KNOWN ISSUE: 410 Crawl Errors in Google Webmaster Tools

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   Blake Flanneryposted 11 years ago

   This is just one example of many errors showing up in Google webmaster tools that appear to have category information added into the url of my hub creating a link to a non-existent hub.  In the link below, "/family-and-parenting/kids/" is the part that I think may be creating the false link. 
   
   This is what GWMT is showing:
   hub/family-and-parenting/kids/What-to-Say-to-Kids-Instead-of-No
   
   
   Also, it looks like Google keeps crawling my unpublished hubs that have been gone for months.  Is that a problem?

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      Xenonlitposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Contact Google and describe the problem. You can go to adsense forums and do it there. Those forums are pretty good. You get answers fast.

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   NateB11posted 11 years ago

   Yes, I've gotten those 410 errors for hubs with added things to the url from some unknown (to me) site. Also, noticed on Analytics, hubs viewed for a few seconds, sometimes with a high bounce rate. Mysterious problems, still trying to figure them out.

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   Blake Flanneryposted 11 years ago

   I'm assuming it may not be good to have pages published under my subdomain that have no content... or at least pages that Google is perceiving that don't exist.

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      janderson99posted 11 years agoin reply to this

      This issues has been raised before many times. HP staff advised that it is a Google glitch with no consequences.
      
      http://hubpages.com/forum/topic/106528
      http://hubpages.com/forum/topic/105114#post2245818

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         Blake Flanneryposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         I didn't see anything that came from HP in those threads that there are no consequences, but I noticed the comments had been closed and I could only see one page.  I'll take your word for it though.

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      2. 84

         NateB11posted 11 years agoin reply to this

         I hadn't realized it's a Known Issue. That's good to know. Thanks. Looks like HP was dropping urls they used to track by category, so put in the Not Found error so google would not index them. I don't think the Not Found error will hurt your page; but I have found some not related to the HP tracker, I'm pretty sure. It's a little difficult, unless you have a way of getting rid of bad links on other sites. We can fix our own links, but I've found some 404/410s come from sites I don't have contact with. Google says you can contact them to remove links. That's an issue that came up for me awhile back. Generally what was said on the forums is that it's a common thing and doesn't lead to much trouble.

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   NateB11posted 11 years ago

   The claim is that Not Found errors don't affect value or rank of your page. But I don't like them, I'm figuring it looks bad in some way; but I'm not sure.

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   Blake Flanneryposted 11 years ago

   Well, it's good to know that those category link errors aren't hurting anything. 
   
   Is anyone else having old hubs that have been unpublished for a long time still crawled recently? I know that's probably an issue with Google, and hopefully that isn't hurting anything either.  Any thought?

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   Pearldiverposted 11 years ago

   My Opinion here.. seems about as popular as a plugged nickle....
   
   But here it is:
   
   This and many 'other' irregular 'problems' are not solely on the Search engine side!
   Many are as a result of the 'tweeking' of our accounts!
   The worse thing in the world to do, is to Not follow the extent of the problems, to the best of your ability, personally! 
   In that way, you can both learn and trust your progress.  Don't assume that anyone else will always work in your best interests online... They won't... the TOS tells you that, as it acts as a disclaimer! 
   
   Follow the bouncing ball (problem) all the way until it stops bouncing and analyze the Whole Effect of it's bounce, in relation to your accounts.
   Look at your account, from the perspective of some person, somewhere in the world wanting to read your work... what chance do they have if they are being stopped and 'redirected' by being told that you don't exist and to read someone else's work?  Isn't that akin to piracy?
   Do you ask Google any questions directly on your issues?  You WILL get a straight forward answer from them if you ask them the Right Questions!  Especially on these issues!  You may then have the ability to consider both theirs and HP's answers... and any irregularities!
   Many of us are going through issues like this... and having to, or being expected to 'assume' the info given is genuinely suitable or applicable to Our online interests!  Yet your Online Reputation is also one of your most valuable tools required for success.... So consider exactly what that means when you think about the issues referred to in this thread and public not reading your work!
   Thanks for bringing the issue up... hope you gain a favorable result.. take care.. PD

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      NateB11posted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Yes, you're right, must follow it through to the end; and, after all, we most likely wouldn't write on the Internet unless we wanted people to see our work; so reputation and people having access to our writing is valuable, as is the rank of our page.

