Google Webmaster Tools Sitemap errors for phantom urls?
-
Two weeks ago we changed our urls so the correct addresses are all lowercase. Everything else 301 redirects to those. We have submitted and made sure that Google has downloaded our updated sitemap several times since.
Even so, Webmaster Tools is reporting 33000 + errors in our sitemap for urls that are no longer in our sitemap and haven't been for weeks. It claims to have found the errors within the last couple of days but the sitemap has been updated for a couple of weeks and has been downloaded by Google at least three times since.
Here is our sitemap: http://www.aquinasandmore.com/urllist.xml
Here are a couple of urls that Webmaster Tools says are in the sitemap:
http://www.aquinasandmore.com/catholic-gifts/Caroline-Gerhardinger-Large-Sterling-Silver-Medal/sku/78664
Redirect errorunavailable
Oct 7, 2011
http://www.aquinasandmore.com/catholic-gifts/Catherine-of-Bologna-Small-Gold-Filled-Medal/sku/78706
Redirect errorunavailable
Oct 7, 2011 -
How long does the actual data usually take to catch up with what WMT says is current?
I have not experienced any delay before. There should only be one sitemap record for your site at any time. That record could be composed of multiple files, but it is one collection of records.
When Google identifies crawl errors, those errors should be generated from the sitemap on file at the time of the error. There is a view sitemap option in Google WMT you can use to see the sitemap they have on file. This step would be next. If you can confirm the bad URL does not appear in the sitemap, I would then wait to see if the issue re-appears after today, October 11th.
I know this is frustrating but the system is very straight forward. I cannot explain why a URL not included in your sitemap would appear on your sitemap crawl errors tab. The only two possibilities I can come with is either you have made an error when sharing some information, or there is an unusual glitch on Google's end.
With all the above noted, working with sitemaps is not a good investment of your time. If your site navigation is properly designed, your sitemap offers no benefit whatsoever.
-
"then these links should not appear going forward." - They are showing up now even though Google says they have our latest sitemap and that the errors were found yesterday. How long does the actual data usually take to catch up with what WMT says is current?
The image urls are built from the actual title on the fly and don't 301 so those aren't a problem. The other one you mentioned does need to be cleaned up in the site map. Thanks for catching that.
These errors are showing up when I go to the crawl errors section and click the sitemap tab. Yes, the sitemap I shared is the same one in WMT.
-
I was unable to locate the URLs listed in your sitemap. If you Google WMT tools settings are correct and the sitemap which you have shared is the same one listed in your Google WMT account, then these links should not appear going forward.
You would need to examine your Google WMT account closely to determine the exact source of these errors.
Where exactly within your Google WMT are you seeing these errors? How are you identifying the source of these URLs are being from your sitemap?
Two weeks ago we changed our urls so the correct addresses are all lowercase.
There are many URLs in your site map which are not lower case. An example:
http://www.aquinasandmore.com/title/Brian-Kolodiejchuk/FuseAction/store.AuthorSearch/Author/2337/
Also you share a lot of image URLs which are not lower case either.
I would not necessarily advise cleaning up the entire site, but at least establish the best practice going forward.
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
-
Do you suggest I use the Yoast or the Google XML sitemap for my blog?
