4xx (not found) errors seem spurious, caused by a "\" added to the URL
-
Hi SEOmoz folks
We're getting a lot of 404 (not found) errors in our weekly crawl.
However the weird thing is that the URLs in question all have the same issue.
They are all a valid URL with a backsalsh ("") added. In URL encoding, this is an extra %5C at the end of the URL.
Even weirder, we do not have any such URLs in our (Wordpress-based) website.
Any insight on how to get rid of this issue?
Thanks
-
No, Google Webmaster tools do not list an error here.
Its indeed an SEOmoz bug. Ryan, thanks for trying though!
-
My request is for a real link that I can click on and view the page.
In most cases where someone described an issue to me, either a key piece of information was left out or missed. If you cannot share that information, I understand. In the interest of being helpful, I wanted to ask.
It is entirely possible this is a crawler issue, but it is also possible the crawler is functioning perfectly and Google's crawler will produce the same result. That is my concern.
-
Well actualy I did already. The example I gave above is exactly that, only I replaced the real URL with "URL".
In a bit greater detail, the referring page is actually URL1 and this page contains the javascript
item = '
- text';
which produces 404 errors for URL2 in the SEOmoz crawl report.
-
It is entirely possible the issue is with the SEOmoz crawler. I would like to see it improved as well.
I am concerned the root issue may actually be with your site. Would you be willing to share an example of a link which is flagged in your report along with the referring page?
-
Thanks for the tips. After drilling down on the referer, this looks like an SEOmoz bug.
We are using a wordpress plugin called "collapsing archives" which creates LEGAL archive links with a javascript snippet like this:
item = '
- text';
As you can see this is totally legal javascript. But it seems SEOmoz is scanning the javascript without interpretation and picking up the escaped quotation mark ' after the URL and interpreting it as an additional \ at the end of the URL.
Since the plugin is behaving legally and works well - we want to keep using it. What's the chance that SEOmoz will fix the bug?
-
Many people do not realize when you add the backslash character, you change the URL. You can actually present a different web page for the URL with the trailing slash.
A popular cause of the problem is linking. If you check your weekly crawl report, there will be a column called Referrer. That is the source of the link. Check the referring page and find the link. Fix the link (i.e. remove the trailing slash) and the problem will go away on the next crawl. Of course, you want to determine how the link appeared and ensure it doesn't happen again.
-
If I had to have a guess I'd look into any javascript on the page that is perhaps adding or pointing to the URL with backslash.
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
-
Page Title "Untitled Document" with mozbar
Hi, I'm working on a big news website (in tourism) and, when checking my homepage with mozbar, I often get: "My Title • Untitled Document" - 69 characters With no apparent reason, If I refresh the page or simply visit it later, it could randomly switch to the "normal" title: "My Title" - 44 characters It looks like completely random to me, like something more is loaded in the first case. I've checked my source code of course, and <title>tag seems to be ok with no other <title> even when I get the "untitled document".</p> <p>I have no idea about that. I don't know if that can be a useful info, but I was trying to understand why the majority of my main keywords searches are only showing other pages (I can rarely find my homepage) even though my home looks correctly indexes and shows as first result for every site: research.<br /><br />Hope everything's is clear....any idea or suggestions?<br /><br />Thank you in advance.</p> <p> </p></title>
Moz Pro | | Daniele_Carollo0 -
Keyword analysis - error with difficulty %
Hello everyone! Edge of all, I like and I use very often the "Keyword analysis" tool . However, recently, I have some difficulty to rely on the difficulty % of the keywords I've added. As an example I entered as keywords for a french speaking client, words with a geographical reference. It gives me a percentage too high because I am almost convinced that it would probably not be difficult to work with. My question is: is there any known errors with keywords georeferenced French (google canada - english) and also what to trust when I want proof of the difficulty of a keyword in case of some errors may occur in the tool.
Moz Pro | | PTech-1885830 -
Duplicate content error?
I am seeing an error for duplicate content for the following pages: http://www.bluelinkerp.com/contact/ http://www.bluelinkerp.com/contact/index.asp Doesn't the first URL just automatically redirect to the default page in that directory (index.asp)? Why is it showing up as separate duplicate pages?
Moz Pro | | BlueLinkERP0 -
Okay how do I fix this cannibalization error?
Okay so check it out. I already have the problem where my main page shows 3 of my posts of 3 popular posts and the SEOmoz optimization tool tells my there are like 60 keyword occurances? for the damn page so I had to make it look damn ugly for my views and lowered it to 1 post and 2 popular posts. Can I fix that? Another thing - The SEOMOZ tool keeps telling me I have this cannibalization crap on all my posts because my homepage in the upper left corner has the keyword in it and in the footer of the template, my homepage title shows up (Keyword). What the heck do I do to fix this? And also another question - I have my main page AND 1 of my posts ranking for the same keyword. Is there a problem?
Moz Pro | | 6786486312640 -
404 errors in SEOMoz crawl tool
I currently have several 404 errors in the latest crawls from SEOMoz. Here is an example of the error. http://dealerplatform.com/blog/2011/10/23/videos-for-auto-dealers/www.dealerplatform.com/ In all cases the error is a result of www.dealerplatform.com being added to the real url. Anyone seen this before? The site is a wordpress mutlisite. I don't see where this incorrect link is showing up anywhere on the website. Any advice would be helpful. Thanks
Moz Pro | | Chris_Gregory0 -
404 Page/Content Duplicates & its "Warning"
My website has MANY duplicate pages and content which are both derived from the MANY 404 pages on my website. While these are flagged in SEOmoz as "Warnings," should this be of concern to SEO effectiveness?
Moz Pro | | dhk50180 -
Why is blocking the SEOmoz crawler considered a red "error?"
Why is blocking the SEOmoz crawler considered a red "error?" Please see attached image... Y3Vay.png
Moz Pro | | vkernel0