Fix Temporarily unreachable Error in Search Console
Solution to the temporarily unreachable error of Google search console is given in this post. The simple meaning of this error is that Googlebot is not able to crawl and render your webpage because some of the resources of the page( images or script) or hosting server is blocking it.
[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="1082"]
Fix Temporarily unreachable Error in Search Console[/caption]
I have already explained the solution of the partial status of fetch as Google in my previous blog post, check that post to fix the partial status error.
Google search console temporarily unreachable is one of the most common problems faced by webmasters, so you are not alone, I too have faced the same problem several times.
Temporarily unreachable error occurs when you submit your page URL in Fetch as Google tool of search console but Googlebot, crawler or spider is not able to fetch your given URL due to maximum timeout, IP blocking, the page is blocked in the robots.txt file, the page is blocked with noindex attribute or hosting server may be down.
Search console allows to re-submit temporarily unreachable URL immediately and in most of the cases, this issue has been resolved in 1-2 tries.
Before talking about the solution of above problem I would like to give some details of fetch as Google tools of search console and what is benefits of using this tool.
I don’t know about others but for me fetch as Google is the fastest way to index my newly created blog posts. With XML sitemap Google will take at least 2-3 days to index a new page but with the help of fetch as Google tool, you can force Googlebot to index your page in few minutes.
According to Google “fetch as Google” tool is to “Test if Google can crawl your web page”
“The Fetch as Google tool enables you to test how Google crawls or renders a URL on your site. You can use Fetch as Google to see whether Googlebot can access a page on your site, how it renders the page, and whether any page resources (such as images or scripts) are blocked to Googlebot. This tool simulates a crawl and render execution as done in Google’s normal crawling and rendering process, and is useful for debugging crawl issues on your site.”
Fetch As Google Error Messages: If you submit your website page in fetch as Google tool then you can get one of the following error messages.
Not found: This error message means that URL which you submitted could not found (404 or 410 HTTP response codes) on the server. Check if you submitted the correct URL of the page.
Not authorized: It indicates that Googlebot is not authorized to access the submitted page. This case occurs when the webpage is password protected.
DNS not found: Google couldn’t retrieve the resource because the domain name wasn’t found. Make sure that you typed in your domain name properly (for example, www.example.com) so that Google can find your site server.
Blocked: The submitted URL is blocked by robots.txt file, if you want to fetch and render it then make URL accessible in the robots.txt file.
Unreachable robots.txt: Googlebot can’t reach the resource host’s robots.txt file. When that happens, Google avoids loading any resources from that host.
Unreachable: The Unreachable error of google search console means that the resource host either took too long to reply or refused the request. This happened when your hosting server is down. Contact your hosting provider for the solution of unreachable error.
Temporarily unreachable: Mainly there are two situations due to which temporarily unreachable error of Google search console arises.
Fetch as Google can’t currently fetch your URL because the server took too long to reply.
Fetch as Google canceled your fetch because too many consecutive requests were made to the server for different URLs.
The page is unreachable for fetch as Google tool, other search console tool can easily access the same page.
Error: An unspecified error prevented Google from completing the fetch.
In the above paragraph of this blog post, I just described what types of errors you may get after submitting in fetch as Google.
Question about the same problem is asked many times in Google search console forum and one of then is replied by Google’s John Mu.
Now let’s talk about solutions when you get a temporarily unreachable issue in Google search console.
Make server up and running: The server is down or server is not responding properly is the main reason behind the temporarily unreachable problem. This problem can also occur if your server is very slow.
To fix it, first, wait for 30 minutes then try to submit the same page URL again, if the problem persists then contact your hosting service provider and make sure that server is up and running.
Don’t submit to frequently: This issue may also occur if several URLs submitted within few seconds simultaneously in search console’s fetch as Google option because due to multiple requests server get stuck and takes too much time to respond back.
So it is advisable that submit URLs in fetch tool after 15 minutes for successful fetch and rendering.
Enter correct page URL: It is seen that many people enter wrong page URL in fetch tool which may cause a temporarily unreachable error. I too make this mistake several times.
Don’t place a slash (/) beginning of page URL because, by default, your domain ends with a slash (/).
Test robots.txt file: If you are getting temporarily unreachable fetch as google error then it may be possible that URL is blocked by robots.txt file.
In this case user robots.txt tester tool of google search console to test if URL is really blocked.
If it blocked then update robots.txt file unblock page URL.
If the page is not blocked by robots.txt file then search for other reason.
Check meta robots tag: Meta robots tag is used to block specific pages from Google indexing, this tag blocks Googlebot from indexing. So check if your page has meta robots tag with noindex and nofollow directives.
To check meta robots tag in your page open source of page try to find
< meta name= “googlebot” content=”noindex, nofollow“>
Remove this meta tag completely or just change “noindex, nofollow” to” index, follow” and re-submit it again.
Check for maximum submission limit: You can submit a limited number of URLs per month in fetch as Google tool. You can submit only 500 unique URLs per month, exceeding this limit may cause you a temporarily unreachable error.
Temporarily unreachable is a serious issue and you need to resolve it as soon as possible but don’t panic because it can be solved easily by the above-given solution.
After getting this error don’t submit same URL or any other URL immediately, wait for 15-30 minutes and then submit it again. Most probably problem will be resolved.
