Should we redirect 404 errrors seen in webmaster tools with ... (dot.dot,dot) ?
-
Lately I have seen lots of 404 errors showing in webmaster tools that are not really links. Many of them from shammy pages. (I did not put them there)
One of the most common types is ones that show the link ending in ... ( dot, dot, dot)
The appearance of the link is being sent from pages like this
http://www.the-pick.com/00_fahrenheit,2.html
For example a link like this would show up in webmaster tools as a 404 error.
http://www.ehow.com/how_2352088_easily-...
Are these worth redirecting? So far I have redirected some of them and found that is was not helpful and possibly harmful. Anyone else had the same experience?
Also getting lots of partial urls showing up from pages that reference my site but the url is cut off and the link is not active.
Does Google really count these as links? Is redirecting a link from a spammy page acknowledging acceptance and could it count against you?
-
I'd say do your best to get the links removed/fixed at the other end but other than that just leave it.
So long as you're returning a proper 404 you're doing the right thing (on paper).
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
-
Redirect By IP location
Hi All, I have a client who operates in multiple countries with the sub directory structure. In AU for their main brand name .com site still ranks in the first position but /au ranks for most of the other terms. Current we have a 301 redirect in place for .com for anyone accessing the site from AU to /au. This is only for home pages as other .com pages don't rank in Australia. Just wondering what implication this can have on our SEO campaign. Cheers
Technical SEO | | SSP21
Thank you for your expertise and insights in advance.1 -
How do I fix a 404 redirect chain
How do I fix a 404 redirect chain? I can't seem to find the answer and I'm worried about it effecting my SEO. Any help would be great!
Technical SEO | | sammecooper0 -
Sitemap error in Webmaster tools - 409 error (conflict)
Hey guys, I'm getting this weird error when I submit my sitemap to Google. It says I'm getting a 409 error in my post-sitemap.xml file (https://cleargear.com/post-sitemap.xml). But when I check it, it looks totally fine. I am using YoastSEO to generate the sitemap.xml file. Has anyone else experienced this? Is this a big deal? If so, Does anyone know how to fix? Thanks EwTswL4
Technical SEO | | Extima-Christian0 -
Does 404 hurts my website.?
Does 404 hurts my website.? My website reporting 404 crawl errors on pages that have never been part of the website. Site showing lot of 404 errors and all errors from Blog.We didn't create any pages .Automatically pages are created and showing 404 (Not Found) error response..Please any one help me to identify those issues.?
Technical SEO | | nlogix0 -
CNAME vs 301 redirect
Hi all, Recently I created a website for a new client and my next job is trying to get them higher in Google. I added them in OSE and noticed some strange backlinks. To my surprise the client has about 20 domain names. All automatically poiting to (showing) the same new mainsite now. www.maindomain.nl www.maindomain.be
Technical SEO | | Houdoe
www.maindomain.eu
www.maindomain.com
www.otherdomain.nl
www.otherdomain.com
... Some of these domains have backlinks too (but not so much). I suggested to 301 redirect them all to the main site. Just to avoid duplicate content. But now the webhoster comes into play: "It's a problem, client has only 1 hosting account, blablabla...". They told me they could CNAME the 20 domains to the main domain. Or A-record them to an IP address. This is too technical stuff for me. So my concrete questions are: Is it smart to do anything at all or am I just harming my client? The main site is ranking pretty well now. And some backlinks are from their copy sites (probably because everywhere the logo links to the full mainsite url). Does the CNAME or A-record solution has the same effect as a 301 redirect, from SEO perspective? Many thanks,
Hans0 -
Client error 404
I have an 404 error but what does that mean? I go to the site and click on the link to exampleX.com there is no problem. What can it be? The error message http://www.example.com/www.example.com/exampleX.html
Technical SEO | | mato0 -
Should we block URL param in Webmaster tools after URL migration?
Hi, We have just released a new version of our website that now has a human readable nice URL's. Our old ugly URL's are still accessible and cannot be blocked/redirected. These old URL's use a URL param that has an xpath like expression language to define the location in our catalog. We have about 2 million pages indexed with this old URL param in it while we have approximately 70k nice URL's after the migration. This high number of old URL's is due to facetting that was done using this URL param. I wonder if we should now completely block this URL param from Google Webmaster tools so that these ugly URL's will be removed from the Google index. Or will this harm our position in Google? Thanks, Chris
Technical SEO | | eCommerceSEO0 -
404 help
Hello all, firstly let me apologize if this is the wrong place to ask this question. I have a site www.promptresponseaccidentmanagement.com which gets a 200ok when checked for crawl issues, however pages such as /whiplash-injury-compensation-claims.php , /road-traffic-accident-compensation-claims.php and quite a few more return a 404. That's fine (usually) as I can quite happily fix that most of the time. However if you actually go to those pages in your browser, or click through to them on any part of the site you will see that they are in fact not redirecting to a 404 and everything is fine!? Any body got any ideas? Best H
Technical SEO | | haydyn0