What Is a Crawl Error?
Crawl Error is a problem that prevents a search engine crawler from accessing or processing a webpage, resource, or website section. The issue may result from a broken link, server response, blocked access, redirect problem, or unavailable file. Crawl errors can stop affected content from being assessed for search indexing.
Quick Facts About Crawl Error
Category
Technical SEO issue
Used for
Finding crawler access problems
Common confusion
Not every crawl error affects human visitors
Also called
Crawling Error, Crawl Errors
Often discussed with
Technical SEO
Key Takeaways About Crawl Error
- A crawl error concerns crawler access, not necessarily a page visitor’s experience.
- Server responses, blocked files, and broken links can create crawl errors.
- A crawl error does not automatically mean a page is excluded from search results.
How Crawl Error Works
A Crawl Error occurs when a search engine crawler cannot fetch or process part of a website as expected. The crawler may encounter a failed server response, a blocked resource, a broken internal link, or a redirect that does not reach a usable destination. The exact response helps identify the type of access problem.
Related glossary terms: Crawl Budget, Google Search Console, Index Coverage.
Google Search Console can report affected URLs and provide details about the crawler’s failed request. Technical SEO work then checks the URL, server response, linking path, robots directives, and related resources. A page can remain available to visitors while a crawler cannot access an important file, so browser testing alone does not confirm that crawling works correctly.
Expert Note
When we review Crawl Error reports, we trace each affected URL back to its server response, internal links, and crawl controls. We separate genuine access failures from reports that reflect removed pages, intentional redirects, or resources that do not need indexing. Our team then records the appropriate technical action for each case.
Crawl Error in Practice: A Real-World Example
A Ballarat trades business replaces an old service page with a new URL, but several internal links still point to the removed address. A crawler follows those links and receives a failed response, creating a Crawl Error until the links or redirect path are corrected.
Related Services
Related Terms
Crawl Budget
Crawl Budget is the level of attention a search engine assigns to crawling a website over…
Google Search Console
Google Search Console is a free Google service that shows how your website appears in Google…
Index Coverage
Index Coverage is a report that shows which website URLs Google has discovered, crawled and stored…
Robots.txt
Robots.txt is a plain-text file that gives search engine crawlers instructions about which website paths they…
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