Fix Crawl Errors in Search Console (404s, 5xx, Redirects)

Crawl errors are Google's way of telling you something's broken—and ignoring them means wasting your crawl budget whilst preventing perfectly good pages from ranking. When Google's crawler hits a dead end (404), encounters a server meltdown (5xx), or gets stuck in a redirect maze, it simply moves on. Those pages? They vanish from search results.

The good news: most crawl errors fall into three fixable categories, and Google Search Console hands you the exact list of problems. This isn't about becoming a technical SEO expert—it's about diagnosing the top three critical issues, applying straightforward fixes, and requesting validation so Google knows you've sorted it.

By the end of this guide, you'll have investigated your most damaging crawl errors, implemented fixes for 404s and redirects, understood how to monitor server errors, and clicked that all-important "Validate Fix" button. Your site will be cleaner, Google will be happier, and your pages will have a fighting chance of ranking.

Jump to:

• •Quick Start (5 Minutes)
• •Complete Step-by-Step Guide
• •Troubleshooting

Quick Start (5 Minutes)

Here's the fastest path to diagnosing and fixing your most critical crawl errors:

Step 1: Open Google Search Console and navigate to Indexing > Pages in the left sidebar. This is your Coverage Report.

Step 2: Click the "Not indexed" tab at the top to filter the report to show only errors preventing indexing.

Step 3: Identify the largest cluster of "Not found (404)" errors. Click on the error type to see the full list of affected URLs.

Step 4: Choose one common 404 URL from the list. Determine if the page moved (needs a 301 redirect) or was deleted (needs internal links removed). Implement the fix in your CMS.

Step 5: Return to Search Console, click the error type again, and click the "Validate Fix" button at the top right.

✅ Completed the quick version? Move on to Optimize Your Website for Google in 1 Hour or continue below for the detailed walkthrough covering all three error types and advanced diagnosis.

Complete Step-by-Step Guide: Diagnosing Critical Errors

Step 1: Focus on the "Not indexed" Status in the Coverage Report

Open Google Search Console and click Indexing > Pages in the left navigation. You'll see a graph showing your indexing status over time, with a breakdown below showing different categories.

The Coverage Report showing the status categories (Error, Valid with warnings, Valid, Excluded).

The categories you'll see:

• •Not indexed: These are critical errors preventing pages from appearing in search results
• •Indexed, though with issues: Pages that are indexed but have warnings
• •Indexed, not submitted in sitemap: Valid pages Google found on its own
• •Excluded: Pages Google chose not to index (often intentional, like thank-you pages)

Focus exclusively on the "Not indexed" section first. This is where your critical crawl errors live. The other categories can wait—you're triaging the most damaging issues.

Click on "Not indexed" to expand the list of specific error types. You'll typically see:

• •Not found (404)
• •Server error (5xx)
• •Redirect error
• •Blocked by robots.txt
• •Soft 404

The first three are your priority. Let's tackle them in order of frequency.

Step 2: Investigate 404 Errors (Not Found)

Click on "Not found (404)" in your error list. You'll see every URL Google tried to crawl but couldn't find. This is the most common crawl error—and the most fixable.

Inspecting a specific 404 error cluster and showing the linked source pages.

Diagnosing the Source:

404 errors happen for three main reasons:

1. Internal broken links: You've linked to a page that doesn't exist (typo in the URL, page was deleted but links remain)
2. External broken links: Other websites are linking to a page you deleted or moved
3. Deleted pages: You intentionally removed content but didn't redirect the old URL

Click on any URL in the 404 list, then click "Inspect URL" at the top. Scroll down to the "Coverage" section and look for "Referring page"—this shows you where Google found the broken link.

Fix Action for Internal Broken Links:

If the referring page is on your own site, you have two options:

• •If the page moved: Set up a 301 redirect from the old URL to the new location. Most modern CMS platforms have built-in redirect managers (WordPress plugins like Redirection, Shopify's URL Redirects, Wix's 301 Redirects tool). This tells Google "the content moved permanently—index the new location instead."
• •If the page was deleted permanently: Find the internal link pointing to the dead URL and remove it or update it to point to a relevant alternative page. See our guide on fixing internal broken links for a systematic approach.

Fix Action for External Broken Links:

If the referring page is on someone else's website, you can't control their link. But you should still redirect the old URL to the most relevant current page on your site—you're capturing that external link equity rather than wasting it.

Pro Tip: Focus on 404s with multiple referring pages first. If ten internal pages all link to the same broken URL, fixing that one redirect solves ten problems at once.

Once you've implemented your fixes (redirects or link updates), return to the 404 error list in Search Console and click "Validate Fix" at the top right. Google will queue those URLs for re-crawling.

Step 3: Addressing Redirect Errors

Click on "Redirect error" in your "Not indexed" list. These are more subtle than 404s—the page exists, but Google got lost following your redirects.

The two most common redirect errors:

Redirect chains: URL A redirects to URL B, which redirects to URL C, which redirects to URL D. Google gives up after 3-5 hops. This often happens when you've moved a page multiple times without updating the original redirect.

Redirect loops: URL A redirects to URL B, which redirects back to URL A. Google gets stuck in an infinite loop and abandons the crawl.

Fix Action:

• •For chains: Update the first redirect to point directly to the final destination. If `/old-page` redirects to `/newer-page` which redirects to `/current-page`, change the first redirect so `/old-page` goes straight to `/current-page`.
• •For loops: Identify which redirect is causing the loop (Search Console will show you the chain) and break it by removing one of the redirects or pointing it to the correct final URL.

