How to Fix Common Crawl Errors in Google Search Console

Crawl Errors

Crawl errors can silently damage your SEO, visibility, and user experience. These errors occur when Google’s crawler—Googlebot—has difficulty accessing your website’s pages. If your site has even a few critical crawl errors, it may result in indexing issues that impact your organic rankings and traffic.

For businesses looking to build a robust online presence, monitoring and fixing crawl errors should be a top priority. Whether you manage a local business website, an eCommerce platform, or a multi-page enterprise site, understanding crawl errors and addressing them effectively can make a significant difference.

This guide offers a detailed explanation of the most common crawl errors in Google Search Console, how they affect your website, and step-by-step solutions. If you’re working with the best digital marketing company in Vizag, these optimizations are likely part of your long-term SEO maintenance strategy.

What Are Crawl Errors?

A crawl error happens when a search engine attempts to reach a page on your website but fails. Crawl errors are flagged in Google Search Console (GSC), where they are categorized into:

• Site Errors – Issues that affect the entire site, preventing Googlebot from accessing it.

• URL Errors – Problems that affect individual pages or resources.

When these errors accumulate, they prevent Google from correctly indexing and ranking your website.

Why Crawl Errors Matter for SEO

Search engines use crawlers to index the content of your website. If these crawlers encounter barriers, such as broken pages or inaccessible files, they will either skip the pages or devalue them in search results. This directly impacts how your site ranks for relevant keywords.

More importantly, crawl errors are signals of poor site health. Just like users, search engines prefer a clean, functional site structure. Ensuring your website is error-free increases its chances of being crawled, indexed, and ranked accurately.

For businesses utilizing digital marketing services in Vizag, maintaining crawlability is not just technical—it’s strategic. It's what ensures that your content reaches the right audience on time.

Common Crawl Errors in Google Search Console

Let’s walk through the most frequent crawl issues that appear in GSC and how you can resolve them.

DNS Errors

A DNS (Domain Name System) error means Googlebot couldn’t connect to your domain. It usually results from misconfigured DNS settings or temporary outages with your hosting provider.

How to Fix:

Check your DNS configuration with a third-party tool like DNSChecker or your web host’s control panel. Confirm that your nameservers are responding properly and your domain hasn’t expired. If the issue is temporary, monitor for recurrence and contact your host for resolution.

Server Errors (5xx)

Server errors are serious because they suggest that your server is overloaded or improperly configured. A 500 Internal Server Error or a 503 Service Unavailable message indicates that the server failed to respond properly.

How to Fix:

Review your server logs to identify bottlenecks or crashes. Speak with your hosting provider about server capacity. For WordPress users, deactivating plugins or themes might help identify conflicts causing overload. Persistent server issues could mean it's time to upgrade your hosting plan.

Robots.txt Fetch Failures

If Googlebot cannot access your robots.txt file, it will assume the worst—that everything is blocked. This can stop it from crawling pages that are otherwise index-worthy.

How to Fix:

Ensure that your robots.txt file is publicly accessible. You can test it in GSC’s robots.txt Tester. Verify there are no misconfigured Disallow commands that might block entire directories unintentionally.

404 Not Found Errors

A 404 error means that the page no longer exists or was never created. While not all 404s are harmful, a growing number can affect SEO if important content is missing.

How to Fix:

Use GSC or a tool like Ahrefs to locate URLs returning 404 errors. Redirect these URLs to their updated versions or the most relevant working pages using a 301 redirect. If the content was removed intentionally, allow the 404 to stand but remove internal links pointing to it.

Soft 404 Errors

Soft 404s occur when a page tells the user “not found” but technically returns a 200 OK response to search engines. This confuses Google and can prevent proper indexing.

How to Fix:

Update your error pages to return a proper 404 or 410 status code. If the page still serves value, update the content to make it unique and useful, so Google doesn’t flag it as irrelevant.

Redirect Errors

Redirect chains or loops can block crawlers. A long redirect chain wastes crawl budget, while a loop can trap bots entirely.

How to Fix:

Limit redirects to a single step. Avoid chaining multiple 301 redirects or creating circular paths. Use crawl tools to find chains and update your links directly to the final destination.

URL Blocked by Robots.txt

If GSC reports a URL as blocked by robots.txt, it means your instructions in that file prevent Google from accessing it.

How to Fix:

Review your robots.txt file and verify whether the block was intentional. Remove or adjust the Disallow directives if those URLs should be indexed.

Page Marked ‘Noindex’

Sometimes, Google reports a URL that was blocked from being indexed because it carries a noindex meta tag.

How to Fix:

Decide if you want that page to appear in search results. If yes, remove the noindex directive from your HTML or CMS settings. If not

, it’s safe to ignore the warning.

How to Use Google Search Console to Monitor Crawl Errors

Google Search Console provides real-time tracking and historical data that lets you monitor how well Google crawls your site. To make the most of it:

1. Open GSC and navigate to the Index > Pages report.

2. Look at the section titled “Why pages aren’t indexed.”

3. Click on specific errors to view affected URLs.

4. Use the Inspect URL tool to confirm indexing issues.

5. After fixing, use the Validate Fix button to prompt Google to recrawl.

This process can take anywhere from a few hours to a few days. Keeping crawl errors to a minimum ensures Google prioritizes your site when it distributes ranking signals.

Best Practices to Prevent Crawl Errors

Proactive monitoring and preventive tactics are key to maintaining a healthy, crawl-friendly site.

• Use structured internal linking so crawlers can navigate your site efficiently.

• Audit your site regularly with tools like Screaming Frog or SEMrush.

• Avoid orphaned pages by ensuring all pages are linked from at least one other page.

• Always redirect removed content to a relevant alternative.

• Ensure mobile-friendliness and fast page speeds to improve crawl rate.

For growing websites, especially those under the guidance of a digital marketing agency in Vizag, technical SEO must go hand-in-hand with content marketing and UX optimization.

How Leadraft Handles Crawl Optimization

Crawl errors don’t just impact rankings—they hurt user trust and reduce conversion potential. At Leadraft, we help brands maintain error-free digital ecosystems. As the best digital marketing company in Vizag, we monitor crawl health as part of a larger SEO strategy that includes technical audits, structured data implementation, and content optimization.

By minimizing crawl waste and improving indexability, we help brands achieve better visibility, higher rankings, and ultimately, more conversions.

Fixing crawl errors is not just about cleaning up technical debris—it’s about opening the pathway for your site to rank, convert, and grow. Google relies on a smooth crawl process to understand and value your content. Ignoring crawl issues leads to ranking declines, lost traffic, and missed business opportunities.

By staying proactive, running regular audits, and leveraging tools like Google Search Console, you maintain site health and SEO effectiveness. For businesses serious about growth, teaming up with a trusted digital marketing services in Vizag provider can bring the expertise and tools needed to stay ahead.

Errors are inevitable—but long-term damage is not. Start fixing crawl errors today, and your future search performance will thank you for it.

FAQs

1. How often should I check for crawl errors?

A: You should check Google Search Console at least once a week. For high-traffic or frequently updated websites, daily monitoring is ideal.

2. Will crawl errors disappear on their own?

A: Some temporary issues like DNS errors may resolve automatically, but most crawl errors require manual fixes and validation within GSC.

3. Can crawl errors affect mobile indexing?

A: Yes. Crawl issues on mobile versions of your site can severely impact mobile-first indexing, which is now Google’s default method for ranking.