Summary: Your site looks great — but AI tools say “500 Error.” Here’s what’s happening, why it matters, and how to fix it.
It happens to the best of us.
We create a beautiful website, try to keep the content well-structured, keyword-rich, and relational. We make sure the colors don’t make people run away — or die of apathy. We fine-tune the message, spend ridiculous amounts of time juggling catchy-yet-clear headlines… and then, proudly, we go to ChatGPT and ask:
Can you see this page?
And the answer:
Nope. It’s showing a 500 error, so I can’t reach it.
But based on the name of the link, here’s what I found from your competitors…
Ouch.
Suddenly, your site is invisible to the very AI systems you thought were going to amplify your reach.
No, it’s not you. And no, it’s not the AI.
It’s your server — playing gatekeeper, and a little too aggressively.
What’s actually happening?
Hosting providers are being hammered 24/7 by bots — real, fake, malicious, curious.
To survive this, they often deploy a silent bouncer called ModSecurity, a web application firewall.
When it detects something “bot-like” — such as missing browser headers or odd user agents — it may flag the request as suspicious. Sometimes that means blocking it entirely, responding with a vague but deadly HTTP 500 Internal Server Error.
To humans, everything seems fine.
To machines — search engines, AI tools, website scanners — you’ve gone dark.
How do you fix it?
You contact your hosting support and say something like:
“AI tools can’t access my site — they’re getting a 500 error. Can you check the ModSecurity rules?”
Chances are, they’ll identify a rule (in our case, it was rule 999814) that’s overreacting and will whitelist it for your domain. Problem solved.
Can it happen again?
Yes. Especially if:
- Your site gets scraped more often
- You change themes/plugins
- You start sending your URLs to more AI agents or SEO tools
Websites are not “set and forget.”
They’re living systems in a jungle of bots, updates, and filters.
That’s why people like me exist — to handle this jungle, so local businesses can do what they do best: serve real humans.