Skip to content
    Moz logo Menu open Menu close
    • Products
      • Moz Pro
      • Moz Pro Home
      • Moz Local
      • Moz Local Home
      • STAT
      • Moz API
      • Moz API Home
      • Compare SEO Products
      • Moz Data
    • Free SEO Tools
      • Domain Analysis
      • Keyword Explorer
      • Link Explorer
      • Competitive Research
      • MozBar
      • More Free SEO Tools
    • Learn SEO
      • Beginner's Guide to SEO
      • SEO Learning Center
      • Moz Academy
      • SEO Q&A
      • Webinars, Whitepapers, & Guides
    • Blog
    • Why Moz
      • Agency Solutions
      • Enterprise Solutions
      • Small Business Solutions
      • Case Studies
      • The Moz Story
      • New Releases
    • Log in
    • Log out
    • Products
      • Moz Pro

        Your all-in-one suite of SEO essentials.

      • Moz Local

        Raise your local SEO visibility with complete local SEO management.

      • STAT

        SERP tracking and analytics for enterprise SEO experts.

      • Moz API

        Power your SEO with our index of over 44 trillion links.

      • Compare SEO Products

        See which Moz SEO solution best meets your business needs.

      • Moz Data

        Power your SEO strategy & AI models with custom data solutions.

      NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic
      Moz Pro

      NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic

      Learn more
    • Free SEO Tools
      • Domain Analysis

        Get top competitive SEO metrics like DA, top pages and more.

      • Keyword Explorer

        Find traffic-driving keywords with our 1.25 billion+ keyword index.

      • Link Explorer

        Explore over 40 trillion links for powerful backlink data.

      • Competitive Research

        Uncover valuable insights on your organic search competitors.

      • MozBar

        See top SEO metrics for free as you browse the web.

      • More Free SEO Tools

        Explore all the free SEO tools Moz has to offer.

      What is your Brand Authority?
      Moz

      What is your Brand Authority?

      Check yours now
    • Learn SEO
      • Beginner's Guide to SEO

        The #1 most popular introduction to SEO, trusted by millions.

      • SEO Learning Center

        Broaden your knowledge with SEO resources for all skill levels.

      • On-Demand Webinars

        Learn modern SEO best practices from industry experts.

      • How-To Guides

        Step-by-step guides to search success from the authority on SEO.

      • Moz Academy

        Upskill and get certified with on-demand courses & certifications.

      • SEO Q&A

        Insights & discussions from an SEO community of 500,000+.

      Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints
      Moz API

      Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints

      Find your plan
    • Blog
    • Why Moz
      • Small Business Solutions

        Uncover insights to make smarter marketing decisions in less time.

      • Agency Solutions

        Earn & keep valuable clients with unparalleled data & insights.

      • Enterprise Solutions

        Gain a competitive edge in the ever-changing world of search.

      • The Moz Story

        Moz was the first & remains the most trusted SEO company.

      • Case Studies

        Explore how Moz drives ROI with a proven track record of success.

      • New Releases

        Get the scoop on the latest and greatest from Moz.

      Surface actionable competitive intel
      New Feature

      Surface actionable competitive intel

      Learn More
    • Log in
      • Moz Pro
      • Moz Local
      • Moz Local Dashboard
      • Moz API
      • Moz API Dashboard
      • Moz Academy
    • Avatar
      • Moz Home
      • Notifications
      • Account & Billing
      • Manage Users
      • Community Profile
      • My Q&A
      • My Videos
      • Log Out

    The Moz Q&A Forum

    • Forum
    • Questions
    • Users
    • Ask the Community

    Welcome to the Q&A Forum

    Browse the forum for helpful insights and fresh discussions about all things SEO.

    1. Home
    2. SEO Tactics
    3. Technical SEO
    4. Server is taking too long to respond - What does this mean?

    Moz Q&A is closed.

    After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.

    Server is taking too long to respond - What does this mean?

