Why is there an increase in 403 errors?

1. 77

   Bendo13posted 10 years ago

   Ever since the 18th of May there has been an increasing jump in 403 errors because of some xml-stats-realatedhubevents.php.... which can't be good for rankings. 
   
   I know the 403 error means that you're denying access to this page, which I can't even see myself, but I don't think the search engines should even be able to attempt to crawl these pages.
   
   Just a heads up.

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2. 58

   RetroDJposted 10 years ago

   This could be a result of the removal of "spammy" hubs.  It behooves any website to remove links to websites that may potentially result in a Google penalty.  As Google continues to rollout penguin updates I'm sure this will continue.  HP probably makes the hubs unavailable in an attempt to get the author to fix the hubs and make them higher quality.  Eventually the 403's may become "noindex" or 404 errors.  This is all speculation, but makes sense in light of the big changes Google has been making in the last few months.

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   1. 77

      Bendo13posted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Yeah, that's not the case...
      They haven't removed any of my hubs, and the hubs I've removed myself would be 404 errors.  They all lead to similar php links, like I stated above.
      
      It could be from me deleting hubs of mine that I'm working on moving to my own site, but the xml-stats-relatedhubevents.php links (which are the problem) make me believe that might not be the case.  Seems more like the search engines are getting access to areas of this site that they shouldn't be.  Something to do with stats and related hub events.

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   2. 77

      Bendo13posted 10 years agoin reply to this

      it's something linked to from my HubPages sitemap... which ends in .xml.gz

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      1. 71

         Matthew Meyerposted 10 years agoin reply to this

         Did you actively submit the sitemap?
         You may need to remove it and add it again as Google seems to be looking at an older cached copy of the file in some cases.

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         1. 77

            Bendo13posted 10 years agoin reply to this

            Nope. I've never touched the sitemap for HubPages and have no clue even how to do that. 
            
            The only sitemaps I've ever submitted are for completely different sites, which I own, and I submitted them through a WordPress plugin... so, I'm not sure how to fix the HubPages issue, but it's not from me submitting anything.

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         2. 77

            Bendo13posted 10 years agoin reply to this

            I just looked and it lists ZERO sitemaps for my HubPage subdomain...
            
            So, on May 18th somehow it got deleted, but it wasn't by me because I never even look at that in the Webmaster Tools.  Not sure how it could have gotten moved or deleted without me doing it... who would have access to that other than me?
            
            Or was one ever submitted at all?
            Is submitting a sitemap to Webmaster Tools something new you recommend hubbers do or something... because I never even heard of people doing it until lately.

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            1. 71

               Matthew Meyerposted 10 years agoin reply to this

               I don't think you need to do it manually as Google appears to be picking it up.
               There is no harm in adding it manually, though.

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               1. 77

                  Bendo13posted 10 years agoin reply to this

                  Yeah, I'd rather not do it manually and have things mess up if you guys make any changes.
                  
                  But I have been deleting about 2 hubs a day, as I move them to my site, so that might be part of the issue?  Maybe it's looking for those hubs in the sitemap and can't find them... I'm not sure though.
                  
                  Those errors just seem to keep rising and it started in May, when I had zero 403 errors, so something changed on your end.

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            2. 32

               Writer Foxposted 10 years agoin reply to this

               Here's a Hub about how to submit your sitemap:
               http://noveltreasure.hubpages.com/hub/H … o-Hubpages

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3. 74

   brakel2posted 10 years ago

   @Bendo.  Check your sites under hubpages. Com to see if they are listed there. That is something Google is doing to some hubs.

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   1. 77

      Bendo13posted 10 years agoin reply to this

      What do you mean?

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      1. 74

         brakel2posted 10 years agoin reply to this

         17 of my hubs got reindexed from my subdomain to hubpages.com. They do not appear on my GWT, and this is a fairly recent change  - past sixty days. HP staff has talked with Google about this issue, and Google will do nothing.  Run site:hubpages.com and one of your titles to see if this may have happened to you. Yours may be a different issue than mine. Mine are all 403 errors.

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         1. 77

            Bendo13posted 10 years agoin reply to this

            Hmmm, yeah I wouldn't know which hubs to try.
            The errors don't link to particular hubs, only to the XML stats, like the link below.
            
            I'll keep my eyes peeled for these indexing issues though, thanks!

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4. 77

   Bendo13posted 10 years ago

   Oddly enough, the last 403 error was found on June 19th... and I've deleted some hubs since then, so I really don't think it has anything to do with my changes.  Weird that it's exactly one month.
   
   That particular error says it is being denied access to this: http://bendo13.hubpages.com/xml/stats/r … &type=
   
   What does the aid refer to?
   
   The sitemap is attempting to link to that URL above, but is being denied access.
   All of the other errors look similar, except that the aid number is different.

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   1. 71

      Matthew Meyerposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      It looks like it might be some to do with related Hubs (at least my limited parsing of the URL).
      If you remove the sitemap and add it again, does the issue resolve?
      I get the impression that Google doesn't look at the sitemap often after their first parse it and reference a cached copy.
      I am not sure if there is an interval at which they do look for changes.

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      1. 77

         Bendo13posted 10 years agoin reply to this

         As I said before, there is no listed sitemap... I never added one.
         It lists zero sitemaps.
         
         Are all members of HubPages really required to manually submit their own sitemaps to avoid issues like this?

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5. 32

   Writer Foxposted 10 years ago

   Your sitemap submission can be checked in your Google Webmaster Tools account.
   
