Why is google indexing these pages

Banned 13 years ago

Looks like your running Wordpress?

That type of page is created from this bit of code or similar (wp_pagenavi).

Those pages are created on the fly, as you create more new pages/post. The more post you have the higher the page # will get, example:hxxp://www.xxxxxxxxxx.com/page/45

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mpx305

13 years ago

I see. I just don't understand why then when I click one of these pages I get a 404 error. Would a wordpress settings change cause this? Thank you for your help

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noble

13 years ago

I have no idea why it gives you a 404. WP does create a lot of random pages. Like when you make a post it makes a page for a tag you use in the post, etc. The fact that you're generating a 404, if you cannot fix it, is to switch 404s for that site to a 301 redirect to your main page; kind of a half arsed fix but it should work for ya.

I can't see how it would be hurting your rankings though.

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mpx305

13 years ago

Crap! I found the answer. I originally set my reading settings to: "Blog pages show at most 1". Because I only wanted my main sticky post to show as the front page. That made the rest of my posts show up like this : http://www.xxxxxxxxxx.com/page/3

Some of them got indexed with those URLs and then I switched the reading setting back to the default of "Blog pages show at most 10". This is where my problem happened where I couldn't access those pages anymore as xxxxx/page/3

Damn, I wish I knew that was going to happen before I set it like that...

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yukon

Banned 13 years ago

I do exactly like noble said with a 301 redirect, on my own wordpress sites.

What I do is delete all the code inside of my sites 404.php, then add this code.

<?php
header("HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently");
header("Location: ".get_bloginfo('url'));
exit();
?>

This code will tell Google that the page they are looking for, broken link, 404, etc... has permanently moved to my sites Index page. Google will then follow to my Index page instead of the 404 page that your now seeing.

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mpx305

13 years ago

Excellent! I like this solution a lot better, you guys rock!

Thank you!!!

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yukon

Banned 13 years ago

You can check Google to see how many of those pages have been indexed, like this.

inurl:"www.xxxxxxxxxx.com/page/"

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yukon

Banned 13 years ago

You can also test that php 301 redirect code by searching in your browser for a link you know doesn't exist on your site, example.

hxxp://www.xxxxxxxxxx.com/erdfgdfgdfgdfgdfgdfgds

That crazy url should send you to your index page, after the 301 code is added to the 404.php file. If it does redirect, then you know Google will be dealt with for your problem pages you are trying to remove from the SERPs.

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mpx305

13 years ago

Thanks for the tip Yukon, I tried it and it's only three posts indexed like that. I guess I should have created a static Page instead of trying to sticky a post and try to make it look like a page...oh well

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yukon

Banned 13 years ago

Originally Posted by mpx305

Thanks for the tip Yukon, I tried it and it's only three posts indexed like that. I guess I should have created a static Page instead of trying to sticky a post and try to make it look like a page...oh well

If you do that 301 redirect, Google will correct the search results when they try to crawl those 3 pages again.

Those pages are not a big deal, still, I would do a redirect just to get rid of them.

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mpx305

13 years ago

Strange, the code works perfectly when I put in the funky fake page, but not when I do xxxxx/page/3 - I get this: Sorry, no posts matched your criteria.

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mpx305

13 years ago

I found this code in the page.php file:

<?php _e('Sorry, no posts matched your criteria.'); ?><?php endif; ?>

I wonder if I can redirect it from here somehow...

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yukon

Banned 13 years ago

Originally Posted by mpx305

I found this code in the page.php file:

<?php _e('Sorry, no posts matched your criteria.'); ?><?php endif; ?>

I wonder if I can redirect it from here somehow...

I wouldn't mess with that page.php, that is not the same as the pages that are giving a 404.

The page that is giving a 404 is generated on the fly by wordpress. That page.php is an actual page like when you have an option to create a page or post in your WP Admin.

The only php page I would touch is the 404.php.

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mpx305

13 years ago

Originally Posted by yukon

I wouldn't mess with that page.php, that is not the same as the pages that are giving a 404.

The page that is giving a 404 is generated on the fly by wordpress. That page.php is an actual page like when you have an option to create a page or post in your WP Admin.

The only php page I would touch is the 404.php.

Oops, I had already messed with it and the results were pretty ugly, but I had a backup of the file so I put it back...lol

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noble

13 years ago

Originally Posted by mpx305

I found this code in the page.php file:

<?php _e('Sorry, no posts matched your criteria.'); ?><?php endif; ?>

I wonder if I can redirect it from here somehow...

You said you only have 3 pages like this, correct? You can create a second header file and put your 301 redirect code in that file then for these pages where it calls the header (wp, instead of having head info on each page it does a call for a header file) make it call the URL of edited header file which is in fact a 301 redirect. Big pain I know.

Also if you have identified its just three pages then perhaps edit them and simply add some content to them and make them useful.

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mpx305

13 years ago

Originally Posted by noble

You said you only have 3 pages like this, correct? You can create a second header file and put your 301 redirect code in that file then for these pages where it calls the header (wp, instead of having head info on each page it does a call for a header file) make it call the URL of edited header file which is in fact a 301 redirect. Big pain I know.

Also if you have identified its just three pages then perhaps edit them and simply add some content to them and make them useful.

Thanks Noble, that idea is worth a shot. In the meantime I put everything back to how it was, so xxxx/page/3 actually goes to a real page.

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Oranges

13 years ago

Thanks Yukon for the code.
@ mpx305 - For future blogs, use platinum seo plugin and in settings put "sub pages" to no-index, so even if you setup your blog for 1 post per page, it won't index sub pages like page/1,2,3,4,5,6 and so on!

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mpx305

13 years ago

Originally Posted by Oranges

Thanks Yukon for the code.
@ mpx305 - For future blogs, use platinum seo plugin and in settings put "sub pages" to no-index, so even if you setup your blog for 1 post per page, it won't index sub pages like page/1,2,3,4,5,6 and so on!

Sweet! Thanks for the Info =)

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yukon

Banned 13 years ago

Another reason I redirect my 404.php is, the slim chance that an external backlink is broken. As long as the root url is intact any broken URLs will still get redirected back to my index page & I'll still get credit for the broken url backlink.

Example, If someone besides myself creates a backlink & messes up the url. I get a lot of people posting links in forums to my download sites.

I never did care much for 404 pages.

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mpx305

13 years ago

Originally Posted by yukon

Another reason I redirect my 404.php is, the slim chance that an external backlink is broken. As long as the root url is intact any broken URLs will still get redirected back to my index page & I'll still get credit for the broken url backlink.

Example, If someone besides myself creates a backlink & messes up the url. I get a lot of people posting links in forums to my download sites.

I never did care much for 404 pages.

I agree, the code you gave me is much more useful than a static 404 page that most people click out of anyways.

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simonbuzz

Banned 13 years ago

I am also having this same problem...I saw the problems on webmaster tools...

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yukon

Banned 13 years ago

Originally Posted by kiranraj19

If you won't index those pages then create robot.txt file with the instruction that not to crawl that pages...

It's not that easy considering it's a virtual page, the page is created on the fly from the WP-navigation.

You will never know about the exact page url until after WP creates the page, by that time it's already done & chances are Google has already found the 404.

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Why is google indexing these pages

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