Toronto SEO
All HTTP status codes
4xx Client Error
RFC 9110

408 Request Timeout

The server timed out waiting for the request from the client.

What it means

HTTP 408 Request Timeout indicates the server did not receive a complete request within the time it was prepared to wait. The client may retry the request without modifications.

When it's used

Slow client uploads, idle keep-alive connections, or networks with high packet loss.

Common causes
  • Client uploading slowly over a poor connection
  • Mobile network drops mid-request
  • Server keep-alive timeout too short
  • Client opened connection but never sent the request
How to fix it
  • Retry the request — it is typically idempotent on the server side
  • Increase client-side network timeout
  • Implement upload chunking for large files
  • Tune server keep-alive timeout to match client behavior
Example response
HTTP/1.1 408 Request Timeout
Connection: close
SEO impact

If frequent, can hurt crawl budget. Googlebot may reduce crawl rate if it sees consistent 408s.