Stay organized with collections
Save and categorize content based on your preferences.
Monday, October 13, 2008
Ever since we released the crawl errors
feature in
Webmaster Tools,
webmasters have asked for the sources of the URLs causing the errors. Well, we're listening! We
know it was difficult for those of you who wanted to identify the cause of a particular "Not
found" error, in order to prevent it in the future or even to request a correction, without
knowing the source URL. Now, Crawl error sources makes the process of tracking down the causes
of "Not found" errors a piece of cake. This helps you improve the user experience on your site
and gives you a jump start for
links week
(check out our updated post on
"Good times with inbound links"
to get the scoop).
In our "Not Found" and "Errors for URLs in Sitemaps" reports, we've added the "Linked From"
column. For every error in these reports, the "Linked From" column now lists the number of pages
that link to a specific "Not found" URL.
Clicking on an item in the "Linked From" column opens a separate dialog box which lists each page
that linked to this URL along with the date it was discovered. The source URL for the
404 can be within or external to your site.
For those of you who just want the data, we've also added the ability to download all your crawl
error sources at once. Just click the "Download all sources of errors on this site" link to
download all your site's crawl error sources.
Again, if we report crawl errors for your website, you can use crawl error sources to quickly
determine if the cause is from your site or someone else's. You'll have the information you need
to contact them to get it fixed, and if needed, you can still put in place
redirects on your own site to the appropriate URL.
Just sign in to
Webmaster Tools
and check it out for your verified site. You can help people visiting your site—from anywhere on
the web—find what they're looking for.
Written by Jonathan Simon, Webmaster Trends Analyst and Michael Williamson, Webmaster Tools Intern
[[["Easy to understand","easyToUnderstand","thumb-up"],["Solved my problem","solvedMyProblem","thumb-up"],["Other","otherUp","thumb-up"]],[["Missing the information I need","missingTheInformationINeed","thumb-down"],["Too complicated / too many steps","tooComplicatedTooManySteps","thumb-down"],["Out of date","outOfDate","thumb-down"],["Samples / code issue","samplesCodeIssue","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],[],[[["Webmaster Tools now provides sources of URLs causing crawl errors, helping webmasters identify and prevent \"Not found\" errors."],["The \"Linked From\" column in \"Not Found\" and \"Errors for URLs in Sitemaps\" reports shows the number of pages linking to a specific \"Not found\" URL, with details available in a separate dialog box."],["Webmasters can download all crawl error sources for their site at once for analysis and action."],["Using crawl error sources, webmasters can determine the cause of errors and potentially contact external sites for fixes, or implement redirects on their own site."]]],["The \"Crawl error sources\" feature in Webmaster Tools (now Search Console) was introduced to help webmasters identify the origins of \"Not found\" errors. The \"Linked From\" column, added to the \"Not Found\" and \"Errors for URLs in Sitemaps\" reports, displays the number of pages linking to an error-causing URL. Clicking \"Linked From\" reveals specific linking pages and their discovery dates. Users can also download all crawl error sources, allowing webmasters to determine if errors originate internally or externally.\n"]]
