Could not audit: rate limited

Severity: Warning
Impact: Medium
Effort to fix: Low
Issue code: rate_limited

Why it matters

The server kept answering "too many requests" (HTTP 429), even after SiteAud!tLint slowed down and retried, so this page was not checked. This is common on Shopify and some hosting providers and does not mean the page is broken.

How to fix it

In Settings, set Parallel requests to 1 and Delay between requests to 1 second, then audit again.

What this means

The server answered 429 Too Many Requests for this page, even after SiteAud!tLint slowed down and retried several times. The page was not checked, so its real status is unknown.

This is a warning about the audit, not about the page: a rate-limited page is never counted as broken, and it is left out of broken link, sitemap and backlink checks.

Why it happens

Many platforms limit how many requests one client can make. Shopify does this by default, and so do many hosts, CDNs and bot protection services. When SiteAud!tLint receives a 429 it pauses, follows any Retry-After header, slows its pace for the rest of the crawl, and retries the page. This issue only appears when the server keeps refusing.

Does it affect search engines?

Usually not. Search engines crawl from known addresses at their own pace, and many platforms treat verified Googlebot differently. If Search Console's Crawl stats report also shows many 429 responses, the limit is affecting Google too, and you should raise it with your host.

How to get a complete audit

In Crawl settings, set Parallel requests to 1 and Delay between requests to about one second, then recrawl.
If you control the server or CDN, allow the crawler's user agent or your own IP address. See About our crawler.
For very large sites, crawl sections separately with a narrower start URL.

Verify the fix

Recrawl. Pages that load fully drop out of this issue and are checked normally. See also The audit is incomplete or slow.

How it affects your score

Finding this issue on any page costs the Technical SEO score 3 points, plus up to 12 more depending on the share of crawled pages affected. Weakens rankings, crawling or measurement. Fix after critical issues.

Find the affected URLs

Open Crawl > Issues and pick Could not audit: rate limited. Each affected URL is listed with its evidence, and Copy URLs or Export URLs hands the list to a developer. The issue also appears in the Action Plan, ranked by impact (medium) and effort (low), and in the issues CSV under the code rate_limited. After fixing, run a new audit and use Compare to confirm the URLs moved to fixed.