Google showing a Cached option but then giving a 404
-
2 weeks ago my home page plus some others had a 301 redirect to another domain for about 1 week (due to a hack).The original pages were then de-indexed and the new bad domain was indexed and in effect stole my rankings.Then the 301 was removed/cleaned from my domain and the bad domain was fully de-indexed via a request I made (this was 1 week ago).Then my pages came back into the index but without any ranking power.Now when I perform a search for my domain my home page is listed with an option to view the Cache. Clicking on the Cache brings up a 404 error.So why is Google showing the Cached option but doesn't have the cached file? How do I get Google to properly update it's Cache or show a cached copy?
-
Oh wow....it's back!!! For over a week I've been stressing with this and the lost traffic/sales.
Yeehaw I can now enjoy my weekend. Although I still have some forensics to focus on but still, a big relief.
Lynn, I may not have checked again until tomorrow so you definitely made my night. Thank you for bringing it to my attention and for your feedback. Have a good weekend.
-
Hmm, the cache issue is strange, I really have no idea why it is behaving like that.
I can say that from where I am the original site seems to be ranking for keywords that I assume are some of your major ones and if you look at the cached version it shows the site as expected. It is a bit of an odd situation, might be wise to hold on for another week or so and see if rankings/traffic return and the index seems to sort itself out again.
-
Hmmm, yeah that could be it. It's not so much a technical issue but the real problem (and why I'm asking about the cache) is my pages have been re-indexed everyday for the past week although I have yet to see them rank. It's as if the 301 value transfer is still in effect or my pages are now being seen as duplicates and therefore in the supplemental index. Therefore I don't really care about the actual cached page.
Last night I updated my footer to try and force a refresh. I just checked and it's still the same but I just noticed something interesting. For one query for the home page you will see a snippet from cloned domain and the cache will generate a 404. But for another query you will get a snippet from the original domain and the cached page is functional.
So it seems that depending on the query Google will look at previous indexes and show older snippets/caches. Does this make sense?
-
Hi Danny,
I would think the 404 is showing because the last cache of google's was of the site when the 301 was in effect and now that site has been de-indexed (or something along these lines). As long as there are no technical issues still effecting the original site then just be patient, the next time google comes crawling then the cache will be updated and you should be fine. You are probably just about the only one actually looking at the cache anyway!
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 index graph duration in Google Webmaster Tools
Hello guys, I wonder, my sites are currently being indexed every 7 days, exactly. At Index Status page in GWT. However, this new site gets updated almost everyday, how can I ask google to index faster and more frequently/almost daily? Is it about SItemap.xml frequency ? I changed it today to Daily. Thanks!
Technical SEO | | mdmoz0 -
Google Indexing - what did I missed??
Hello, all SEOers~ I just renewed my web site about 3 weeks ago, and in order to preserve SEO values as much as possible, I did 301 redirect, XML Sitemap and so on for minimize the possible data losses. But the problem is that about week later from site renewal, my team some how made mistake and removed all 301 redirects. So now my old site URLs are all gone from Google Indexing and my new site is not getting any index from Google. My traffic and rankings are also gone....OMG I checked Google Webmaster Tool, but it didn't say any special message other than Google bot founds increase of 404 error which is obvious. Also I used "fetch as google bot" from webmaster tool to increase chance to index but it seems like not working much. I am re-doing 301 redirect within today, but I am not sure it means anything anymore. Any advise or opinion?? Thanks in advance~!
Technical SEO | | Yunhee.Choi0 -
Cache Not Working on Our Site
We redesigned our site (www.motivators.com) back in April. Ever since then, we can't view the cache. It loads as a blank, white page but the cache text is at the top saying: "This is Google's cache of http://www.motivators.com/. It is a snapshot of the page as it appeared on Jul 22, 2013 15:50:40 GMT. The current page could have changed in the meantime. Learn more. Tip: To quickly find your search term on this page, press Ctrl+F or ⌘-F (Mac) and use the find bar." Has anyone else ever seen this happen? Any ideas as to why it's happening? Could it be hurting us? Advice, tips, suggestions would be very much appreciated!
Technical SEO | | Motivators0 -
Google webmaster showing 0 indexed, yet I can see them all them Google search?
I can see them all the pages showing up in Google when i search for my site. But in webmaster tools under the sitemaps section in the indexed pages - the red bar is showing 0 indexed pages, even though they seem to be indexed. Any idea why is this showing like this? I don’t really think it’s that important as the pages are still indexed, but it just seems odd. Please see in the image.
Technical SEO | | Perfect0070 -
About google Disavow tool
My website is attacked by spammed link method, so should i use Goolge disavow tool to remove that links? And i have an question that when i use google Disavow to remove backlinks, but i still not remove it on the webpage that placed my links. Does Google index that backlink again? or never?
Technical SEO | | magician0 -
How do i show my link xls file to google?
i have removed lots of links and contacted lots of webmaster to clean up my link profile. I have a large xls file to send to google for them to see that we have done a lot to clean up the bad links. How would i show this file to google? is there a place where I can post it? or email ? thank you nick
Technical SEO | | orion680 -
Will google let me do this
Hi i am working on my site at the moment www.in2town.co.uk and i am adding new sections and was thinking about buying domain names that best describe that section and which people would remember. so for example i am looking at adding a tenerife magazine to my site and would like to know if it would be wise to buy a domain name for example tenerife magazine and then have it directed to the section of my site. would this benefit my site in any way and would google allow this. instead of having in2town.co.uk and then tenerife magazine after it, sorry cannot find the slash as i am on a spanish keyborad at the moment, i would like to have something like tenerifemagazine.co..uk etc If anyone can give me advice on this then that would be great. also can anyone let me know if this is a wise idea or not, to have sub domain names on my main site. i would like to know if i had tenerifemagazine under the in2town domain name would it slow the site down or should i consider building a brand new site just for that and then making people aware that it comes under the in2town umbrella many thanks
Technical SEO | | ClaireH-1848861