Question Soft 404's

[Mick]

Hi Fillip H.,

Not sure if this is related or not, but I have not added anything to the site the only thing that I have done is update DBSEO.

I am getting emails daily from google webmaster about high increase in soft 404's and all that is displayed in the soft 404 page is TAGS URLS from my site.

Is there something I need to do?

Just found it very strange as never had this issue before now?

Regards
Mick

 

[Fillip H.]

Are there any common factors in the URLs that are showing up as soft 404s?

 

[Mick]

Here is a list from webmaster tools.

#####################

tags/8890/
11/20/14

2
tags/debrandthree/
11/19/14

3
tags/gentlelol/
11/19/14

4
tags/www.myringtones.net/
11/19/14

5
tags/buy/index1121.html
11/21/14

6
tags/flash/index420.html
11/21/14

7
tags/difference/index162.html
11/21/14

8
tags/server/index272.html
11/21/14

9
tags/firmware/index659.html
11/21/14

10
tags/nintendo%20wii/index133.html
11/21/14

11
tags/server/index232.html
11/20/14

12
tags/amazon/index83.html
11/20/14

13
tags/head/index3.html
11/20/14

14
tags/card/index1432.html
11/19/14

15
tags/tv/index593.html
11/19/14

16
tags/sell/index300.html
11/19/14

17
tags/blue/index572.html
11/19/14

18
tags/working/index990.html
11/19/14

19
tags/net/index322.html
11/19/14

20
tags/channels/index591.html
11/19/14

21
tags/net/index682.html
11/19/14

22
tags/box/index1723.html
11/19/14

23
tags/network/index308.html
11/19/14

24
tags/save/index616.html
11/18/14

25
tags/audio/index169.html
11/18/14

#####################

 

[Mick]

Got another email this morning now.



Thank you.

 

[Fillip H.]

Are those URLs valid on your site?

 

[Mick]

No they are not found

 

[Fillip H.]

In that case, the increase in soft 404 errors is working as intended. It's DBSEO letting Google know not to re-crawl those links, and Google is letting you know that there's a significant increase in them in case this was something you had control over and you didn't intend for it to happen

 

[Mick]

Fair enough, thanks for getting back to me.