This is tedious manual work if you have dozens of redirects. Maintaining a strong internal linking structure from the start prevents these issues—but if you're already in redirect hell, fix the errors Search Console flags first, then audit your full redirect list.

Step 4: Monitor and Fix Server Errors (5xx)

Click on "Server error (5xx)" in your "Not indexed" list. This is the most serious error type—it means Google couldn't reach your site at all when it tried to crawl those URLs.

Example of a 5xx Server Error report in Search Console.

Why 5xx Errors Are Critical:

Unlike 404s (which tell Google "this specific page doesn't exist"), 5xx errors tell Google "the entire server is broken." If Google encounters repeated 5xx errors, it will reduce your crawl rate—meaning it checks your site less frequently, delaying indexing of new content.

Common causes:

• •Server overload: Your hosting plan can't handle traffic spikes or resource-intensive plugins
• •Database connection errors: Your site can't connect to its database (common with cheap shared hosting)
• •Hosting downtime: Your server was temporarily offline when Google tried to crawl

Fix Action:

5xx errors are almost always hosting-related. You can't fix these from your CMS—you need to address server speed or hosting issues directly:

1. Check your hosting provider's status page to see if there was scheduled maintenance or an outage when the errors occurred
2. Contact your hosting support with the specific URLs and timestamps from Search Console
3. Consider upgrading your hosting plan if 5xx errors are frequent—it's a sign your current plan can't handle your site's resource needs

Once your hosting provider confirms the issue is resolved, use the "Validate Fix" button in Search Console. But monitor this closely—if 5xx errors return, you have a systemic hosting problem that needs urgent attention.

Step 5: Request Validation and Monitor Progress

After implementing fixes for your 404s, redirects, or server errors, you need to tell Google to re-check those URLs. This is where the "Validate Fix" button comes in.

The "Validate Fix" button in Search Console—the final action step.

How Validation Works:

1. Click on any error type in your "Not indexed" list (e.g., "Not found (404)")
2. Click "Validate Fix" at the top right of the error detail page
3. Google adds those URLs to a priority re-crawl queue
4. Over the next 2-7 days, Google will re-crawl each URL to verify your fix
5. You'll receive email updates as validation progresses: "Validation started," "Validation passed," or "Validation failed"

Important: Validation is not instant. Google needs time to re-crawl and re-process your URLs. Don't panic if the error count doesn't drop immediately—check back in a week.

Monitoring Progress:

Return to the Coverage Report weekly and check the "Not indexed" count. You should see:

• •The specific error types you validated moving from "Not indexed" to "Valid" (if your fix worked)
• •The overall "Not indexed" count decreasing
• •Email confirmations from Search Console as each validation completes

If validation fails (you get a "Validation failed" email), Google will tell you why. Common reasons:

• •The redirect wasn't implemented correctly (check your CMS redirect settings)
• •The page still returns a 404 (the fix didn't save properly)
• •The server error persists (hosting issue not resolved)

Go back, double-check your fix, and click "Validate Fix" again.

🎉 Completed? You've successfully notified Google of your fixes and established a monitoring routine. Your technical foundation is cleaner than 80% of small business websites. You're ready for Optimize Your Website for Google in 1 Hour—where you'll leverage this clean indexing status to improve your on-page SEO.

Troubleshooting

What's Next

You've diagnosed your most critical crawl errors, implemented fixes, and requested validation from Google. Your site is now technically healthier, with cleaner indexing and better crawl efficiency. This foundational work ensures Google can actually find and index your content—the prerequisite for ranking.

Next Step: Optimize Your Website for Google in 1 Hour

Now that Google can crawl your site without hitting dead ends, it's time to optimize what it finds. This quick one-hour SEO check-up focuses on your core pages—improving titles, meta descriptions, and basic on-page SEO health to maximize the ranking potential of your newly clean indexing status.

Go Deeper:

• •The Ultimate Small Business Website Audit Guide (2024 Action Checklist) – For a comprehensive, page-by-page audit checklist that goes beyond just crawl errors, see our in-depth guide covering content, speed, accessibility, and conversion optimization.
• •Technical SEO Fundamentals – For a full understanding of robots.txt, canonicalisation, structured data, and other advanced crawling factors, read the technical SEO guide. This is Stage 6 material—come back to it once you've mastered the basics.

Other Get Found Guides

• •Keyword Research for Very Busy Businesses – Find the search terms your customers actually use
• •Alt Text: What It Is and How to Write It – Make your images searchable and accessible
• •Local SEO Starter Guide – Dominate local search results in your area
• •I'm Not Showing Up on Google At All – Emergency troubleshooting for invisible websites
• •How Do I Get Found by Local Customers? – Practical tactics for local visibility
• •How Do I Rank My Local Business in Google? – The complete local ranking roadmap

Clean Indexing Is Your Competitive Advantage

You've just completed technical maintenance that most of your competitors ignore entirely. Fixing crawl errors isn't glamorous—but it's the difference between Google indexing 60% of your site versus 95%. That's dozens of pages now eligible to rank that were previously invisible.

The validation process you've started will run in the background over the next week. Google will methodically re-crawl your fixed URLs, update its index, and—if your fixes worked—move those pages from "Not indexed" to "Valid." Check back in seven days to confirm your progress, then move on to content optimization.

You've successfully cleaned up your technical foundation and validated the fixes with Google. This essential maintenance puts you ahead of most competitors. NetNav can audit your entire site across 9 foundational marketing pillars in 60 seconds—see what other hidden issues (like speed, consistent business details (NAP), or accessibility) need attention before you move on to content strategy.

Start Your Free NetNav Audit →