    Technical SEO
    5
    10
    135540
    Loading More Posts
    • Oldest to Newest
    • Newest to Oldest
    • Most Votes
    Reply
    • Reply as question
    Log in to reply
    This topic has been deleted. Only users with question management privileges can see it.
    • columbiaseo
      columbiaseo last edited by

      A client has 3 sites that he would like for me to look at.  Whenever I attempt to on my home internet I get this message:

      The connection has timed out
      The server is taking too long to respond.

      When I take my iphone off wifi and use AT&T, the site comes up fine.  What is going on here?

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • LesleyPaone
        LesleyPaone last edited by

        More than likely it was one 3 things, a DNS issue, a peering issue, or a temp ban.

        If you were currently ftp'ing into the site and had too many threads open, usually above 4 or 5 but all depends on the server setting. They can issue a temporary ban on your ip address for the site. Depending on how the server is set up, you can either get an explicit message, which is bad. Or you can just get an error like you, which is good and it means the server is shedding the load.

        A DNS issue could be that a name server is down somewhere or having other problems. You generally cannot do anything about this and they are generally fixed quickly because of the amount of sites / information hosted on them is vital.

        A peering problem, like a DNS issue is usually spotty. More than likely that is what was happening. A peering issue means you cannot access the "chunk" of internet that the peer directs traffic through. So say you can access 99.9% of everything you want, because it is not going through the peer with the issues.

        The best tools you can use to diagnose these problems are TOR, it is a socks proxy that routes your traffic so essentially you will be accessing the site through another isp, who could not be having peering or DNS issues with the hosting isp. Also you can use http://www.whatsmydns.net/  which will let you know what different dns servers around the world are returning. It will let you know if a major DNS server is having an issue. For general checking you can use this as well, http://www.downforeveryoneorjustme.com/

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
        • CleverPhD
          CleverPhD last edited by

          Check with the IT folks or hosting service for your client.  I think this is an outside chance, but if you have been running spiders from your home computer to check the site, you may have been hitting it too hard and slowed the site down and the server may be blocking your IP as you are seen as a spammer.   That is why you change ISPs you are golden as you are seen as a different "user".

          I took down one of our sites once with a spidering tool.  They were pushing new code right when I hit the site.  Also, the number of requests a second I thought were ok, well, it was during peak traffic time. (DOH!)

          I adjusted my crawl rate down and everything was ok.   Again, this is just a guess, but worth checking considering your symptoms.

          Good luck!

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
          • jesse-landry
            jesse-landry @columbiaseo last edited by

            Yeah they all work for me too.

            So this remains one of the weirder topics on here but for different reasons than I first suspected. ..I'm really not sure what to tell you. Sorry.

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
            • onlinechester
              onlinechester @columbiaseo last edited by

              They all work for me 🙂 the topsmagic site takes a while to load though

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • columbiaseo
                columbiaseo @jesse-landry last edited by

                madhattermagicshop.com
                topsmagic.com
                world-costume.com

                Thanks!

                onlinechester jesse-landry 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • jesse-landry
                  jesse-landry @columbiaseo last edited by

                  that's weird. what are the domains let's see if I can access them?

                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • jesse-landry
                    jesse-landry last edited by

                    Wait are you saying this is just for your clients' sites? You can access other sites just fine? That's how you posted this question?

                    Sorry i'm confused.

                    columbiaseo 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                    • columbiaseo
                      columbiaseo @jesse-landry last edited by

                      My internet is working fine.  I'm on moz.org right now using my internet.  It's only when I attempt to visit those 3 websites.

                      jesse-landry 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • jesse-landry
                        jesse-landry last edited by

                        Your internet and/or router is down..? Yeah I'd power-cycle the router and modem and try again. Or contact your cable company.

                        No offense but this is one of the weirdest Q&A posts I've seen here. I'm having a weird morning though so it totally fits.

                        columbiaseo 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                        • 1 / 1
                        • First post
                          Last post

                        Got a burning SEO question?

