429
4xxSEO: negativeRFC 6585
HTTP 429 Too Many Requests
Rate limit exceeded. If Googlebot receives 429s, crawl rate will be reduced.
Indexable by Google
No
Link equity passed
No
SEO Impact
Negative
Category
4XX
SEO Impact
If your server rate-limits Googlebot with 429 responses, Google will slow down its crawl rate to respect your server capacity. Sustained 429s lead to slower indexing and coverage gaps. Monitor your server logs for Googlebot IPs and ensure your rate-limiting rules exclude legitimate crawlers. Use Retry-After header to specify when Googlebot should retry.
When to Use 429
When a client sends too many requests in a given time window. Always include a Retry-After header.
HTTP Response Example
HTTP/1.1 429 Too Many Requests Retry-After: 60
Test with cURL
$ curl -I https://api.example.com/search