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         Pearldiverposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         Cheers... ultimately the most important relationship you have online is that of the relationship you maintain with search engines!  That is also why many sites develop an 'acceptable loss' strategy with regard to their members...  while primary members are developing a solid web reputation, linking to those 'successful' parties is generally done (unbeknown to those parties), in a manner that they also give secondary members a 'leg up' by improving their exposure and realistically providing a perfect opportunity to gain a % of the primary parties traffic, reputation, niches and key words.... And so on until things like 410 probs etc. start to defrag the reputations of those who have already given blood.. 
         
         If you looked at that style of ever changing and restructuring process in diagram form... eventually it would potentially resemble a similar structure as that of a pyramid game chart... where those on the bottom rungs lose... having 'wagered' their reputation on those who wrote the outcome, long before they sold the lower rungs and/or convinced others to do the same...
         Sadly, some consider things like this ethical... but I guess if you asked a banker to tell you honestly, how they feel about their foreclosing on their clients, after the bank overexposed itself to industry fraud mechanisms, then you'd get an answer which might make you distrust bankers! 
         Some may ask: Does the same principle apply to online businesses, and if not, why not and shouldn't  it? 

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            NateB11posted 11 years agoin reply to this

            Amen. And well said.

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            Blake Flanneryposted 11 years agoin reply to this

            Wow! Now I'm thinking a bit differently.

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   IzzyMposted 11 years ago

   I am surprised that HP have not offered you more support, Blake Flannery, seeing as you are one of the top earners for the site.
   
   I have consistently seen your subdomain shown as proof of the money it is possible to earn on this site.
   
   I did see the big drop too.
   
   Hell, Paul E told me (in other words) that my hubs were keyword stuffed, so I changed them.
   
   Now they are dead in the water.
   I had twice the traffic last Christmas, and I thought they dead then.
   
   Sometimes, it seems, Google slaps you for nothing.

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      Blake Flanneryposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      I was just trying to stay hopeful that something controllable was influencing the performance of hubs.  I have been responded to well by HP when I have had questions.

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   derek gulbransonposted 11 years ago

   About six months ago there was a group of non-URLs that Google picked up from some analytics tracking and started pretending they were URLs. At that time, we made all of these non-URLs return 410 to indicate to search bots that this URL does not exist and should be removed from the index.
   
   Why are we still seeing crawl errors on these non-URLs 6 months later? That's a great question for Google. Google has said that their existence in the index does not adversely effect search performance, so perhaps they are not in a hurry to fix it.
   
   There is nothing that anyone besides Google can do about it, and according to Google they can be safely ignored. We wait for Google to remove these URLs from its index as instructed. When you see a 410 error in GWT, that's a good thing because that means Google may actually remove the bad URL so we can stop seeing the crawl errors. Even if they are meaningless, they're annoying.

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      Blake Flanneryposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Derek,
      Thanks for your reply.
      What about hubs that have been unpublished?  Is it o.k. that these are still being crawled (according to the internal hub stats displayed on the hub)?  I know that Paul had mentioned that Google hadn't purged the idled hubs very quickly, but what are you guys seeing at this point across the site?

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         derek gulbransonposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         There was some slowness at the beginning, but the correctness of Google's index has improved significantly in the last month. Some changes before Christmas will take another week for results, but so far it looks like it may be even more accurate than before we started.
         
         If you have unpublished a Hub and want it gone from Google's index as quickly as possible, I think requesting a URL removal via Google Webmaster Tools is the best way to do that. Our goal is that when status on a Hub changes, Google's index become correct within a couple of days.

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            Pearldiverposted 11 years agoin reply to this

            Thank you Derek...
            
            I'm sure many appreciate what you have said here...
            
            And you appear to endorse my suggestion to ask hard questions of the parties who are reasonably able to improve the circumstances and thus at least mitigate, some of the negative effects being felt by so many of us... 
            Communication is a very positive aspect that most of us over 2 years old here, considered to be one of HP's and the community's GREATEST attributes! 
            
            Real Tip: No one in business should be too 'busy' to communicate effectively...
            Not communicating effectively, is akin to leaving your kids in dirty diapers, while you pretend that you changed them!  You are most welcome to that piece of kiwi wisdom... Merry Christmas and thanks again. 

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