   Click on 'Optimization' from the left menu.
   Then, click on Sitemap.
   At the top of the page that opens, there is a red box which says 'ADD/TEST SITEMAP.' Click on that.
   Then, you can submit a new site map URL:
   
   sitemaps/hub/current/sitemap-hub-YOUR HP NAME HERE.xml.gz
   
   I often find a discrepancy between how many pages Google indexes in Webmaster Tools vs. the actual Google Index.  To make sure all of your Hubs are in the Index, enter this in the Google search box:
   
   site:YOUR SUBDOMAIN URL
   
   Make sure there is not a space after the colon. All of your Hubs and your subdomain should be listed when you do the search.  If not, something is very wrong.

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   1. 77

      Bendo13posted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Oh, something is very wrong indeed.
      It pulled up a whopping 25 results, when I have 448 hubs.
      
      Now, they are not all featured, but there are certainly more than 25 hubs of mine that are featured...
      
      And all of this has happened thanks to who... HubPages or Google?
      I have never messed with the sitemap stuff because that should be taken care of internally... I don't own this site.
      
      But I guess now I have to manually submit my sitemap and hope that it actually fixes this mess.  Hassles on top of hassles...

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   2. 77

      Bendo13posted 10 years agoin reply to this

      I just submitted it and it says 448 submitted and only 5 were currently indexed... someone has messed up big time.
      
      Think of all the people on this site who don't even notice these things.  No wonder this site continues to crash.

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      1. 71

         Matthew Meyerposted 10 years agoin reply to this

         Unfortunately, I think the issue you are experiencing is related to how Google is choosing to index content.
         In many cases Google will index the content on hubpages.com rather than the sub-domain.
         The address on which it is indexed is determined by Google and they do not see it as a bug.
         http://hubpages.com/forum/topic/112722#post2422317

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         1. 77

            Bendo13posted 10 years agoin reply to this

            Well, submitting my sitemap manually better fix things or I'm tempted to pull down all my writing and move it to my own site.  I make more ad revenue from my YouTube videos than I do on this site... pretty sad really.  And by more I mean almost 8.5 times more... whenever I have less YouTube videos than hubs, and I would say that only half of my videos are monetized.
            
            Someone needs to step up to the plate and make some changes because this isn't acceptable.  A redirected link is junk compared to a direct link.  I'm not happy about this.

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         2. 77

            Bendo13posted 10 years agoin reply to this

            To show things in comparison...
            
            HubPages
            *448 hubs are monetized (with multiple ads all over the place)
            *4,383 views in the past month
            *8.5 times LESS ad revenue earned through the ad program
            
            YouTube
            *349 videos monetized (with 2, maybe 3 ads)
            *666 views (how evil)
            *8.5 times MORE ad revenue earned through the ad program
            
            So, with less videos than hubs, with less ads on them, with less views per video... somehow I'm making way more?  HubPages needs revamped big time.
            
            I'm getting, on average, 9.8 views per hub, per month.  Which isn't a lot, thanks to the fact that HubPages didn't think my 365 holiday hubs were worth giving an exemption for... So, most of those 300+ hubs aren't featured but yet, if they had been, they would receive traffic each and every day (around the time of each holiday).  No worries though, I've been in the process of moving ALL my holiday hubs to my own site.
            
            And I'm getting, on average, 1.9 views per monetized video, per month.  Yes, that's not a lot either (it's harder to shine bright like a diamond on YouTube than Hubpages - more competition), but even with less views per video and less ads per video (when compared to each hub) I make WAY more revenue... 8.5 times more.
            
            I'm not trying to bash this site, but stats like this should be troubling to those who work at HubPages.

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            1. 77

               Bendo13posted 10 years agoin reply to this

               Just realized that for the YouTube stats, I mentioned above, I was only including the stats from June 1st to June 26th.  So, to get a more accurate comparison... Here are the "last 30 days stats"...
               
               YouTube
               *349 videos monetized (with 2, maybe 3 ads)
               *791 views
               *8 times MORE ad revenue earned through the ad program
               
               So, that brings it up to 2.3 views per monetized video, per month, on average... Not much of a change, but it really stresses that "less is more" or that something is wrong with how this site is being run.
               
               A hub is full of information, and people scroll down past many ads, as they read that information.  And I for one have often clicked ads in articles on different sites, like this one.  On the other hand, I rarely ever click an ad while watching a YouTube video... I ignore them, or skip them, and only pay attention to the video.
               
               So, a site like this, given the fact that in my case a monetized hub gets, on average, over 4 times the views that my monetized videos get, should be pumping out way more ad revenue.  The article format is more likely to result in a clicked ad than a sole video on a page but yet, even with more traffic, that's not the case.  Some YouTube ads only result in a payout if the person chooses to watch the ad, so it's a bit different than having to click something, but still.
               
               Less is more?
               PS - I'm still waiting for the Webmaster Tools to show that submitting the sitemap manually actually fixed the problem and has more than 5 of my hubs indexed correctly.

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         3. 77

            Bendo13posted 10 years agoin reply to this

            I'm not sure if this has anything to do with the issue, but what URL would my robots.txt for my subdomain on HubPages be blocking Google from seeing?
            
            It says there is one URL being blocked, but I can't seem to figure out which URL is being blocked.

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6. 52

   ethanjiiposted 10 years ago

   yaa i am also facing such kind of problems very frequently.... which irritates me!

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