There are few things more frustrating for a technical SEO than seeing a spike in “Not Found (404)” errors in Google Search Console and having no idea where they’re coming from. Hunting down the source of crawl errors can feel like digital detective work. It’s a critical task, but it’s rarely a quick one.
In my experience, AI can be your new partner in this investigation, helping you diagnose problems much faster. This guide is a deep dive into the workflow I use for AI for crawl errors, a core part of the process I introduced in my main guide, How Can AI Automate and Simplify Technical SEO Audits?.
What Are the Most Common Crawlability Issues?
Before we fix them, let’s quickly identify the main culprits. Crawlability issues are problems that prevent search engine bots from properly accessing your content. The most common ones I see are:
- 404 (Not Found) Errors: A user or bot clicks a link to a page that doesn’t exist.
- 5xx (Server) Errors: Your server fails to respond to a request, often indicating a more serious issue.
- Redirect Chains: A link points from Page A to B to C to D, instead of directly from A to D, wasting crawl budget and slowing down users.
How Do I Use AI to Fix 404 Errors?
Finding a 404 error is easy. Finding the source of the broken link that caused it is the hard part. This is where AI is a game-changer.
First, you need the data. I use a tool like Screaming Frog to crawl a website. In the “Response Codes” tab, I can filter for 404 errors and then, in the “Inlinks” tab at the bottom, I can export a list of all the source pages that are linking to those broken URLs.
With that export, I use this prompt.
Your Action: Use this expert how to fix 404 errors prompt.
ROLE: You are a senior Technical SEO Analyst creating a prioritized task list for a developer.
TASK: Analyze the provided crawl data and create a clear, actionable plan for fixing 404 errors.
CONTEXT: The data contains a list of “Destination URLs” (the broken 404 page) and “Source URLs” (the page where the broken link is located).
OUTPUT FORMAT:
A Markdown table with three columns: “Broken Link (404 URL)”, “Location of Broken Link (Source URL)”, and “Recommended Action (e.g., ‘Update the link on the source page to the correct new URL’ or ‘Remove the link if the destination page is no longer relevant’)”.
CRAWL DATA:
[Paste your exported data here. Example format: “Source: /about-us, Destination: /contact-page-old”]
This prompt turns a messy data export into a clean, actionable to-do list in seconds.
How Can AI Help Diagnose Redirect Chains?
Redirect chains are bad for crawl budget and page speed. Finding them is easy with a site crawler, but mapping out the fix for dozens of chains can be tedious. I use AI to automate this.
Your Action: Use this prompt.
ROLE: You are a technical SEO expert specializing in site architecture and crawl optimization.
TASK: Analyze the following redirect chain report and suggest the optimal fix for each chain.
CONTEXT: The report shows the starting URL and each “hop” in the redirect chain. The goal is to eliminate all intermediate steps.
OUTPUT FORMAT:
For each chain, clearly state the “Problem Chain” and then the “Recommended Fix (e.g., ‘Update the initial link on URL A to point directly to URL D’)”.
REDIRECT CHAIN DATA:
[Paste your chain report data here. Example: “Chain 1: URL A -> URL B -> URL C -> URL D”]
How Can You Proactively Monitor for Crawl Errors?
While these prompts are great for fixing existing problems, proactive monitoring is even better. I use the Technical Page Audit feature in my AI SEO Toolkit to run scheduled crawls of my site. It automatically flags new crawlability issues like 404s or redirect chains as they appear, so I can fix them before they become a major problem for Googlebot.
My Final Thoughts
Using AI for crawl errors is about turning raw data from your crawler into an actionable to-do list. It’s a powerful form of technical SEO automation that removes the most time-consuming part of the diagnostic process. This frees you up to spend less time finding problems and more time fixing them.
Disclaimer
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About the Author
I’m Sanwal Zia, an SEO strategist with more than six years of experience helping businesses grow through smart and practical search strategies. I created Optimize With Sanwal to share honest insights, tool breakdowns, and real guidance for anyone looking to improve their digital presence. You can connect with me on YouTube, LinkedIn , Facebook, Instagram , or visit my website to explore more of my work.
