Huge uptick in 404s on new website
-
I just launched a new website, and I see that the 404s shot up hugely in Google Webmaster Tools right during the launch. We went from Drupal to WordPress, but I was wondering if anyone has any thoughts on whether these 404s represent a crisis, or potentially something harmless? There has been no noticeable SEO downtick in terms of keywords or queries during the same period...
Thanks for any thoughts.
-
Christy: I think that the answers have been helpful, but the jury is still out. I'm taking advice from both Patrick and Toby's input, and I'll update this space as soon as I see some changes.
The one question that I don't see answered is: are these 404s definitely harming the website's SEO, assuming that they are NOT being visited by users? I'd love to know what people think on that.
-
Hi there, thanks for your question! You've received some good responses. Did any of them help resolve you resolve your issue? We'd love an update, thanks!
Christy
-
"We went from Drupal to WordPress"
That seems like a very backwards move to me, that should be the other way around
(My personal opinion anyway)On the 404s though, any URL changes will cause problems, you will need to add in redirects to deal with those.
On a drupal specific note, if your old site was using the 'URL Redirect' module, you may have had a number of redirects in place in the database, these wouldn't have been in your .htaccess file and will no longer work after moving to wordpress.
-
Hi there
Did you change URLs at all? Did you check your URL mapping before launching the site? Take a look at your sitemap (then submit to Google and Bing Webmaster Tools) and internal links as well to see if there are any issues.
Take a look at this guide from Moz as well on a site migration. This will be a huge help.
Let me know if you have any questions or comments! Good luck!
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
-
Measuring the size of a competitors website?
I think our website is too big, far too many indexed pages. I'd like to do some research on how big our competitors' websites are (how many indexed pages). Is there a way to do this? Cheers, Rhys
Technical SEO | | SwanseaMedicine0 -
301 redirection for e-commerce website
Hi moz community, I am the web agency for a e-commerce website. Its current domain is https://www.liquorland.co.nz but now all the e-commerce part will be moved to a sub-domain https://shop.liquorland.co.nz. There are thousands of e-commerce current being indexed in Google (i.e., 15,500) plus they also have a mobile version of the page like /mobile/default.aspx. Is it necessary to 301 redirect all the pages? We are afraid it may slow down the website because the request will go through thousands of filters. Is it OK to just redirect the main categories? Many thanks in advance.
Technical SEO | | russellbrown0 -
Consolidate Multiple Sites Into Brand Website
Hi Moz Community, I am looking for some advice and/or guidance on consolidating multiple sites into the brand website. At the moment, we have our brand website as well as keyword matching/topic matching websites for each service. (Note: We're a professional services firm). The service websites do rank well for their keywords, but it's my hope that the single brand website will create a more unified presence on search. We have just about completed our re-design (consolidating the service websites into the brand website), but before going live, I wanted to reach out to the Moz communtiy to seek advice on things like 301 redirects, submitting sitemaps, etc. This is the first time I am consolidating existing websites into an existing website, so it's a little daunting. Thanks Tim
Technical SEO | | AinsleyAgency0 -
Website analysis for SEO
Hi, We have been trying to gain ranking for 7 keywords for a year now but have been unsuccessful We are not sure where we are going wrong, if someone could please help us out, we are happy to pay for your time.
Technical SEO | | mframing0 -
Google no longer is promoting my website!
My traffic just fell off the cliff and I can not figure out what has happened! Help!
Technical SEO | | PatriciaBeth0 -
As a wholesale website can our independent retailer's website use (copy) our content?
As a wholesaler of villa rentals, we have descriptions, images, prices etc can our agents (independent retailers) use the content from our website for their site or will this penalize us or them in Google rankings?
Technical SEO | | ewanTHH0 -
403 forbidden error website
Hi Mozzers, I got a question about new website from a new costumer http://www.eindexamensite.nl/. There is a 403 forbidden error on it, and I can't find what the problem is. I have checked on: http://gsitecrawler.com/tools/Server-Status.aspx
Technical SEO | | MaartenvandenBos
result:
URL=http://www.eindexamensite.nl/ **Result code: 403 (Forbidden / Forbidden)** When I delete the .htaccess from the server there is a 200 OK :-). So it is in the .htaccess. .htaccess code: ErrorDocument 404 /error.html RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule ^home$ / [L]
RewriteRule ^typo3$ - [L]
RewriteRule ^typo3/.$ - [L]
RewriteRule ^uploads/.$ - [L]
RewriteRule ^fileadmin/.$ - [L]
RewriteRule ^typo3conf/.$ - [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-l
RewriteRule .* index.php Start rewrites for Static file caching RewriteRule ^(typo3|typo3temp|typo3conf|t3lib|tslib|fileadmin|uploads|screens|showpic.php)/ - [L]
RewriteRule ^home$ / [L] Don't pull *.xml, *.css etc. from the cache RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !^..xml$
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !^..css$
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !^.*.php$ Check for Ctrl Shift reload RewriteCond %{HTTP:Pragma} !no-cache
RewriteCond %{HTTP:Cache-Control} !no-cache NO backend user is logged in. RewriteCond %{HTTP_COOKIE} !be_typo_user [NC] NO frontend user is logged in. RewriteCond %{HTTP_COOKIE} !nc_staticfilecache [NC] We only redirect GET requests RewriteCond %{REQUEST_METHOD} GET We only redirect URI's without query strings RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} ^$ We only redirect if a cache file actually exists RewriteCond %{DOCUMENT_ROOT}/typo3temp/tx_ncstaticfilecache/%{HTTP_HOST}/%{REQUEST_URI}/index.html -f
RewriteRule .* typo3temp/tx_ncstaticfilecache/%{HTTP_HOST}/%{REQUEST_URI}/index.html [L] End static file caching DirectoryIndex index.html CMS is typo3. any ideas? Thanks!
Maarten0 -
Why is my website banned?
IMy website is Costume Machine at www.costumemachine.com . My site has been banned for 1 year now. I have requested that google reconsider my site 3 times without luck. The site is dynamic and basically pulls in feeds from affiliate sites. We have added over 1,500 pages of original content. The site has been running great since 2008 without any penalties. I don't think I got hit with any linking penalty. I cleaned up all questionable links last November when the penalty hit. Am I being hit with a "thin" site penalty? If that is the issue what is the best way to fix the problem?
Technical SEO | | tadden0