Do Web Crawl Errors Affect Page Rank?

[JasperEliot]

I just checked my Google Webmaster Tools dashboard and noticed that one of my sites has a large number of errors in URLs for sitemaps and as well as 'Not Found' errors. These can all be attributed to content that I posted via WordPress Direct auto-poster software (i.e., Wordpress Answers, YouTube2Wordpress) Does anyone know if I site "looks bad" to Google and loses page rank and/or authority as a result of Google seeing this? Just curious.

[derrick0408]

I am afraid it does effect your rankings.
For me the problem is originating with the Google Sitemap Plug-in which Wordpress Direct use. WPD have admitted there are bugs with the software and suggested alternatives (look on their forum at the 404 Errors post). Unfortunately I tried an alternative and I am still getting the same errors. My sites are steadily falling through Google ranks, despite fresh content etc etc.
Good luck!

[capriliz]

Thanks for replying, derrick. I had the same question. I am not using WPD, but I have numerous 404 errors being found by google webmaster. It looks as if my categories are being dropped. I can't find any reason for this to happen.

Carmen

[Caro]

I don't know if this will help or not, but I used this tool to create an xml sitemap (which you have already created for you on WPD) but it also showed me where some links were broken.

Create your Google Sitemap Online - XML Sitemaps Generator

It returns how many are broken and then for a small fee it tells you which urls.

If you already know what those urls are - then you need to go to those pages and fix the links. It can be as simple often as just having a space by accident in the link you've created.

Caro

[capriliz]

Thanks, Caro. Great tool! First time I used that one.

This tool generated a site map, but found no errors. How could this be different from google webmaster?

Carmen

[Caro]

Bluntly - I'm not sure.

What that tool does is expose all links from your main url you enter.

So it could be if the link's that have 404's are not actually off your domain themselves?

Without asking you what your url's actually are - can you identify what your 404 url's are?

I just took a peek myself at a domain I have in there - and I actually see a 404 error myself - and what it is, is that somehow it's been misreported.

It needs to be: http://www.mydomainname.com/keywordphrase/post-title

Instead it reads as: http://www.mydomainname.com/post-title

I am going to drop Marty a query about this and see if I come up with anything. I suggest you get a support ticket from WPD.

And we can both report back here

Caro

[sanjeev2010]

Hey I've noticed that same problem on mine!

No wonder I'm not moving up despite regular addition of content!

Sanjeev2010

[sanjeev2010]

Just received an email back from WP about the issue.

Here's a link to the solution:

Google HTTP Error 404 - Forums

Hope this helps!

S

[capriliz]

I have been trying to figure out why I am getting webcrawl errors. It has been driving me crazy!

So far, I have found two things.

1. Under the sitemap page, one site did not have sitemap content checked to be included in the site map.

2. For both sites that have this problem, I had the plugin that was automatically included in the WPD initial process - WordPress Duplicate Content.

I have a third site that does not have the WP Duplicate Content plugin, and that sitemap is correct. Google Webmaster tools has found no 404 errors. But, the two sites with the webcrawl errors did have that plugin activated.

I have deactivated that plugin and rebuilt the site map. Now, I can see that my categories are included in the site URLs. I will watch google over the next few days to see if the 404 errors are dropped.

Carmen

[Caro]

Here's a response from one of the WPD technical people:

Hello Caro

Apologies for the delay as I have missed your email somehow. There is a bug with the sitemap plugin that we are aware and we are currently working to release a fix for it and instead use a different plugin.

For now, we do advice to :
Login to your wp-admin : http://www.yourwebsiteaddress.com/wp-admin

Click Settings @ the right top bar

Then Click Settings

Click on Sitemap XML

Then Click Rebuild Sitemap

At the page there is an option to disable the auto generation of the sitemap which you need to check.

With Best Regards
Imed


Caro