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Server error (5xx)

response_codes.internal_server_error
Priority
Fix now
Severity
Critical

What we look for

These pages answered with a 5xx status code (the code a server sends when it fails to build a page, such as 500 Internal Server Error).

Why it matters

Visitors see an error instead of the page. If the error lasts, search engines drop the page from their results and visit the site less often.

How to fix

Look up each address in the server's error log to find what fails, then fix the code, plugin or server setting behind it. If you cannot find the cause, send the list of addresses to your developer or host.

What it cannot know

Raptor saw the error once, during this crawl. It cannot tell a lasting fault from a brief one.

Seen in a real crawl

From a crawl of Millbrook Hardware (the broken fixture), a test site from Raptor’s fixture suite.

Fix now

2 pages fail with a server error

  • /server-errorStatus 500
  • /unavailableStatus 503
Paths on http://127.0.0.1:8001raptor 0.3.0, 17 Oct 2026

Open this finding in that crawl’s report

Where you’ll see it

The id is stable, and every surface uses it, so it’s the thing to search for or hand to an agent.

Terminal
When it is one of the five findings under Fix first, raptor crawl prints the id under it.
Check: response_codes.internal_server_error
crawl.json and the CSV
The crawl JSON names the finding by this id, and so do the CSV and raptor_query.
"check_id": "response_codes.internal_server_error"
The HTML report
This link opens the finding in the report, and each finding shows its id.
crawl.html#finding=response_codes.internal_server_error
MCP
raptor_findings with this check_id returns the finding in full, with a fix brief ready to paste into a task. If it didn’t fire, it says why.
raptor_findings {
  "job_id": "...",
  "check_id": "response_codes.internal_server_error"
}