404s in GWT - Not sure how they are being found
-
We have been getting multiple 404 errors in GWT that look like this: http://www.example.com/UpdateCart.
The problem is that this is not a URL that is part of our structure, it is only a piece. The actual URL has a query string on the end, so if you take the query string off, the page does not work.
I can't figure out how Google is finding these pages. Could it be removing the query string?
Thanks.
-
Kelli - the first thing I thought was what garfield_disliker asks: have you set up Google Webmaster Tools to ignore these parameters that are important for the cart page to load?
That said, Google Webmaster Tools is run by a team that's separate from the primary search team, so it's possible that GWT is flagging an issue that isn't an actual issue for Google. Run a search in Google for "site:yourdomain.com/UpdateCart" and see what URLs Google has indexed. If they have that 404ing URL, that's not good. If they have correct URLs, it's possible that this is a Google Webmaster Tools thing.
-
Hi,
Are you using the /updateCart url in goal tracking or pushing events to analytics using this url? I have seen GWT pick up 404's from us pushing virtual (non existing) page views to analytics for goal tracking etc. Just a thought.
-
First, you can never be sure there are no external links. Open Site Explorer's index (and any other link analysis tool) is not a full picture, and Google doesn't always provide all the inbound links to your site. The junkier the scraper, the less likely you will see the link.
Secondly, could you provide a concrete example of this?
Where is the page (with parameters) linked from/to on your site? How is your site appending those parameters to the URL? Does it send users through a redirect to get to that URL? It might be useful to run your own crawl (w/ Screaming Frog or any other crawling software) of the site and take a look at all the internal links and the response codes.
Also have you set up Google WMT to ignore any parameters?
It's certainly possible that Google's crawlers are stripping parameters on their own.
-
We do not dynamically inject canonicals into the page. They are also not old URLs because they have never been valid URLs.
They are all linked from internal pages, but when I look at those pages, the URL with the query string is the only URL that is being pointed to, not the partial URL. There are no external links.
Thanks,
Kelli -
In WMT click on the URL that is 404'd and then select "linked to from". It will show you where Google is picking up the 404 error.
Are these 404 pages being linked to from an external site? Sometimes the 404s that appear in WMT are from links pointing to your domain from an external site, often one that has scraped your site.
-
Does your website dynamically inject canonical links into the page? Some content management systems will automatically generate canonicals that strip parameters from the URL. If that's the case then that might be why you wouldn't see it in your ordinary site structure.
It's also possible that it's an old URL that Google indexed which is no longer on your site or something that is linked externally somewhere, so the crawlers are finding it somewhere off site.
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
-
My posts are ignored by google not sure why
I have been investigating this problem for some time now and there must be a technical problem. My posts seem to be ignored by google. For example, if i put this title of my article in google, other sites come up instead of my website Lincolnshire Caravan Owners Struggle To Compete With Haven https://www.in2town.co.uk/skegness-news/lincolnshire-caravan-owners-struggle-to-compete-with-haven/ I am trying to find out what technical problem I have that is stopping google displaying my post. Can anyone advise me on what tools to use and how to find out what is going wrong
Technical SEO | | headlinesplus0 -
Internal link is creating duplicate content issues and generating 404s from website crawl.
Not sure what the best way to describe it but the site is built with Elementor page builder. We are finding out that a feature that is included with a pop modal window renders an HTML code as so: Click So when crawled I think the crawling is linking itself for some reason so the crawl returns something like this: xyz.com/builder/listing/ - what we want what we don't want xyz.com/builder/listing/ xyz.com/builder/listing/%23elementor-action%3Aaction%3Dpopup%3Aopen%26settings%3DeyJpZCI6Ijc2MCIsInRvZ2dsZSI6ZmFsc2V9/ xyz.com/builder/listing/%23elementor-action%3Aaction%3Dpopup%3Aopen%26settings%3DeyJpZCI6Ijc2MCIsInRvZ2dsZSI6ZmFsc2V9//%23elementor-action%3Aaction%3Dpopup%3Aopen%26settings%3DeyJpZCI6Ijc2MCIsInRvZ2dsZSI6ZmFsc2V9/ so you'll notice how that string in the HREF is appended each time and it loops a couple times. Could I 301 this issue, what's the best way to go about handling something like this? It's causing duplicate meta descriptions/content errors for some listing pages we have. I did add a rel='nofollow' to the anchor tag with JavaScript but not sure if that'll help.
