Response Codes: External Server Error (5XX)

External URLs where the server failed to fulfill an apparently valid request. This can include common responses such as 500 Internal Server Errors and 503 Service Unavailable.

How to Analyse in the SEO Spider

Use the ‘Response Codes’ tab and ‘External’ and ‘Server Error (5xx)’ filters to view these URLs.

View URLs that link to errors using the lower ‘Inlinks’ tab and export them in bulk via ‘Bulk Export > Response Codes > External > Server Error (5xx) Inlinks’.

What Triggers This Issue

This issue is triggered when an external URL responds with a server error (5xx response code), such as a 503 ‘Service Unavailable’.

For example:

HTTP/1.1 503 Service Unavailable
Content-Type: text/html


How To Fix

All external URLs should ideally respond with a 200 ‘OK’ status for users. A 5XX response might indicate a server that struggles under load, or a misconfiguration that leads to an error page.

If they can be viewed in a browser, then it’s often not an issue. If they error in a browser, then considering updating the external link as appropriate.

Please read our FAQs on how to approach each of the other following common responses:

• 500 Internal Server Error
• 502 Bad Gateway
• 503 Service Unavailable