Can a page be penalised by Google but not the entire site?
-
I have recently given some content to another site for a link. When I originally checked the site, it was indexed by Google and seemed ok. However, when I tried to check that the catergory page that my content was posted on was indexed, I received and error message from Google, however the homepage is still being indexed by Google. Is that the sign of a penalty or not?
-
All is fine then. Category pages are very often noindexed to reduce duplication issues, so really don't worry about this. It certainly doesn't sound like there are any penalties going on there.
That said, do a little social activity around your post as well and get it promoted.
-Andy
-
It does say noindex, follow
When I tried to check if it was indexed that way, it didn't return any results
-
Have a look in the header of the category page and see if it says "noindex, follow".
A simple way to check if a page is indexed, is to type site:www.siteurl.com/category or whatever the URL to the category page is.
The 404 might just mean the page wasn't available when it was crawled, but I wouldn't worry about it too much. The main thing is the page with your content on is indexed.
-Andy
-
I can access the category page on their website.
However, when I go to Google and type the cache:..... it returns a 404 error.
-
Yes, the common thing to do here is noindex the page but leave is set to Follow.
That said, you shouldn't get a 404 unless the page actually doesn't exist. Can you browse to the category on their website?
-
I'm just getting that 'Error 404 (not found)' page with the picture of the broken robot.
They may have just no-indexed the category pages, I didn't know that was possible.
-
What was the error message you got back from Google, Brian?
It is possible for Google to only index parts of a site that are considered worthwhile, but are you sure they haven't just no-indexed the category pages on the site? This is quite common.
-Andy
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
-
In Google search console all of sudden a lot of backlinks have disappear at "Link To Your Site"
Hi after update in Google search console yesterday a lot of backlinks in "Link To Your Site" have disappear, before we had 43x domains now we have 12x domains linking to the site. I have checked the sites where we had link do-follow before and they are OK. Can you please tell me the reason what has gone wrong. And also please guide me in fixing the issue , Hope to hear from you soon..! URL: https://www.finanstopp.no/
Link Building | | heleneolsen3 -
How can I find the best sites to guest post on while linking back to my article?
Whats the best way to find sites to guest blog on. There are just so many and I don't want to make bad choices so my current rankings don't get hurt
Link Building | | aronwp0 -
Best way to set up a support site - sub domain, separate site or com/support?
My company is setting up our support site. It has been suggested that we set it up as a separate domain - www.company-support.com, rather than setting it up as a sub-domain (www.support.company.com) or the usual www.company.com/support. The person who proposed this believes it wlll create link juice, but i wonder if splitting the traffic will create more harm than good? Opinions please!
Link Building | | googilvie0 -
Google Link Disavow and sites with extremely heavy but poor link metrics
Need help/opinions from the SEO's out there. I am working with a site that in the past hired an SEO company out of India. Over the course of their time together, this company submitted the clients url to tens of thousands of link exchanges and directories. Around the time of Penguin, the owners told me their inquiries dried up. Literally that same week they had a new website launched (designed by a local competitor) that really butchered the site. They were convinced the reduction in traffic/inquiries was due to the new site but I am convinced otherwise (suspect Penguin). Not only does the site need to be re-structured but their link portfolio needs to be diversified. Now on the plus side, the company caters and sponsors a number of events that earns them organic, relevant links. These are overshadowed by the tons of poor, irrelevant ones though. I read a few posts recently on the Google Link Disavow tool and to proceed slowly due to the unknown nature surrounding it. I have a good idea of what links are problematic and which ones are well served. However, the number of problematic links in my estimation is quite high (thousands). I am very hesitant to dive into Google Disavow and submit such a large number of requests. What are your thoughts? How would you proceed?
Link Building | | mattylac1 -
Targeting high Page Authority sites vs high Pagerank sites for backlinks?
For many years I've been working on seo/backlinks for my website. When doing analysis in opensiteexplorer I notice that the highest listed backlinks for my site are sites with high page authority and domain authority, rather than pagerank. For example one of the highest backlinks for my website has page authority/domain authority of 72/96 but the site itself is only a PR2, while my other backlinks have PR4, 5, or 6 with lower page authority. For a while I've been trying to partner with websites for backlinks from high pagerank sites, as I've always believed this is the #1 metric in relaying link juice. But OSE's metrics seem to not follow that train of thought -- it believes page authority/domain authority is a more important measure. Is it? Should I change my strategy to try to partner with websites that have high page authority rather than focusing so much on pagerank?
Link Building | | DiamondJewelryEmpire0 -
Are Links from an article site with a pr5 valuable when the article page itself has no PR
This article site has a PR5 my article with author bio here, has no PR http://goarticles.com/article/A-Guide-to-an-At-Home-Spray-on-Tan/6531453/ Is this type of link of any value ? Thank you in advance, Joe
Link Building | | jlane90 -
Discrepancy in Site Metrics
I site I've been working on has been up since early January. The domain was not new, but no site or links existed prior. Link building finished 2 months ago. There are about 80 fairly high quality links mostly from unique domains, and the site has been doing well with search engines for some time. OSE lists only 24 of these domains (for all pages on the root domain). OSE stats hardly changed in the last update so here's my question: when will OSE data reflect the current reality?
Link Building | | waynekolenchuk0 -
Is there a cost per acuqistion figure I can quote that if I hire an agency to link build that we can guarantee a level of increased traffic from Google?
I am looking to justify to a pubilsher the cost outlay to hire an agency to do white hat link building for me as we do not have time. (the site is fully optimised but we lack the inbound links our competitors have) - is there a way I can explain in terms of numbers ie page impressions that if we build for eg 10k high quality anchor text links into our site we will get x thousand more page impressions as our rankings in the search engines will increase? Just need a justification before the budget is allocated.
Link Building | | Pday0