                        Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.


                        Start my free trial


                        Browse Questions

                        Explore more categories

                        • Moz Tools

                          Chat with the community about the Moz tools.

                        • SEO Tactics

                          Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers

                        • Community

                          Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!

                        • Digital Marketing

                          Chat about tactics outside of SEO

                        • Research & Trends

                          Dive into research and trends in the search industry.

                        • Support

                          Connect on product support and feature requests.

                        • See all categories

                        Related Questions

                        • KaraParlin

                          Does having a sub-domain on a different server affect SEO?

                          I'm working with a company that has a hard-coded website on the root domain, and then a WordPress blog on a subdomain on a separate server. We're planning on implementing a hub and spoke model for their content, hosting the main hubs on the root domain and the linked articles on the blog. Is having the blog on a different server going to hinder our SEO efforts?

                          Technical SEO | | KaraParlin
                          0
                        • Alces

                          An immediate and long-term plan for expired Events?

                          Hello all, I've spent the past day scouring guides and walkthroughs and advice and Q&As regarding this (including on here), and while I'm pretty confident in my approach to this query, I wanted to crowd source some advice in case I might be way off base. I'll start by saying that Technical SEO is arguably my weakest area, so please bear with me. Anyhoozles, onto the question (and advance apologies for being vague): PROBLEM I'm working on a website that, in part, works with providers of a service to open their own programs/centers. Most programs tend to run their own events, which leads to an influx of Event pages, almost all of which are indexed. At my last count, there were approximately 800 indexed Event pages. The problem? Almost all of these have expired, leading to a little bit of index bloat. THINGS TO CONSIDER A spot check revealed that traffic for each Event occurs for about a two-to-four week period then disappears completely once the Event expires. About half of these indexed Event pages redirect to a new page. So the indexed URL will be /events/name-of-event but will redirect to /state/city/events/name-of-event. QUESTIONS I'M ASKING How do we address all these old events that provide no real value to the user? What should a future process look like to prevent this from happening? MY SOLUTION Step 1: Add a noindex to each of the currently-expired Event pages. Since some of these pages have link equity (one event had 8 unique links pointing to it), I don't want to just 404 all of them, and redirecting them doesn't seem like a good idea since one of the goals is to reduce the number of indexed pages that provide no value to users. Step 2: Remove all of the expired Event pages from the Sitemap and resubmit. This is an ongoing process due to a variety of factors, so we'd wrap this up into a complete sitemap overhaul for the client. We would also be removing the Events from the website so there are not internal links pointing to them. Step 3: Write a rule (well, have their developers write a rule) that automatically adds noindex to each Event page once it's expired. Step 4: Wait for Google to re-crawl the site and hopefully remove the expired Events from its index. Thoughts? I feel like this is the simplest way to get things done quickly while preventing future expired events from being indexed. All of this is part of a bigger project involving the overhaul of the way Events are linked to on the website (since we wouldn't be 404ing them, I would simply suggest that they be removed entirely from all navigation), but ultimately, automating the process once we get this concern cleaned up is the direction I want to go. Thanks. Eager to hear all your thoughts.

                          Technical SEO | | Alces
                          0
                        • Cassie_Ransom

                          Do long UTM codes hurt SEO?

                          Since most UTM codes/URLs are longer than 70ish characters, is this hurting my SEO? If it is, how can I solve the problem while still using a UTM code? Thanks!

                          Technical SEO | | Cassie_Ransom
                          0
                        • RocketStats

                          "5XX (Server Error)" - How can I fix this?

                          Hey Mozers! Moz Crawl tells me I am having an issue with my Wordpress category - it is returning a 5XX error and i'm not sure why? Can anyone help me determine the issue? Crawl Issues and Notices for: http://www.refusedcarfinance.com/news/category/news We found 1 crawler issue(s) for this page. High Priority Issues 1 5XX (Server Error) 5XX errors (e.g., a 503 Service Unavailable error) are shown when a valid request was made by the client, but the server failed to complete the request. This can indicate a problem with the server, and should be investigated and fixed.

