Server error (5xx): what it means and how to fix it

Google’s Page indexing report defines it in one line: the server returned a 500-level error when the page was requested. Codes in that range mean the server itself failed: 500 is a general error, 502 and 504 mean a server behind it did not answer, and 503 means it was unavailable.

Four causes account for most of these errors.

• The hosting was overloaded or briefly down when Google visited.
• A plugin, theme or recent code change breaks the page.
• The database behind the site timed out.
• A firewall or security service refused Google’s crawler.

Open the page in URL Inspection and run the live test. If the page loads for Google now, the error was passing, and the status clears on a later crawl. If it fails again, the fault is standing and needs fixing.

Look at the list as a whole too. One or two addresses with errors on one date point to a bad moment. A whole section, or errors that return each week, point to the hosting or the software.

The server’s error log records each failure with its time and reason. Hosting control panels show it, and a host’s support can read it for you. Match the times in Search Console’s crawl stats with the log.

On WordPress, switch off plugins one at a time on a test copy to find one that breaks a page. On hosted platforms such as Shopify, Wix and Squarespace, server errors are the platform’s to fix, and their status pages report outages.

Use Validate fix on the status in Search Console, which Google offers for confirming that every instance has been dealt with. Pages that return a normal response are indexed again on later crawls. A server that is slow and not failing is covered in why a website is slow, and the full list of statuses in why your website is not showing up on Google.