If Google can’t crawl your website, it can’t rank it, no matter how good the content or backlinks are.
Crawl errors happen when Googlebot tries to load a page and fails. They’re easy to miss because the page still looks fine to a real visitor. The only place this shows up is Google Search Console, and by the time your traffic drops, it’s often been broken for a while.
This guide covers where to actually find crawl issues in 2026 the old Crawling errors report doesn’t exist anymore. More on that below, what each error type means, and how to fix the specific scenarios that trip up most WordPress sites.
If you’ve searched for Google Search Console crawl error report and landed here, here’s the first thing to know: Google retired the standalone crawling errors report years ago. If your current SEO content still tells you to check a search console page indexing reason tab, that’s outdated advice.
Today, Search engine crawl errors are split across two reports:
Indexing → Pages report, shows which URLs are indexed, and groups everything that failed by reason (Not found (404), Server error (5xx), Blocked by robots.txt, Redirect error, Crawled – currently not indexed, Discovered currently not indexed, and more). See our Google Search Console insights guide for a full walkthrough of this report.
Settings → Crawl Stats report shows crawl volume by response code, file type, and purpose (discovery vs. refresh), and is the right place to check if Googlebot is wasting crawl budget on CSS, JS, images, or fonts instead of your actual content a common issue on image-heavy Elementor sites.
Start with the Pages report. Click into any error category to get the exact list of affected URLs, then work through them by type below.
| Error type | What it means | Urgent? | Typical fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 404 (Not Found) | Page deleted or URL changed without a redirect | Only if spiking | Add a 301 redirect or restore the page |
| Redirect error | Redirect chain, loop, or points to another error page | Yes | Point the 301 straight to the final URL |
| Blocked by robots.txt | Your own file is blocking a page you want indexed | Yes | Edit robots.txt at yoursite.com/robots.txt |
| Server error (5xx) | Server failed to respond (downtime, overload, plugin conflict) | Yes | Check hosting or plugin conflicts |
| Soft 404 | Returns "success" but has little or no real content | Moderate | Noindex it or add real content |
| Crawl anomaly | Uncategorized fetch issue Google doesn't classify elsewhere | Usually no | Monitor; act only if it affects many URLs |
A flood of 404s from URLs that never existed on your site. This is usually bots (sometimes scrapers, sometimes attackers) probing common WordPress paths. If the volume is low, ignore it, Google eventually stops requesting URLs that consistently 404. If it’s high enough to affect crawl budget, block the offending user-agents or IP ranges at the server/firewall level rather than trying to fix it through robots.txt alone.
Crawl Stats dominated by CSS, JS, images, and fonts instead of pages. This means Googlebot is spending most of its crawl budget on static assets rather than your content. Set long cache lifetimes on static resources, consolidate/minify CSS and JS (a common issue on Elementor sites running many widgets), and make sure asset URLs aren’t being needlessly re-crawled due to cache-busting query strings.
wp-admin/admin-ajax.php showing up in crawling error reports. This endpoint should generally be left crawlable in small amounts some plugins depend on it but if it’s generating a large volume of errors, check which plugin is calling it publicly and whether it should be restricted instead of fully blocked.
429 “Too Many Requests” errors. This means your server is rate-limiting Googlebot. It usually points to hosting resource limits or an overly aggressive security/firewall plugin. Whitelist verified Googlebot IP ranges or raise your rate limits for legitimate crawler traffic.
Elementor or Kadence LCP issues showing alongside crawl problems. Slow-loading pages don’t directly cause crawl issues, but they do reduce how much of your site Googlebot crawls in a given budget. If you’re on Elementor, unused CSS/JS and render-blocking resources are the most common culprits worth checking your Core Web Vitals report alongside the Pages report, not treating them as unrelated issues.
Pages Google can’t crawl can’t be indexed, and pages that aren’t indexed can’t rank, no matter how good the content is.
Broken links from search results or social shares damage trust and increase bounce rate.
Content that never gets indexed never gets a chance to earn the traffic it was built for.
Backlinks pointing to broken or redirected-incorrectly URLs stop passing their value.
Audit regularly, not just once. Check the Pages and Crawl Stats reports monthly, not only when traffic drops.
Set up redirects correctly the first time. A single 301 straight to the final destination never a chain.
Keep robots.txt intentional. Review it after any theme, plugin, or site-structure change, since these often add unintended Disallow rules.
Monitor server uptime. Frequent 5xx errors are a hosting problem if they’re recurring, it’s worth reviewing your hosting plan or server configuration directly, and keeping up with routine website maintenance catches most of these before they escalate.
Don’t let thin pages accumulate. Soft 404s are often old category, tag, or search-result pages noindex or remove them rather than letting them pile up. Getting your meta titles and on-page basics right from the start also reduces how many thin pages accumulate over time.
Crawl issues don’t stay contained to technical SEO they ripple into every channel that relies on your website:
Social media marketing : If a link shared on social media leads to a 404 or a broken redirect, it costs you the click and damages trust with people who were ready to visit. See our social media marketing services for how we handle link tracking and landing page health as part of campaign setup.
Email marketing : A broken link in an email campaign doesn’t just lose one visitor, it undermines the credibility of the whole email. Every link in a campaign should be checked before send. See our email marketing services for our pre-send QA process.
It was retired years ago. Crawl issues are now shown in the Indexing → Pages report, grouped by reason (404, server error, robots.txt block, etc.), with crawl volume detail in the separate Crawl Stats report.
A small, steady number of 404s, especially from bots probing non-existent URLs is normal and doesn’t need action. Focus on 404s for pages that used to exist and have real traffic or backlinks pointing to them.
Individual GSC crawl error on specific pages won’t deindex your whole site. But sitewide server errors 5xx or an accidental robots.txt block on your homepage/key templates can cause large-scale drops; these are the ones worth checking urgently.
Monthly is a reasonable baseline for most small business sites. Check immediately after any major site change, a theme update, plugin update, URL structure change, or migration.
Crawl errors are easy to miss because a normal visitor never sees them, only Search Console does. That’s exactly why they quietly undermine SEO, social, and email efforts that otherwise look like they’re working. Checking the Pages and Crawl Stats reports on a regular schedule, and fixing issues by type rather than guessing, is the difference between a site Google can fully crawl and one that’s leaving indexed pages and rankings on the table. If you’d rather have this handled for you, our SEO services include ongoing crawl and indexing monitoring as standard.
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