Webmaster tools crawl errors
-
Hi there,
iv been tracking my webmaster tools crawl errors for a while now(6 months) and im noticing some pages that are far gone 404 are still poping out on the crawl errors. - that pages have no data for xml linking, and remote linking are from pages that are far gone 404 also.
that pages have 404 error page + redirect to homepage, and google still notice them with old cache content.
does someone have a clue why is this happening?
-
Thank you very much Dana for the superb answer!
any clue for how much this errors are critical for my website seo? (is this problem worth fixing)
-
Hi!
Have you verified that there is a proper 301 redirect from the old URL's? If, for example, there is a 302 instead, I wouldn't be surprised if Google kept the old info in the index, as you have sort of said "I'll be back soon at this old address, just wait a minute (or year)".
Do you have an example URL for us that we could take a look at?
-
Hi Dana,
If your looking for someone to confirm what Dana said she is 100% right.
If your using a data base like WordPress it is posable for it to hold old pages and serve them. Make sure your host knows of your problem if you are using a CMS.
Hope this helps,
Thomas
-
Yes, I understand this issue very well and have seen it many times. Most often, it is happening because another of your pages that is being indexed is still referencing those pages. Please forgive Google, it is but a humble, not-so-intelligent bot (despite what the world would have you think). If you keep referencing a page that doesn't exist, Googlebot will say to itself "but it does exist! it does!" and keep indexing it, despite the 404 error. I mean, for all Google knows, it is your intention to bring that page back and maybe you just screwed up and it is 404-ing, you know?
Here's the remedy:
Do a content audit. Here's a great post on how to do that: http://www.distilled.net/blog/seo/how-to-perform-a-content-audit/
You will discover many things, without a doubt, including pages that are linking to these 404 pages. Decide what to do with those pages, i.e. nix them, re-build them, whatever. If you have pages in Google that you really do want out of the index and those same pages are 404-ing....simply go to your Google Webmaster Tools Account and in the left nav select "Google Index" and then "Remove URLs." Then simply click the box that says "create a new removal request" and enter the desired URL into that Box. Provided your page meets the requirements (and if it's producing a 404 error it does) Google will prioritize its removal. Under no circumstances should this be confused with the disavow tool. Just to make that clear.
I hope this helps. Any questions and I'm happy to help further if I can.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Google Crawl Stats
Hi all Wondering if anyone could help me out here. I am seeing massive variations in WMT of google crawl stats on a site I run. Just wondering if this is normal (see attached image). The site is an eccommerce site and gets a handful of new products added every couple of weeks. The total no of products is about 220k so this is only a very small %. I notice in WMT I have an amber warning under Server connectivity. About 10 days back I had warnings under DNS, Server and Robots. This was due to bad server performance. I have since moved to a new server and the other two warnings have gone back to green. I expect the Server connectivity one to update any day now. Ive included the graph for this incase it is relevant here. Many thanks for assistance. Carl crawlstats.png connect.png
Reporting & Analytics | | daedriccarl0 -
Webmaster Tools Suddenly Asking For Verification of Site Registered for 5 Years
Google Webmaster Tools has been successfully installed on my website, (www.nyc-officespace-leader.com) for more than five years. Suddenly, today I have received a request to Verify this Site". This makes no sense. The only possibility I can think of is that this is somehow tied to the following events in the last month: 1. Launch of new version of website on June 4th
Reporting & Analytics | | Kingalan1
2. Installation of Google of Tag Manager
3. Sudden Increase in number of pages indexed by Google. Unexplained indexing of an additional 175 pages. About 625 pages should be indexed, while 800 are now indexed. In the last month ranking and traffic have fallen sharply. Could it be tat these issues are all linked? But the strangest issue is the request to verify the site. Does anyone have any ideas? Thanks,
Alan0 -
Link Research Tools
Is anyone else here a user of Link Research Tools? I recently completed a Link Detox for my sites. However, it is saying that links from high quality press release sites are deadly and should be removed. They are also saying the same about the links from the Yellow Pages. Obviously I know these tools are automated, but does anyone know why they are showing these links as 'deadly' and should be removed? I have tried contacting LRT about this issue but am yet to receive a reply.
Reporting & Analytics | | AAttias0 -
Difference in incoming links between web masters tool and moz
Why are incoming links to my site in Google Webmasters tools totally different then in MOZ? Which is correct? According to Google as of this week I have hundreds of links coming from linkarena (dot) com (Never heard) Does any one know who they are or if they are hurting me? I definitely did not pay them to put me on there. It looks like a German site. Thank you.
Reporting & Analytics | | omakad0 -
Google Analytics and Webmaster Tools Setup for Agencies
Hi, As agencies, what are people finding to be the best practices for allowing multiple members of the agency's team to access client WMT and GA data? Have a generic "[email protected]" account that's used for the shares, that anyone in the agency can use as needed (limited, of course, not admin). Have the individual person at the company use their company email for the share for each particular client? [email protected]. Yet what happens when we need someone else to check the GA or WMT data? Any advice is much appreciated.
Reporting & Analytics | | Titan552
Thank you!0 -
How do you handle a "too many inbound links" notice on your crawl diagnostics report?
How do you handle a "too many inbound links" notice on your crawl diagnostics report? The url's identified come from our blog....is it reading all the blog post URL's and giving me a notice? Is this ok to leave all the links? Or would anyone recommend no follow tags on all of our blog posts?
Reporting & Analytics | | cschwartzel0 -
Can you link several sites together in Google Webmaster Tools?
I have a client saying that there is a way to link 3 separate websites (A website for each department of a company) in Google Webmaster tools to tell Google it's basically one site but really its 3. Or to tell Google it's the same company and all the sites are one. I have never heard of this & I don't see the point in making 3 separate small sites & "linking" them as one in Webmaster tools. Is there in fact a way? Am I out to lunch on what they might be referring to? I am recommending they create one larger authority site with a page on each department & earn links for each department page & provide informative unique content for each page. Thoughts? Thanks for the help!
Reporting & Analytics | | DCochrane0 -
How serious are the Duplicate page content and Tags error?
I have a travel booking website which reserves flights, cars, hotels, vacation packages and Cruises. I encounter a huge number of Duplicate Page Title and Content error. This is expected because of the nature of my website. Say if you look for flights between Washington DC and London Heathrow you will at least get 60 different options with same content and title tags. How can I go about reducing the harm if any of duplicate content and meta tags on my website? Knowing that invariably I will have multiple pages with same content and tags? Would appreciate your advice? S.H
Reporting & Analytics | | sherohass0