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Wired: Google indexing inexisting pages

Discussion in 'Google' started by Lemurc, Aug 4, 2008.

  1. #1
    I keep watching this for 3 weeks.
    Google is indexing pages that does not exist.

    Here is the case:
    I work for a firm that is offering romanian translation services.
    Site is well optimized and ranks good for some keywords.

    But Google has indexed some pages that does not exist.

    Here are some links: /romanian-english-translation.php/romanian-english-translation.php; /romanian-english-translation.php/romanian-localization-website-software.php; /romanian-english-translation.php/translate-romanian.php; /romanian-english-translation.php/romanian-translations.php; /romanian-english-translation.php/conversio-network-romania.php.

    None of those links are available on site or exist.

    Can someone tell how is this possible? :eek:
    Thanks

    Sorry if I posted in the wrong sub-forum.
     
    Lemurc, Aug 4, 2008 IP
  2. Dave E

    Dave E Well-Known Member

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    #2
    Hi you need to set up a 404 page. At the moment the pages you are talking about are coming up as 200 O.K. this is why they are getting indexed. A spam bot or anything could have created links to the pages - this could easily explain why they are in the index. Here is a tool to check header status:

    http://www.webconfs.com/http-header-check.php

    Once you have a 404 page properly set up - the pages you have mentioned will return a status of: HTTP/1.1 404 Not Found =>

    Once you get your 404 page properly set-up, the pages will fall out of the index after a while.
     
    Dave E, Aug 4, 2008 IP
    Lemurc, C.Whyte and webcosmo like this.
  3. Lemurc

    Lemurc Peon

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    #3
    Dave E, thanks for the reply.
    This site has a 404 error page, but i`m not sure if this page is good.

    If you add any keyword after the domain name you`ll get a 404 error page.

    Is that ok?
     
    Lemurc, Aug 4, 2008 IP
  4. Dave E

    Dave E Well-Known Member

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    #4
    Hi, I have just checked and what you need to do is either make sure that your 404 page applies to the entire site or set up a 404 page for each of your sub-directories.

    If you check: http://www.conversio.ro/bla.html

    It will come up as a 404, however if you go to:

    conversio.ro/romanian-english-translation.php/abla.html

    You get 200 ok, so your 404 does not apply to the sub-directories for whatever reason. I am afraid you will have to get someone who is a bit more technical to tell you how to set this up. I hope that helps.
     
    Dave E, Aug 4, 2008 IP
  5. Lemurc

    Lemurc Peon

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    #5
    Many thanks Dave E.
    Is better then nothing.
     
    Lemurc, Aug 4, 2008 IP
  6. Dollar

    Dollar Active Member

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    #6
    Are you over riding the apache 404 with .htaccess?
    From what I can see though I think you may have .htaccess directive that is redirecting your 404 back the homepage or maby header call in php that is not setup correctly. I don't know for sure its your script.
     
    Dollar, Aug 4, 2008 IP
  7. C.Whyte

    C.Whyte Peon

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    #7
    Wow Dave, great info! I was curious of the answer and you seemed to answer it perfectly!
     
    C.Whyte, Aug 4, 2008 IP
  8. Dollar

    Dollar Active Member

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    #8
    Thats funny that google indexed your homepage multple times with different urls that are supposed to be non-existant. Its funny becuase Google is supposed to be good a detected Dupe content. Which is isn't. I've noticed Google indexing all kinds of crap.
     
    Dollar, Aug 4, 2008 IP
  9. webcosmo

    webcosmo Notable Member

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    #9
    One thing I don't understand; isn't the server supposed to throw a 404 page not found message when a non-existent page is called?
     
    webcosmo, Aug 4, 2008 IP
  10. Lemurc

    Lemurc Peon

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    #10
    Many thanks to all answering this topic.

    I`m not sure how or why Google is indexing pages that does not exists or not suppose to exist.
    This way Google may invent pages to index and kill our businesses.
     
    Lemurc, Aug 5, 2008 IP