                          Technical SEO | | RocketStats
                          0
                        • solvid

                          Server Connection Error when using Google Speed Test Insight and GTMetrix

                          Hi Guys, Recently got into the issue when testing load speed of my website (https://solvid.co.uk). Occasionally, Google Speed Insights gives me a server connection error which states _"PageSpeed was unable to connect to the server. Ensure that you are using the correct protocol (_http vs https), the page loads in a browser, and is accessible on the public internet." Also, GTMetrix gives me an error as well, which states the following: "An error occurred fetching the page: HTTPS error: SSl connect attempt failed" All of my redirects seem to be set-up correctly as well as the SSL certificate. I've contacted my hosting provider (godaddy), they are saying that everything is fine with the server and the installation. Also, tried in different browsers in incognito mode, still gives me the same error. Until yesterday I haven't had such a problem. I've also attached the error screenshot links. I would really appreciate your help! Dmytro UxchPYR M52iPDf

                          Technical SEO | | solvid
                          1
                        • Jeepster

                          Rel="Follow"? What the &#@? does that mean?

                          I've written a guest blog post for a site. In the link back to my site they've put a rel="follow" attribute. Is that valid HTML? I've Googled it but the answers are inconclusive, to say the least.

                          Technical SEO | | Jeepster
                          0
                        • Uds

                          Links from the same server has value or not

                          Hi Guys, Sometime ago one of the SEO experts said to me if I get links from the same IP address, Google doesn't count them as with much value. For an example, I am a web devleoper and I host all my clients websites on one server and link them back to me. Im wondering whether those links have any value when it comes to seo or should I consider getting different hosting providers? Regards Uds

                          Technical SEO | | Uds
                          0
                        • Bandicoot

                          How long does it take for rank to return after 301?

                          Hello all -- just looking for those who have implemented site-wide 301 redirects due to a domain change. I am about 2 weeks into mine and am seeing minimum 5, maximum 21 spot drops in many of my targeted terms. My pages have strong GPR, with most being 3 or higher. Anyone out there been able to track a ballpark of when rank will return? The 301 redirects were implemented correctly, with 1 to 1 setups in most cases. Google has updated the listings with the new domain name, but I'm taking a huge rank hit. Any experience on how long I can expect (I know it's different for every situation) would be great! Thanks.

                          Technical SEO | | Bandicoot
                          0

                        Get started with Moz Pro!

                        Unlock the power of advanced SEO tools and data-driven insights.

                        Start my free trial
                        Products
                        • Moz Pro
                        • Moz Local
                        • Moz API
                        • Moz Data
                        • STAT
                        • Product Updates
                        Moz Solutions
                        • SMB Solutions
                        • Agency Solutions
                        • Enterprise Solutions
                        Free SEO Tools
                        • Domain Authority Checker
                        • Link Explorer
                        • Keyword Explorer
                        • Competitive Research
                        • Brand Authority Checker
                        • MozBar Extension
                        • MozCast
                        Resources
                        • Blog
                        • SEO Learning Center
                        • Help Hub
                        • Beginner's Guide to SEO
                        • How-to Guides
                        • Moz Academy
                        • API Docs
                        About Moz
                        • About
                        • Team
                        • Careers
                        • Contact
                        Why Moz
                        • Case Studies
                        • Testimonials
                        Get Involved
                        • Become an Affiliate
                        • MozCon
                        • Webinars
                        • Practical Marketer Series
                        • MozPod
                        Connect with us

                        Contact the Help team

                        Join our newsletter
                        Moz logo
                        © 2021 - 2025 SEOMoz, Inc., a Ziff Davis company. All rights reserved. Moz is a registered trademark of SEOMoz, Inc.
                        • Accessibility
                        • Terms of Use
                        • Privacy

                        Looks like your connection to Moz was lost, please wait while we try to reconnect.