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
-
Moz and HubSpot SSL - crawl error?
I'm getting an error message when Moz tries to crawl my site, however when I check in Google Search Console, they return no errors. Our site is hosted on HubSpot. Is Moz still having trouble crawling HubSpot sites that have enabled their SSL? I read an article that this should have been corrected in early 2017, but I'm getting an error.
Moz Pro | | jennygriffin0 -
Magento: Moz finding URL and URL?p=1 as duplicate. Solution?
Good day Mozzers! Moz bot is finding URL's in the Catalogue pages with the format www.example.com/something and www.example.com/something?p=1 as duplicate (since they are the same page) Whats the best solution to implement here? Canonical? Any other? Cheers! MozAddict
Moz Pro | | MozAddict0 -
5XX (Server Error) on all urls
Hi I created a couple of new campaigns a few days back and waited for the initial crawl to be completed. I have just checked and both are reporting 5XX (Server Error) on all the pages it tried to look at (one site I have 110 of these and the other it only crawled the homepage). This is very odd, I have checked both sites on my local pc, alternative pc and via my windows vps browser which is located in the US (I am in UK) and it all works fine. Any idea what could be the cause of this failure to crawl? I have pasted a few examples from the report | 500 : TimeoutError http://everythingforthegirl.co.uk/index.php/accessories.html 500 1 0 500 : Error http://everythingforthegirl.co.uk/index.php/accessories/bags.html 500 1 0 500 : Error http://everythingforthegirl.co.uk/index.php/accessories/gloves.html 500 1 0 500 : Error http://everythingforthegirl.co.uk/index.php/accessories/purses.html 500 1 0 500 : TimeoutError http://everythingforthegirl.co.uk/index.php/accessories/sunglasses.html | 500 | 1 | 0 | Am extra puzzled why the messages say time out. The server dedicated is 8 core with 32 gb of ram, the pages ping for me in about 1.2 seconds. What is the rogerbot crawler timeout? Many thanks Carl
Moz Pro | | GrumpyCarl0 -
Can someone explain the attached on page error message?
Two weeks ago, I took down our mobile site and switched to one on dudamobile. However, for some reason, I keep getting this error/improvement message on my on page report. I do not see how I can have a cannocial problem with a page that is no longer there. Can someone explain that and what I can do about it? Thanks! eQTNRD6.png
Moz Pro | | KempRugeLawGroup0 -
Why don't Google+ URL's work in OSE?
Is there any reason why Google+ URLs does not work in OSE? Is it just that it is a secure URL or is there something bigger there? Why? Be cool to determine every website the person has been published on; especially if it is rel="author" verified. Jeff
Moz Pro | | WebBizIdeas1 -
Garbled URL's in Private Messages.
Every time I try to put a url in a Private message it gets garbled up with extra chars and then won't go to the right place. http://www.facebook.com/pages/Mariah-Carle-Photography Becomes: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Mariah58973jhsdfui-Carle%8594743Photography Ok after that test I deliberately garbled a url and it STILL work in the open forums....
Moz Pro | | Mcarle0 -
Www. part of url not showing on google search results.
When typing in fun translator into google UK, my website www.funtranslator.com is the 18th result on the 2nd page, however, there is an issue, it only shows funtranslator.com, without the www part, which is not what I want because the whole address to show up, because my campaign on seomoz pro and webmaster tools account is www.funtranslator.com not funtranslator.com. How can I resolve this. For not, I have a redirect that goes from funtranslator to www.funtranslator.com I want to know how to get the full www.url into the results instead of just url.com without the www part of the url. Also, will this affect my stats gathered in my campaign on my seomoz pro account?
Moz Pro | | RyanSMurphy1