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Bad links in Webmaster Tools Diagnostics

Discussion in 'Google Sitemaps' started by pcinfoman, Sep 29, 2006.

  1. #1
    I added a sitemap.xml to Google's WebMaster tools site and it accepted it just fine. Now I goto the Diagnostic and it says I have 284 "Not Found" errors. I double checked the xml file and there are no errors in it. I looked at the urls it said it could not find and they are from very old files and folders that do not exist anymore. I have nothing on my site that is even referring to them.

    How do I get this resolved. ideas?
     
    pcinfoman, Sep 29, 2006 IP
  2. Doken

    Doken Peon

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    #2
    What software you use for make the sitemap.xml? a program as CoffeCup SiteMapper for make the sitemap.xml can help you to found the errors.
     
    Doken, Sep 30, 2006 IP
  3. pcinfoman

    pcinfoman Well-Known Member

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    #3
    I used windows notpad. It is just a text file afterall. I double checked the xml file. There are no errors in it. Google os referring to urls that are not in the xml file. How is it doing that?
     
    pcinfoman, Sep 30, 2006 IP
  4. Vanessa Fox

    Vanessa Fox Peon

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    #4
    The crawl errors under the Diagnostic tab show any errors Googlebot had crawling your site -- not just pages listed in your Sitemap. In this case, the 404 errors are likely caused by other sites linking to those pages. Since they are pages that used to exist but don't anymore, there are probably sites out there that linked to them when they did exist and never updated/removed the links when you changed your site. Googlebot has followed those links to your site and gotten 404s.

    You have a few options.

    -You can safely ignore them (most sites have a few 404 errors, since the web is a big, ever-changing place and it's difficult to make sure all external links to your site remain accurate over time)

    -You can search your site and make sure you don't have any internal broken links.

    -You can check the sites that link to you and try to get those with outdated links to update them.

    -You can implement 301 redirects from the 404 pages to current pages on your site (pages with similar content or perhaps a custom page with links to your most popular pages). This would help visitors who follow those outdated links from other sites.
     
    Vanessa Fox, Sep 30, 2006 IP
  5. 2mob.net

    2mob.net Peon

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    #5
    Use any text editor. Learn the syntax, it has only few fields.
    That is the best way to submit. If you rely on tools, if they screw up
    your site could be dropped from the index. It would be a costly mistake.
     
    2mob.net, Oct 1, 2006 IP