In this episode of SEO Fairytales, Martin Splitt and Michael King, Founder of IPullRank, talk about a problem where Michael was uncovering why his client was experiencing a spike in soft 404s. Discover how a geo-specific inventory issue led to the soft 404s and how to avoid this in the future. Learn about leveraging log files, helpful tools, and ruling out potential causes like algorithm updates.
Chapters
0:00 – Intro
0:47 – An increase in 404s
1:39 – Looking into Botify
2:32 – What changed
3:14 – Location, location, location?
4:04 – No inventory, no indexing
5:03 – Resolving the problem
5:39 – Cloaking or not cloaking
6:46 – A bad case of geolocation
7:48 – Recap
9:07 – Algorithm updates
10:10 – Leveraging log files
12:00 – Unused potential
13:04 – More resources
13:27 – Wrap up
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#SEO #Error404 #404 #404NotFound
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Subscribe to the Google Search Central Channel → https://goo.gle/Webmasters
Great one ✔✔✔✔
I can't comprehend how people are not at the log files. Practically this means you are walking with your eyes closed.
Hey guys, as someone from the Midwest, it’s TRAV urs City (short a and the same emphasis/accent as in the name Travis). People go there for Midwest vacations. :).
Never used a log file. I wouldn’t know where to find it or how to use it—unless I was using a plug-in that shows recent changes log.
Feedback: The music you use at 2:34, which is at other places too, it's a little harsh on my ears. So can you guys change that a little?
Дякую! Дуже цікаво!!!
Brilliant! And love the entertainment factor. I bet this explains one of my client's GSC and a blast of soft 404s. They looked like they were product links generated for checkout and did come after an update. I researched to the cause as all products were fine. However! Listening to this, potentially it was crawled from a location my client doesn't ship to so on the front end it looks OK (we have a notice for clients if there aren't any shipping options available) but how would you suggest handling it to fix the errors? I tried just revalidation and the majority passed so I am thinking it's a location thing….. What fall back could I use in this scenario? 🤔
If we can have an explanation for it, does it make any difference to just leave them as they are? The same website dumped a load of errors about redirects but we did a massive clear down of the old website and redirected to either a category or if there was a similar product. The joys of redesign. I do my best to follow best practices and then get errors 👀
Tbh it got parked because we have a bigger issue with Facebook and removing the old shop etc to connect the new shop (nightmare! Facebook support is horrendous) ….. Actually, could this be contributing to it too I wonder? 🤔 Ye have me thinking aloud here 😅
And you now have it stuck in my head, to cloak or not to cloak, that is the question! 😂
😂 For the title and I haven't even watched yet!