server Error: The server encountered an issue.
Redirect errors: Redirect chains or loops.
DNS errors: The domain name couldn't be resolved.
Robots.txt block: A page is blocked from crawling.
Soft 404: A page returns a 200 status but has no meaningful content.

How to Find Crawl Errors

Google Search Console (GSC) is your primary tool for spotting crawl errors. Log in to GSC and navigate to the Pages report under Indexing. This shows you which URLs Google couldn't index and why. Also check the Crawl Stats report for overall crawl activity.

Other useful tools:

Screaming Frog SEO Spider: Crawls your site like a search engine and highlights errors.
Sitebulb: Provides visual reports of crawl issues.
Run a free audit with MyWebsiteScore to get a prioritized list of crawl problems.

Fixing Common Crawl Errors

1. Fix Broken Links (404 Errors)

Broken links frustrate users and waste crawl budget. To fix them:

Use Screaming Frog to crawl your site and find 404s.
For each broken internal link, update the URL to the correct page.
For broken external links, either remove the link or find an alternative source.
If a page is permanently gone, set up a 301 redirect to a relevant page.

2. Handle Redirect Chains and Loops

A redirect chain (e.g., Page A → Page B → Page C) slows down crawling. A redirect loop never ends and causes errors. Use a crawler to identify chains longer than 2 hops and update the original link to point directly to the final URL.

3. Resolve Server Errors (5xx)

Server errors usually indicate hosting issues. Contact your hosting provider if you see frequent 500 or 503 errors. Optimize your server configuration and consider using a CDN to handle traffic spikes.

4. Unblock Pages Blocked by Robots.txt

Check your robots.txt file to ensure you're not accidentally blocking important pages. Use GSC's robots.txt tester to validate. Remember that robots.txt blocks crawling, not indexing—if a page is blocked, Google can't see it to index it.

5. Fix Soft 404s

A soft 404 is when a page returns a 200 status but has little to no content (e.g., an empty search results page). Google may treat it as a 404. To fix, either add meaningful content to the page, return a proper 404 status, or redirect it.

Improve Indexability Beyond Crawl Errors

Even if your site has no crawl errors, some pages may still not be indexed. Here are additional steps:

Submit XML sitemaps: Ensure your sitemap includes all important pages and is submitted to GSC.
Use internal linking: Link to important pages from other pages on your site. This helps crawlers discover them.
Avoid duplicate content: Use canonical tags to tell Google which version of a page to index.
Ensure mobile usability: Google primarily uses the mobile version for indexing. Test with GSC's Mobile Usability report.
Improve page speed: Slow pages may be crawled less frequently. Optimize images, leverage browser caching, and minimize JavaScript.

Monitoring and Maintenance

Crawl errors aren't a one-time fix. Regularly monitor GSC for new issues. Set up email alerts for critical errors. As you add or remove pages, update redirects and sitemaps accordingly.

If you're unsure where to start, run a free website audit to get a prioritized list of crawl and indexability issues specific to your site.