diff --git a/src/web_crawler/web_scraper.py b/src/web_crawler/web_scraper.py
index a1e30f5..fd4b9c7 100644
--- a/src/web_crawler/web_scraper.py
+++ b/src/web_crawler/web_scraper.py
@@ -1,9 +1,10 @@
 import asyncio
 import logging
 import time
+from urllib.parse import urlparse
 
 import validators
-from selenium.common.exceptions import StaleElementReferenceException
+from selenium.common.exceptions import StaleElementReferenceException, TimeoutException
 from selenium import webdriver
 from selenium.webdriver.chrome.options import Options
 from selenium.webdriver.common.by import By
@@ -19,9 +20,13 @@ class WebScraper:
     def __init__(self) -> None:
         self.options = Options()
         self.options.add_argument("--headless")
+        self.options.add_argument("--mute-audio")
+        self.options.add_argument("--no-sandbox")
+        self.options.add_argument("--disable-dev-shm-usage")
         prefs = {"download.default_directory": "/tmp/"}
         self.options.add_experimental_option("prefs", prefs)
         self.driver = webdriver.Chrome(options=self.options)
+        self.driver.set_page_load_timeout(15)
         self.target = None
 
     # def _refresh_driver(self) -> None:
@@ -37,7 +42,10 @@ def navigate_sync(self, target: str) -> float:
         #     self._refresh_driver()
         start_time = time.perf_counter()
         self.target = target
-        self.driver.get(target)
+        try:
+            self.driver.get(target)
+        except TimeoutException:
+            logger.warning(f"Timeout fetching {target}")
         end_time = time.perf_counter()
         return end_time - start_time
 
@@ -66,4 +74,17 @@ def find_all_links(self) -> set[str]:
                     links.append(href)
             except StaleElementReferenceException:
                 logger.info(f"Stale reference exception: {self.target}")
-        return set(link for link in links if validators.url(link))
+        return set(
+            link
+            for link in links
+            if validators.url(link) and not self._is_local_url(link)
+        )
+
+    def _is_local_url(self, url: str) -> bool:
+        host = urlparse(url).hostname
+        return host in {"localhost", "0.0.0.0"} or (
+            host is not None and host.startswith("127.")
+        )
+
+    def close(self) -> None:
+        self.driver.quit()
diff --git a/src/web_crawler_cron.py b/src/web_crawler_cron.py
index 94114b8..5f8911a 100644
--- a/src/web_crawler_cron.py
+++ b/src/web_crawler_cron.py
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@
 import sys
 import time
 
-from selenium.common.exceptions import WebDriverException
+from selenium.common.exceptions import WebDriverException, TimeoutException
 from urllib3.exceptions import MaxRetryError
 from web_crawler.web_scraper import WebScraper
 from web_crawler.node import Node
@@ -37,51 +37,54 @@ async def worker(
 
     logger.info("Started worker.")
 
-    while True:
-        try:
-            node = await queue.get()
-
-            fetch_time = await scraper.navigate(node.url)
-            netloc_last_visited_at[node.netloc] = seconds_since_program_start()
-
-            node.text = scraper.extract_rendered_text()
-            node.title = scraper.driver.title
-
-            inverted_index.insert(node)
-
-            links = scraper.find_all_links()
-
-            if (node.depth + 1) <= max_depth:
-                for link in links:
-                    link_node = Node(link, node.depth + 1)
-                    # we prefer net locations we haven't seen before to avoid rate limiting
-                    if netloc_last_visited_at.get(link_node.netloc) is not None:
-                        # prioritize longer time since last visit; mult by -1 since PriorityQueue prioritizes lower numbers
-                        link_node.priority = -1 * (
-                            time.perf_counter()
-                            - netloc_last_visited_at[link_node.netloc]
-                        )
-                    if link_node.url in visited:
-                        continue
-                    visited.add(link_node.url)
-                    await queue.put(link_node)
-
-            logger.info(
-                f"index_bytes={sys.getsizeof(inverted_index._inverted_index)} "
-                f"queue_size={queue.qsize()} "
-                f"depth={node.depth} "
-                f"priority={node.priority} "
-                f"fetch_time={round(fetch_time, 4)}s "
-                f"url={node.url}"
-            )
-            queue.task_done()
-            if queue.empty():
-                break
-        except (WebDriverException, MaxRetryError) as e:
-            logger.error(f"Failed to fetch error {e} URL: {node.url}")
-            queue.task_done()
-            if queue.empty():
-                break
+    try:
+        while True:
+            try:
+                node = await queue.get()
+
+                fetch_time = await scraper.navigate(node.url)
+                netloc_last_visited_at[node.netloc] = seconds_since_program_start()
+
+                node.text = scraper.extract_rendered_text()
+                node.title = scraper.driver.title
+
+                inverted_index.insert(node)
+
+                links = scraper.find_all_links()
+
+                if (node.depth + 1) <= max_depth:
+                    for link in links:
+                        link_node = Node(link, node.depth + 1)
+                        # we prefer net locations we haven't seen before to avoid rate limiting
+                        if netloc_last_visited_at.get(link_node.netloc) is not None:
+                            # prioritize longer time since last visit; mult by -1 since PriorityQueue prioritizes lower numbers
+                            link_node.priority = -1 * (
+                                time.perf_counter()
+                                - netloc_last_visited_at[link_node.netloc]
+                            )
+                        if link_node.url in visited:
+                            continue
+                        visited.add(link_node.url)
+                        await queue.put(link_node)
+
+                logger.info(
+                    f"index_bytes={sys.getsizeof(inverted_index._inverted_index)} "
+                    f"queue_size={queue.qsize()} "
+                    f"depth={node.depth} "
+                    f"priority={node.priority} "
+                    f"fetch_time={round(fetch_time, 4)}s "
+                    f"url={node.url}"
+                )
+                queue.task_done()
+                if queue.empty():
+                    break
+            except (WebDriverException, MaxRetryError, TimeoutException) as e:
+                logger.error(f"Failed to fetch error {e} URL: {node.url}")
+                queue.task_done()
+                if queue.empty():
+                    break
+    finally:
+        scraper.close()
 
 
 async def main():