But, if the problem still persists then wait for 1-2 hours before submitting URL again. It is most likely that after 1-2 tries temporarily unreachable error will be resolved.
[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="1082"]
Fix Temporarily unreachable Error in Search Console[/caption]I have already explained the solution of the partial status of fetch as Google in my previous blog post, check that post to fix the partial status error.
Google search console temporarily unreachable is one of the most common problems faced by webmasters, so you are not alone, I too have faced the same problem several times.
Temporarily unreachable error occurs when you submit your page URL in Fetch as Google tool of search console but Googlebot, crawler or spider is not able to fetch your given URL due to maximum timeout, IP blocking, the page is blocked in the robots.txt file, the page is blocked with noindex attribute or hosting server may be down.
Search console allows to re-submit temporarily unreachable URL immediately and in most of the cases, this issue has been resolved in 1-2 tries.
Before talking about the solution of above problem I would like to give some details of fetch as Google tools of search console and what is benefits of using this tool.
I don’t know about others but for me fetch as Google is the fastest way to index my newly created blog posts. With XML sitemap Google will take at least 2-3 days to index a new page but with the help of fetch as Google tool, you can force Googlebot to index your page in few minutes.
According to Google “fetch as Google” tool is to “Test if Google can crawl your web page”
“The Fetch as Google tool enables you to test how Google crawls or renders a URL on your site. You can use Fetch as Google to see whether Googlebot can access a page on your site, how it renders the page, and whether any page resources (such as images or scripts) are blocked to Googlebot. This tool simulates a crawl and render execution as done in Google’s normal crawling and rendering process, and is useful for debugging crawl issues on your site.”
Fetch As Google Error Messages: If you submit your website page in fetch as Google tool then you can get one of the following error messages.
Not found: This error message means that URL which you submitted could not found (404 or 410 HTTP response codes) on the server. Check if you submitted the correct URL of the page.
Not authorized: It indicates that Googlebot is not authorized to access the submitted page. This case occurs when the webpage is password protected.
DNS not found: Google couldn’t retrieve the resource because the domain name wasn’t found. Make sure that you typed in your domain name properly (for example, www.example.com) so that Google can find your site server.
Blocked: The submitted URL is blocked by robots.txt file, if you want to fetch and render it then make URL accessible in the robots.txt file.
Unreachable robots.txt: Googlebot can’t reach the resource host’s robots.txt file. When that happens, Google avoids loading any resources from that host.
Unreachable: The Unreachable error of google search console means that the resource host either took too long to reply or refused the request. This happened when your hosting server is down. Contact your hosting provider for the solution of unreachable error.
Temporarily unreachable: Mainly there are two situations due to which temporarily unreachable error of Google search console arises.
Fetch as Google can’t currently fetch your URL because the server took too long to reply.
Fetch as Google canceled your fetch because too many consecutive requests were made to the server for different URLs.
The page is unreachable for fetch as Google tool, other search console tool can easily access the same page.
Error: An unspecified error prevented Google from completing the fetch.
Fix Temporarily Unreachable Fetch as Google Error:
In the above paragraph of this blog post, I just described what types of errors you may get after submitting in fetch as Google.
Question about the same problem is asked many times in Google search console forum and one of then is replied by Google’s John Mu.
Now let’s talk about solutions when you get a temporarily unreachable issue in Google search console.
Make server up and running: The server is down or server is not responding properly is the main reason behind the temporarily unreachable problem. This problem can also occur if your server is very slow.
To fix it, first, wait for 30 minutes then try to submit the same page URL again, if the problem persists then contact your hosting service provider and make sure that server is up and running.
Don’t submit to frequently: This issue may also occur if several URLs submitted within few seconds simultaneously in search console’s fetch as Google option because due to multiple requests server get stuck and takes too much time to respond back.
So it is advisable that submit URLs in fetch tool after 15 minutes for successful fetch and rendering.
Enter correct page URL: It is seen that many people enter wrong page URL in fetch tool which may cause a temporarily unreachable error. I too make this mistake several times.
Don’t place a slash (/) beginning of page URL because, by default, your domain ends with a slash (/).
Test robots.txt file: If you are getting temporarily unreachable fetch as google error then it may be possible that URL is blocked by robots.txt file.
In this case user robots.txt tester tool of google search console to test if URL is really blocked.
If it blocked then update robots.txt file unblock page URL.
If the page is not blocked by robots.txt file then search for other reason.
Check meta robots tag: Meta robots tag is used to block specific pages from Google indexing, this tag blocks Googlebot from indexing. So check if your page has meta robots tag with noindex and nofollow directives.
To check meta robots tag in your page open source of page try to find
< meta name= “googlebot” content=”noindex, nofollow“>
Remove this meta tag completely or just change “noindex, nofollow” to” index, follow” and re-submit it again.
Check for maximum submission limit: You can submit a limited number of URLs per month in fetch as Google tool. You can submit only 500 unique URLs per month, exceeding this limit may cause you a temporarily unreachable error.
Conclusion
Temporarily unreachable is a serious issue and you need to resolve it as soon as possible but don’t panic because it can be solved easily by the above-given solution.
After getting this error don’t submit same URL or any other URL immediately, wait for 15-30 minutes and then submit it again. Most probably problem will be resolved.
But, if the problem still persists then wait for 1-2 hours before submitting URL again. It is most likely that after 1-2 tries temporarily unreachable error will be resolved.