What it means for a link
Broken for now; may be temporary.
Common causes
- An application crash or bug
- A database or configuration failure
How to fix it
Retry later. If it persists for days, replace the link. On your own site, check the server logs.
How Google handles it
Persistent 5xx errors make Google crawl less and eventually drop the URLs.
Check your own URLs: paste a list into the bulk HTTP status checker, trace one URL with the redirect checker, or test every link on a page with the broken link checker.
HTTP 500 questions
What does HTTP status 500 mean?
500 Internal Server Error: The server hit an error while building the page.
Is a 500 a broken link?
Broken for now; may be temporary.
How do I fix a 500?
Retry later. If it persists for days, replace the link. On your own site, check the server logs.
How does Google handle 500?
Persistent 5xx errors make Google crawl less and eventually drop the URLs.