Should you really worry about 'not-followed' errors in Search Console?

What does a 'not-followed' error actually mean?

A 'not-followed' error appears in Search Console when Googlebot detects a link that it cannot follow or deliberately chooses to ignore. This covers several scenarios: links blocked by robots.txt, nofollow links, chain redirections, or simply URLs that no longer exist.

The issue is that these errors can remain displayed long after the problematic link has disappeared. Google keeps a crawl history that does not clear instantly. A link removed three months ago can still trigger an alert today, creating information pollution in your reports.

Why do these errors persist for so long?

The persistence can be explained by Google’s cache system. When Googlebot discovers a link, it records it in its database. Even if you delete that link from your site, Google may continue crawling it for weeks, especially if the link appeared on frequently visited pages.

The refresh delay depends on your site’s crawl frequency. A site crawled daily will see these errors disappear faster than a site crawled monthly. However, even on high-authority sites, expect 2-6 weeks for a historical error to completely vanish from reports.

How does this statement change the game for an SEO professional?

This official clarification alleviates a common source of anxiety. Many practitioners spend hours tracking every error in Search Console, fearing a negative impact on ranking. Google confirms that this time is often wasted.

But beware: this does not mean that you should ignore all 'not-followed' errors. If you detect them on active and strategic links (main navigation, internal links to your key pages), then that’s a real issue. The nuance is in distinguishing between historical errors and structural errors.

• ‘Not-followed’ errors on old deleted links are cache artifacts with no SEO impact
• Google can take 2-6 weeks to purge these errors from its reports
• Only errors on active and strategic links deserve immediate corrective action
• Don’t confuse information pollution with a real technical issue
• The crawl frequency of your site directly influences the disappearance delay of historical errors

Is this statement consistent with real-world observations?

Absolutely. I have observed on dozens of sites that ‘not-followed’ errors can linger for an entire quarter, with no measurable negative impact on organic traffic or positions. The curves remain stable, the crawl budget is not affected, and important pages continue to be indexed normally.

The challenge arises when a non-technical client sees their Search Console report filled with red alerts. They panic. They ask for an urgent audit. You spend two hours explaining that these errors are ghosts, not threats. This official statement finally provides a solid argument to reassure without appearing negligent.

What nuances should be added to this statement?

Google mentions “major SEO issues”, a deliberately vague phrasing. This does not mean zero impact, but negligible impact. Let’s be honest: if you have 10,000 ‘not-followed’ errors on current and strategic links, you have a problem. [To be verified] But if you have 200 on old migrated content, that’s just noise.

The real question: how to distinguish between the two? Search Console doesn’t make this distinction. You need to cross-reference the data: export the list of error URLs, check if they still exist on your site, and verify if they are linked from live pages. Without this manual analysis, you are flying blind.

When do these errors become problematic?

First case: you are launching a major redesign and half of your internal linking becomes 'not-followed' because the URLs have changed without proper redirections. Here, the error hides a real migration problem. You lose internal PageRank, your deep pages are no longer crawled, and your indexing drops.

Second case: you accidentally block an entire section in robots.txt. The ‘not-followed’ errors accumulate, but this isn’t a historical artifact, it’s an active configuration error. If you take Google’s statement at face value and ignore these alerts, you might miss a critical bug.

What should you actually do with these errors?

First, sort. Export the complete list of 'not-followed' errors from Search Console. Manually check if the relevant URLs still exist on your site. Use a crawler like Screaming Frog to identify dead links versus active links. This takes 20 minutes, not 20 hours.

Next, focus your action on errors affecting strategic pages: category pages, best-selling product pages, pillar content. If a 'not-followed' error blocks access to a page generating 5% of your traffic, fix it immediately. If it concerns an old blog post from 2019 with zero traffic, move on.

How can you avoid these errors accumulating in the future?

Prevention involves rigorous redirect management. When you remove or relocate content, implement proper 301s to relevant URLs. Never leave internal links pointing to 404s or blocked pages. A quarterly internal link audit avoids 90% of these errors.

Automate monitoring. Set up Search Console alerts to be notified when the volume of ‘not-followed’ errors suddenly increases. A sudden spike usually indicates a recent problem (deployment bug, change in robots.txt), not a historical artifact. React quickly in this case.

When should you really be concerned?

You should be concerned if 'not-followed' errors relate to active and crawled URLs. Check your server logs to see if Googlebot is still trying to access these pages. If so, and it is failing, you are losing crawl budget and indexing potential. If not, it’s just background noise.

Another warning sign: a temporal correlation between the appearance of 'not-followed' errors and a decline in organic traffic. If both events coincide, dig deeper. Perhaps a deployment broke your internal linking. Maybe key pages are no longer accessible. The 'not-followed' errors are then a symptom, not the cause.

• Export the list of 'not-followed' errors from Search Console and cross-reference it with a complete site crawl
• Prioritize fixing errors affecting strategic pages (categories, best-sellers, pillar content)
• Implement systematic 301 redirects when removing or relocating content
• Automate monitoring with Search Console alerts for error spikes
• Check server logs to differentiate between active errors (Googlebot fails) and historical errors (Googlebot no longer attempts)
• Ignore errors on old content with no traffic or incoming links, unless they mask a structural problem