deleted tags showing 404 errors

  • Resolved RossB

    (@rossb)


    10 years, 1 month ago

    Site URL: http://www.boomtownrap.com
    Theme: Twenty Twelve (child)

    Hi. I have received a notification from Google Search Console that there has been an “Increase in “404” pages on http://www.boomtownrap.com/”.

    Sure enough, when I checked Smartphone errors, as suggested, I found 125 URLs listed as 404 errors. They are all tags I deleted some time ago.

    I don’t understand why these deleted tags would now be showing up as 404 pages, but I don’t understand a lot of things to do with this sort of stuff. All I want to know is how to get rid of all these 404 errors – can anyone help, please?

    Cheers
    Ross

Viewing 5 replies - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)
  • doubleedesign

    (@doubleedesign)

    10 years, 1 month ago

    They’re probably just still indexed by Google, so it’s still looking at the URL where the tag’s archive used to be, and it’s coming up with nothing because it doesn’t exist anymore.

    Do you use Yoast SEO or any other SEO plugin, or any plugin that would generate a sitemap.xml file for you? If not I recommend installing Yoast SEO (a great tool to have anyway), and submitting the sitemap.xml that gives you to Google through Search Console (previously known as Webmaster Tools).

    You can also configure the sitemap in Yoast to not include tag archives at all, if you would prefer them not to come up in Google at all. (Google still might find them if there’s links to them elsewhere, but generally it’s pretty effective).

    Thread Starter RossB

    (@rossb)

    10 years, 1 month ago

    Thanks for your response, doubledesign, and for your clear explanation of the 404 tag errors.

    I do use Yoast SEO, and clicking on the XML Sitemap indicates that the XML Sitemap Index file contains 4 sitemaps. Evidently, Google is not picking this up, because Search Console suggests that I submit a sitemap – I guess this means they don’t have one at present.

    May I ask, please, how do I go about submitting the sitemap.xml to Google through Search Console?

    Cheers
    Ross

    Thread Starter RossB

    (@rossb)

    10 years, 1 month ago

    Please ignore previous. I think I have figured out how to submit sitemap.xml to Google via Search Console.

    Cheers
    Ross

    doubleedesign

    (@doubleedesign)

    10 years, 1 month ago

    Glad to help, and glad to hear you got Search Console sorted 🙂

    Thread Starter RossB

    (@rossb)

    10 years, 1 month ago

    Thanks again, doubledesign – your clear information made all the difference.

    Cheers
    Ross

Viewing 5 replies - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)

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