5xx errors

5xx errors are caused by technical problems on the software or server-side and return a response code of 500-510.

Here are the different server error types:

• 500 Internal Server Error - any internal server error that does not fall within the scope of other class errors.
• 501 Not Implemented - the server does not support the capabilities required to process the request.
• 502 Bad Gateway - A server acts as a gateway or proxy server that received an invalid reply message from an upstream server.
• 503 Service Unavailable - the server can't temporarily process requests for technical reasons (maintenance, overload, etc.).
• 504 Gateway Timeout - the server acting as a gateway or proxy server did not wait for a response from the upstream server to complete the current request.
• 505 HTTP Version Not Supported - The server does not support or refuses to support the version of the HTTP protocol specified in the request.
• 507 Insufficient Storage - there is not enough space to fulfill the current request.
• 510 Not Extended — The server does not have an extension that the client wants to use.

How do 5xx errors affect the ranking of your website?

These errors negatively affect your site’s ranking, as it indicates that the web resource is of low quality, for this reason, sites with 5xx errors will be ranked lower than others. With a large number of these errors, there is a risk of falling under search engine filters that are imposed on low-quality sites - for example, the Google Panda filter. In addition, such errors prevent users from interacting with the site, leading to a loss of visitors.

Contents of the "Errors 5xx" report on Labrika’s dashboard

1. The URL of the page that returned the 5xx error code.
2. Page response code.
3. Checking the HTTP status. When you click on the "Check" button, a window for viewing the HTTP headers opens.
4. Pages that have a link to this page with an error. Clicking on the "Show" button opens a list of pages with a link.

How to fix 5xx errors?

A 5xx error is a server error with an HTTP status code between 500-510.

This error will inhibit users and crawlers from accessing any given page.

This greatly hampers user experience and can hinder the crawlability of your pages by the search engines. Once you've identified any 5xx errors to fix them you can:

1. Make sure your server is not overloaded, you may need to contact your server provider for this.
2. Check the server error logs for more information on the error.
3. Make sure you haven't made any recent changes that have affected your server's function, such as faulty or misconfigured plugins. You can remove each new addition and test to see if the error is fixed.