In a recent LinkedIn post, Google Analyst Gary Illyes raised awareness about two issues plaguing web crawlers: soft 404 and other “crypto” errors. These seemingly innocuous mistakes can negatively affect SEO efforts. Understanding Soft 404s Soft 404 errors occur when a web server returns a standard “200 OK” HTTP status code for pages that don’t … Read more
In a Google Office Hours podcast, Google’s Gary Illyes answered a question about 404 Page Not Found errors that coincided with a drop in rankings. Fake External 404 Errors There are probably many reasons for 404 errors created by bots. One reason for those error responses could be that they are originating from automated scanners … Read more
WordPress security scanner WPScan’s 2024 WordPress vulnerability report calls attention to WordPress vulnerability trends and suggests the kinds of things website publishers (and SEOs) should be looking out for. Some of the key findings from the report were that just over 20% of vulnerabilities were rated as high or critical level threats, with medium severity … Read more
Google Search Console is a web service that lets you monitor and manage your website’s presence in Google Search results. It also helps you identify potentially impactful website errors. Here’s what you need to know about these errors and how to fix them. Find and fix Google Search Console errors and much more with the … Read more
Google’s John Mueller answered an interesting question about what actually happens after clicking the “validate a fix” link in Search Console if the 404 status still exists. John Mueller explained what’s going on with that “validate a fix” function. What Causes A 404 Status Code And How Should It Be Dealt With? When a browser … Read more
Running into issues with hreflang? In this article, we go over the most common ones and show you how to fix hreflang tags with errors. Semrush’s Site Audit tool identifies tons of common hreflang errors and shows you exactly how to fix them. Try it for free. What Is the Purpose of Hreflang? Hreflang attributes are pieces … Read more
Web crawlers (also called spiders or bots) are programs that visit (or “crawl”) pages across the web. And search engines use crawlers to discover content that they can then index—meaning store in their enormous databases. These programs discover your content by following links on your site. But the process doesn’t always go smoothly because of … Read more
Google’s John Mueller responded to a thread in Reddit about finding and fixing inbound broken links, offering a nuanced insight that some broken links are worth finding and fixing and others are not. Reddit Question About Inbound Broken Links Someone asked on Reddit if there’s a way to find broken links for free. This is … Read more
Advertisers are moving from search-based channels to social media for eCommerce ads, according to a new report by DataFeedWatch. The research found that the use of search channels has dropped by over seven percentage points from 2022 to 2023. However, around 7% of all products submitted to Google Shopping were disapproved due to critical errors. … Read more
Google’s John Mueller answered a question on Reddit about what to do about the thousands of 404 errors reported in Google Search Console. John’s answer clarified how to approach the Search Console Page Indexing report with regard to the 404 errors listed there. 404 Error Response The 404 error response is a message from a … Read more
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