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404 Errors with my RSS Feed/sitemap
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In my google webmasters I just started getting 404 errors that I'm not sure how to redirect.
I'm getting quite a few that are ending in /feed/ for instance
/nyc-accident-injury/feed/
contact-us-thank-you/feed/and then also a problem with my sitemap I guess? With
/site-map/?postsort=tags
The domain is pulversthompson.com
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Hey Jeffrey,
So in general I wouldn't lose too much sleep over GWT 404 errors. No matter how many I've fixed, a few pop up that I have no idea how Google landed on them. The ones I'd worry about most are the ones that have links pointing to them, internal or external. GWT should give you the referring page so check those out and fix them.
If there are a few that keep cropping up just 301 redirect them to another page.
You should take a look at the sitemap and if there are /feed/ URLs in there, remove them and resubmit.
Hope that helps,
Jacob
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Hi Jeffrey.
I assume you have your sitemaps uploaded and indexed in Google Webmaster Tools.
You should go to your Sitemap panel and look for the warning on the specific sitemaps (image).
When you click on the warning you can see the 404 error codes (I don't have any images to show for this, since I don't have any sites with that specific error).
And if I remember correctly you will be able to click on the specific links, that are redirecting to a 404-page, and thus be able to either setup a 301 redirect, or fix the 404.
Since most of your errors are regarding a /feed/ it's likely that there's links on other pages linking to them.
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I hope I've helped you a bit further, if not, please elaborate your question.
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