Server 500: website deindexed?

[Ideas-Money-Art]

Hi mozzers,

Since August 22nd, (not a site I manage) has had a Server error 500 and all the pages got deindexed?

This is obviously a server issue but why it got deindexed is it because it's been a while since it had this server issue?

On the pages I checked the pages loads correctly so I am a bit confused here! His webmaster account show 1500 server errors!

Can someone tell me what is going on and how to fix it?

Thanks

[Anti-Alex]

It's hard to diagnose the problem without seeing it. Does the Fetch As Google results show any errors or report anything but "Success"?

The report just shows you what Google is seeing so look for anything missing from the page. Usually if it can fetch, then Google can see your site. Double check there isn't a noindex added into the meta somewhere.

[Ideas-Money-Art]

Hi Mozzers,

Thank you for your help. Unfortunately can't share the details. The server hosting the site wasn't helpful at all. The owner of the site sent me his Fetch but not sure how to interpret that.

Can one of you tell me how to determine the issue by reading the Fetch from Google? Any other steps I can do to identify the issue?

Thanks!

[Anti-Alex]

Would you be able to post the domain for us to look at?

If the site has been "down" or unaccessible by Google, it's natural for them to deindex the site. There's a grace period for server issues but a couple months will definitely get your pages removed. That doesn't mean every single page is deindexed, but some definitely will. Bring the site and servers back to good standing and the pages will flow back into Google's results.

[mememax]

Hi Tay,

I think I don't understand clearly. You mean that "your" site has been returning a 500 during more than 2 months?

Than it's normal that google may have deindexed it, don't forget that google main task is to return to users the best results so they threat 404 and 500 the same in that sense. Maybe you can consider filing a reconsideration request if, after having solved every issue you can't see your site raising again into google serps where it was before.

[stever999]

Definitely a server issue and exactly the reason why your pages will have been de-indexed! Could you share the URL for the site so that I can take a look?

Unfortunately a 500 error could be literally anything and you might still get 500 errors even if the pages are being served. It's not always easy to work out what the issue is as a 500 is a catch-all error and you won't get anything more detailed than that!

I would firstly recommend talking to whoever owns the server and explaining the issue to them to see if they can narrow it down. Also, run a "fetch as Googlebot" through your Webmaster tools account and see if this highlights anything...

Hope this helps.

Steve