Changing 500's to 404's

tentimes · 05-17-2012, 10:17 AM

My site was hacked about a month ago and I spent a lot of time cleaning it up. Now my site has the old "the site may be compromised" tag on it.

Even though everything has been deleted, Google still has some of the bad files in it's index. The problem is that when you click on one of the old bad links it brings up a 500 error as opposed to a 404. Google will not allow a reconsideration request to go through until all those 500's become 404's. Google really wants to see a true 404, File not Found for those URLs. With a 500 Google is uncertain if the URLs are truly gone or if there is just some sort of temporary problem with your server that is casing the 500 and they will be back once the issue is resolved.

So how exactly do I go about changing a 500 to a 404 so that I can submit a reconsideration request?

Thanks so much to anyone that replies.

tylerherman · 05-17-2012, 03:19 PM

500 is a server error so it is on you to fix it. Can't really help without knowing more. I'm guessing you are using Wordpress and removed/disabled some plugin? I'd start there.

05-17-2012, 10:17 AM	#1
tentimes Active Warrior Join Date: Oct 2010 Posts: 59 Thanks: 13 Thanked 4 Times in 4 Posts	Changing 500's to 404's My site was hacked about a month ago and I spent a lot of time cleaning it up. Now my site has the old "the site may be compromised" tag on it. Even though everything has been deleted, Google still has some of the bad files in it's index. The problem is that when you click on one of the old bad links it brings up a 500 error as opposed to a 404. Google will not allow a reconsideration request to go through until all those 500's become 404's. Google really wants to see a true 404, File not Found for those URLs. With a 500 Google is uncertain if the URLs are truly gone or if there is just some sort of temporary problem with your server that is casing the 500 and they will be back once the issue is resolved. So how exactly do I go about changing a 500 to a 404 so that I can submit a reconsideration request? Thanks so much to anyone that replies.

05-17-2012, 03:19 PM	#2
tylerherman Monkey Tester Join Date: Feb 2012 Location: Arcata, California Posts: 312 Thanks: 26 Thanked 44 Times in 32 Posts Social Networking	Re: Changing 500's to 404's 500 is a server error so it is on you to fix it. Can't really help without knowing more. I'm guessing you are using Wordpress and removed/disabled some plugin? I'd start there.
	nothing to see here move along