Managing 404 errors
-
What is the best way to manage 404 errors for pages that are no longer on the server.
For example, client deletes old site from server and replaces it with new site. Webmaster tools is reporting 100 + 404 errors form the old site. I've blocked the 404 pages with robot.text. Requested removal in google webmaster tools. And created a custom 404 page - http://www.tvsphoto.com/missingurlexample
Is there anything else I can do?
-
Thanks!
I've got one in place
Example:
I fairly sure its set up correctly
-
If possible you can list pages that have similar URLs on your 404 page. Some CMSs can help you do this. WordPress certainly comes to mind.
-
Also, be sure to have a user friendly 404 page. 404 is unavoidable due to typos, silliness and random acts of God, so it's always wise to have a highly functional page as a catchall for anything that you can't 301 redirect.
Examples
http://www.apple.com/gljasdlj
http://pages.ebay.com/gljasdlj
http://www.cnn.com/gljasdlj -
Thank again Barry, Very Helpful!
-
301 redirect them to their new page location.
EDIT: To clarify, there are probably some links coming in to those pages or there are new page equivilents that could better serve customers.
If there's definitely no match then I'd still consider redirecting them to the home page (or even a custom landing page, rather than the custom 404 page) to preserve as much link juice as possible.
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
-
Href Lang Errors
Hi Im getting href lang errors in my site audit for having no self referntial tags. I can't see anything wrong? Can anyone enlighten me 🙂 From this page ** http://www.key.co.uk/en/key/0-4-tonne-wll-6mm-single-leg-wire-rope-sling-580a078n**
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | BeckyKey0 -
Does non-critical AMP errors prevent you from being featured on Top Stories Carousel?
Consider site A which is a news publishing site that has valid AMP pages with non-critical AMP pages (as notified within Search Console). Also, Site A publishes news articles from site B (its partner site) and posts it on site A which have AMP pages too but most of them are not valid AMP pages with critical AMP errors. For brand terms like Economic Times, it does show a top stories carousel for all articles published by Economic Times, however it doesn't look the same for site A (inspite of it having valid AMP pages). Image link: http://tinypic.com/r/219bh9j/9 Now that there are valid AMP pages from site A and invalid AMP pages from site B on site A, there have been instances wherein a news article from site A features on the top stories carousel on Desktop for a certain query whereas it doesn't feature on the mobile SERPs in spite of the page being a valid AMP page. For example, as mentioned in the screenshot below: Business Today ranks on the Top Stories carousel for a term like “jio news” on Desktop, but on Mobile although the page is a valid AMP page, it doesn’t show as an AMP page within the Top Stories Carousel. Image Link: http://tinypic.com/r/11sc8j6/9 There have been some cases where although the page is featured on the top carousel on desktop, the same article doesn't show up on the mobile version for the same query on the Top Stories Carousel. What could be the reason behind this? Also, would it be necessary to solve both critical and non-critical errors on site A (including those published from site B on site A)?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Starcom_Search1 -
URL Errors in webmaster tools to pages that don't exist?
Hello, for sometime now we have URLs showing up in Google webmaster saying these are 404 errors but don't exist on our website.......but also never have? Heres an example cosmetic-dentistry/28yearold-southport-dentist-wins-best-young-dentist-award/801530293 The root being this goo.gl/vi4N4F Really confused about this? We have recently made our website wordpress? Thanks Ade
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | popcreativeltd0 -
Google Seeing 301 as 404
Hi all, We recently migrated a few small sites into one larger site and generally we had no problems. We read a lot of blogs before hand, 301'd the old links etc and we've been keeping an eye on any 404s. What we have found is that Webmaster is picking up quite a few 404s, yet when we investigate these 404s they are 301'd and work fine. This isn't for every url, but Google is finding more and I just want to catch any problems before they get out of hand. Is there any reason why Google would count a 301 as a 404? Thanks!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | HB170 -
Taking Back Google+ Page Managed By Advertiser
The Google+ Page that appears under local listings in Google for a company I work for, was setup by an advertiser, such as Yellow Pages. I'm not sure how they got control of it, but apparently somebody at this agency set it up, and verified the url. The G+ page is now outdated, and needs to be updated. More importantly, I have to manage the page, and not this third party. I sent a request to Google to transfer ownership. My question is, has anybody had any luck in getting control of a Google+ page which was setup by the wrong party, back? As a backup, I've initiated a plan of creating a new Google+ page with the account info from the WMT's account of the url. I figure, that might have more authority than a page erroneously setup by a third party. My hope is it would eventually replace the Google+ page the currently shows in local returns. Any thoughts or comment would be appreciated.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | alrockn0 -
Error: Missing required field "updated"
In my WordPress blog, there are pages for tags,categories,... like : https://www.abc.com/blog/category/how-to-cook-something/ On these pages I am getting the following error: Error: Missing required field "updated" So far I have 39 if these errors. Please let me know if this is an important issue to pay attention to? If yes, how I can fix it? Thanks Everyone
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | AlirezaHamidian0 -
Search instead of 404 - Vtex Brazil
Vtex in one of the best e-commerce in Brazil and I´ve just find out they transform any 404 page in a search page. Polishop ( http://www.polishop.com.br/ ) is one of their clientes and if you try to search any page it will never return a 404 error because convert any url in a search. Example: http://www.polishop.com.br/12345678 - 200: HTTP/1.1 200 OK ( it does not return a 404 code) I´m a little bit confused if this good or not... what do you think moz experts?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | SeoMartin10 -
Question regarding error url while checking in open-site explorer tool
Hello friends, My website home url & inner page url shows error while checking the open-site site explorer tool from SEOMoz, for a website** eg.www.abc.com website as**
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | zco_seo
**"Oh Hey! It looks like that URL redirects to www.abc.com/error.aspx?aspxerrorpath=/default.aspx. Would you like to see data for that URL instead?"**May I know the reason, why this url showing this result while checking back link report from the tool?**May I know on what basis this tool is evaluating the website url as well?****May I know, Will this affect the Google SERPs for this website?**Thanks0