Technical SEO | | JoseG-LP0 -
False Soft 404s, Shadow Bans, and Old User Generated Content
What are the best ways to keep old user generated content (UGC) pages from being falsely flagged by Google as soft 404s? I have tried HTML site maps to make sure no page is an orphaned but that has not solved the problem. Could crawled currently not indexed by explained by a shadow ban from Google? I have had problems with Google removing pages from SERPs without telling me about it. It looks like a lot of content is not ranking due to its age. How can one go about refreshing UGC without changing the work of the user?
Technical SEO | | STDCarriers0 -
GWT Fetch & Render displays desktop version of site as mobile
Hi team, I noticed that when I request a desktop rendering in GWT using fetch and render, pages render as the mobile version. Screenshot attached. It's related to the VHS units in our CSS (as far as I'm aware). Does anyone know what the implications of this may be? Does it mean googlebot can only see the mobile version of our website? Any help is appreciated. Jake jgScJ
Technical SEO | | Jacobsheehan0 -
Spammy 404s: Should I Worry?
One of my sites is getting a ton of spammy 404s with porno-like URLs. All of these 404s are linked from other sites that I assume also got hacked, and when I click on them, they are also 404s. So I'm assuming some spam site is tricking the Googlebot into thinking these URLs exist. But is this going to affect my site & SEO directly? Is it worth disavowing all of the sites linking to me? Is Google even considering these real links? Did these pages ever actually exist anywhere? Don't have a hacker-brain whatsoever so I need some enlightening. I've been told I shouldn't worry but it seems like something I should worry about...Any help is greatly appreciated 🙂 (I've updated to the newest Wordpress and Sucuri).
Technical SEO | | FSCInteractiveLLC0 -
Linking Pages - 404s
Hello, I have noticed that we have recently managed to accrue a large number of 404s that are listed as Page Title/URL of Linking Page in Moz (e.g. http://www.onexamination.com/international/) but I do not know which site they are coming from, is there an easy why to find out or shall we just create redirects for them all? Thanks in advance for your help. Rose
Technical SEO | | bmjcai1 -
Not sure to see the real value of SeoMoz!
Still one week left for my trial. I did not get the result I wanted to have on my ranking, I know it takes time and patience to get there. Even if I consider myself as tech savvy, I have the impression that even if you have the best tools to monitor what is going on that you still have to spend to much time to get better ranking. I would prefer to give the contract to someone else rather than spending time trying to figure out what is going on. I am in some sort of a catch22. I need to increase my ranking, I know my competitors have more backlinks then I can possibly reach ( we have 55 and they have around to 78000). I am wondering how they got all these backlinks in just 2 years. We've been in business much longer.. I could confirmed that my On-page SEO is very good, it's really on my backlinks that I have problems. I see already some of you saying that I have to create rich content, but for a B2B companiy, it's not as easy to generate the proper content and get the backlinks needed. Is there a very quick way to increase backlinks very quickly ?
Technical SEO | | processia0 -
Google webmasters shows 37K not found errors
Hello we are using Joomla as our cms, months ago we used a component to create friendly urls, lots of them got indexed by google, testing the component we created three different types of URL, the problem now is that all of this tests are showing in google webmasters as 404 errors, 37,309 not found pages and this number is increasing everyday. What do you suggest to fix this?? Regards.
Technical SEO | | Zertuxte0