What Are External Server Errors?
An external server error is an error that occurs on the web server. This can be caused by several things, including but not limited to:
- A misconfiguration on the server
- The server being down or unresponsive
- A problem with the website’s code
External server errors can be frustrating for both website owners and visitors. But because these errors appear on an external website that we’re linking to, we can’t do anything to fix them. We can only replace or remove them. Still, visitors may be left wondering why the page they were trying to access isn’t working. As you can guess, this harms the user experience and trust
External server errors are classified into two categories: 5xx and 4xx.
External Server Errors 5xx and 4xx
These errors are caused by the server and usually indicate something wrong with the website’s code or server configuration.
5xx errors are server-side errors, meaning that the problem is with the website’s server. They are the most common type of server-side error and usually indicate that the website’s code is causing the problem.
If you see a 5xx error, it means that the website’s server is having trouble handling your request. This could be because the website’s code is buggy or because the server is overloaded and can’t keep up with the demand. These are the 5xx errors you might run into:
500 – Internal Server Error
501 – Not Implemented
502 – Bad Gateway
503 – Service Unavailable
504 – Gateway Timeout
4xx errors mean that the webmaster has either deleted or moved the page to a different URL. They are less common, but they still impact the user experience on your website. Because this happened on somebody else’s website, you’re unaware of these changes, so you leave the 4xx links on our page, leading customers to pages that don’t exist.
These are the different 4xx errors:
400 – Bad Request
401 – Unauthorized
402 – Payment Required
403 – Forbidden
404 – Not Found
Can External Server Errors Impact SEO?
External server errors can have a negative impact on a website’s SEO. This is because search engines use a website’s uptime and response time as factors in their ranking algorithms.
External server errors can also impact a website’s bounce rate. This is because a visitor who encounters an error will likely leave the site immediately, increasing the bounce rate. Not only that, but your users will lose confidence and trust in your website if we keep pointing them to nonexistent pages.
So, ideally, you want to keep the number of external server errors to a minimum to avoid these issues affecting the user’s experience.
How to Fix External Server Errors 5xx and 4xx
External Server Error 5xx and 4xx can be frustrating, but there are some things you can do to try and fix this issue. Here’s what to do:
- Replace these URLs with valid links (2xx URLs). Create a replacement file on a new URL to replace the existing content, and update all incoming references to link to the new URL.
- If you don’t have relevant links to replace the links leading to pages with external server errors, simply remove these URLs. If the resource can’t be replaced, remove the incoming references that point to the redirected URL.