I just shut off the All-In-One seo pack plugin for wordpress, and turned on the Yoast plugin. It's great! So much helpful, seo boosting info! So, in watching a video on how to configure the plugin, it mentions that I should update the sitemap, using the Yoast sitemap I'm afraid to do this, because I'm pretty technologically behind... I see I have a Google XML Sitemaps (by Arne Brachhold) plugin turned on (and have had it for many years). Should I leave this one on? Or would you recommend going through the steps to use the Yoast plugin sitemap? If so, what are the benefits of the Yoast plugin, over the Google XML? Thanks!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | DavidC.0 -
How to take out international URL from google US index/hreflang help
Hi Moz Community, Weird/confusing question so I'll try my best. The company I work for also has an Australian retail website. When you do a site:ourbrand.com search the second result that pops up is au.brand.com, which redirects to the actual brand.com.au website. The Australian site owner removed this redirect per my bosses request and now it leads to a an unavailable webpage. I'm confused as to best approach, is there a way to noindex the au.brand.com URL from US based searches? My only problem is that the au.brand.com URL is ranking higher than all of the actual US based sub-cat pages when using a site search. Is this an appropriate place for an hreflang tag? Let me know how I can help clarify the issue. Thanks,
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | IceIcebaby
-Reed0 -
Schema.org on Product Page showing strange result if you post url in google
Hi All, We have implemented Schema.org for our products and currently if you put the url in google, the results showing up are not the meta description but some of the schema.org content along with some other rubbish at the bottom . Do you know if we are doing this wrong as in GWT it all looks okay and says it fine? You can get the url from here -http://goo.gl/aSFPqP Any assistance, greatly appreciated. thanks peter
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | PeteC120 -
Webmaster Tools Not Indexing New Pages
Hi there Mozzers, Running into a small issue. After a homepage redesign (from a list of blog posts to a product page), it seems that blog posts are buried on the http://OrangeOctop.us/ site. The latest write-up on "how to beat real madrid in FIFA 15", http://orangeoctop.us/against-real-madrid-fifa-15/ , has yet to be indexed. It would normally take about a day naturally for pages to be indexed or instantly with a manual submission. I have gone into webmaster tools and manually submitted the page for crawls multiple times on multiple devices. Still not showing up in the search results. Can anybody advise?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | orangeoctop.us0 -
My indexed pages count is shrinking in webmaster tools. Is this normal ?
I noticed that our total # of indexed pages dropped recently by a substantial amount (see chart below) Is this normal? http://imgur.com/4GWzkph Also, 3 weeks after this started dropping, we got a message on increased # of crawl errors and found that a site update was causing 300+ new 404s. could this be related ?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | znotes0 -
How to do geo targeting for domain and sub directories in Webmaster tool?
Hello All, How can i do geo targeting in multiple countries on my ** root domain and sub **directories in Webmaster tool. My domain is "abc.com" and i want to target three countries UAE , Kuwait, Saudi arabia. So, Can i assign geo targeting in Webmaster tool , Root domain for UAE country and make other two sub directories for Kuwait and saudi ? abc.com - UAE (geo targeting) abc.com/kw - Kuwait (geo targeting) abc.com/sa - Saudi (geo targeting) Or Root doamain should be not assign for any country and Make three sub directories for UAE, Kuwait , and saudi and targeting them there geo locations. abc.com - Unlisted (geo targeting) abc.com/uae/ - UAE (geo targeting) abc.com/kw/ - Kuwait (geo targeting) abc.com/sa/ - Saudi (geo targeting)
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | rahul110 -
SEO Tools
Anyone have any experience and thoughts about the woo rank website and seo tool?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | casper4341 -
Magic keywords in Google Webmaster Tools
Hi All, Recently moved a friend to a new WP back-end website as they were on Flash which is pretty, but not necessarily the best for SEO. http://francesphotography.com My question is that once Google finally indexed the site, I noticed in Google Webmaster tools that it found the most significant keyword to be: automatically On the following top pages: | tag/snow-boarding-photography/ |
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | BoulderJoe
| tag/style-photography/ |
| tag/underwater-photography/ |
| tag/vacation-photography/ |
| tag/wedding-photography-beaver-creek/ |
| tag/wedding-photography-copper-mountain/ |
| tag/wedding-photography-denver/ |
| tag/wedding-photography/ |
| underwater-photography-scuba-diving-cozumel-mexico/ |
| wedding-photography/ | The goofy thing is I can find anywhere that "automatically" is used - perhaps it is coming from a plug-in or magically keyword beans that Google found? Any guidance is appreciated.0