Google Webmaster Tools Weird 404 link

[widgetsupply]

Google webmaster tools is picking up some weird links like:

https://www.widgetsupply.com/mm5/&https://www.widgetsupply.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Session_ID=3b33f57edbd8dee4a6e95ca3f9729dca&Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=WS&Category_Code=dremel-hss-set&Product_Code=&Search=&Sort_By=disp_order&Per_Page=-1

If I look at this pages view source:

https://www.widgetsupply.com/category/dremel-hss-set.html

I don't see any links like this. For some reason, Google seems to be taking <base href="https://www.widgetsupply.com/mm5/" /> and adding a & followed by the long link for the page. Any idea why? Can anything be done about this?

[eldon99]

Re: Google Webmaster Tools Weird 404 link

Not sure if this is causing it, but I am seeing an &amp; at the end of your form tag action for the sort by section when I view source. I am guessing Google is interpreting this incorrectly, but perhaps Brennan or some other guru can chime in...

[rajnishsi]

Re: Google Webmaster Tools Weird 404 link

Hi John,

Yes, Google does try to automatically submit forms to crawl the content that is only accessible through FORM actions. You can find more information about this behavior on this link http://googlewebmastercentral.blogsp...g-more-of.html

As for your situation, my opinion would be to demote these type of links from Webmaster Tools as they will only weaken up your link strength. You can take mass actions for such links by going to the "URL parameters" section from the "Crawl" tab in left. Here, you can decide which type of URL parameters (like Session_ID, Sort_By etc.) , Google should ignore.
Be careful though, cross check that any pattern you are demoting doesn't present any new content to the users than the original content. If you are not sure, you can let Google Bot decide what to do with these parameters, there is an option for that too there.

[widgetsupply]

Re: Google Webmaster Tools Weird 404 link

So, I made changes. Can you take a quick look and see what you think? Should I do anything with Screen, Store_Code, Product_Code, and Category_Code? Note: refid is tracking for SortPrice that I no longer use.

Capture.jpg

[rajnishsi]

Re: Google Webmaster Tools Weird 404 link

Hi,

As far as I know, they are implemented correctly. With regarding to the parameters Screen, Store_Code, Product_Code, and Category_Code, my understanding of Miva says that they are for internal processing of the system. It's very probable that you might get some duplicate URLs if URLs with these parameters are indexed by Google. One set represents URLs with SEO enabled and other with not. Both sets are valid and point to the same page.

e.g. https://www.widgetsupply.com/mm5/merchant.mvc and https://www.widgetsupply.com, they both point to your homepage but will be considered different by Google.
These situations can be easily fixed by the implementation of canonical tags. I don't see any inbuilt setting in Miva for canonical tags(there should be), but I found this page http://moz.com/community/q/rel-canon...-miva-merchant suggesting one such possible implementation, it's extracted from these forum posts, but I don't know which one. You should also implement this in your store to overcome the effect that these parameters can have on your site.

All of the above is my genuine suggestion and I would love to hear what Miva experts have to say for it.

[widgetsupply]

Re: Google Webmaster Tools Weird 404 link

Appreciate the help. I do have a canonical tag and have had for a long time, yet Webmaster Tools keeps indexing all of the weird links. Hopefully, these changes will help.

I'd love to hear from an expert as well.