"File Not Found" requests handling is sending status code 200 - should be 404

If I try to edit the vBSEO-option "File Not Found" requests handling" and if I choose the option "Include custom script" and insert my own 404-page, the script sends a HTTP-Status-Code 200. But this is wrong, vBSEO should send a 404-code ("page not found") instead!

Whoa guys, this is a critical bug! vBSEO delivers every non-existing forum-URL with status-code 200 and says to requesting search-engines that this would be a valid URL and that it should index it. This is inacceptable because it allows search engines to index invalid URLs.

post a screen shot of just that area... You may have it set up incorrectly.

No I don't. The 404-file I entered gets delivered correctly, only the status code is wrong. And you can verify it on your own forum that a 200-code will be send (I am using the latest vBSEO-version). Please fix this critical bug ASAP. Thanks!

And before someone should ask this: I even inserted the following two lines into my custom 404 page:

PHP Code:

header("HTTP/1.0 404 Not Found");
header("Status: 404 Not Found"); 


And vBSEO is still sending a 200-code.
If I use this error-page on a domain/path outside of my forum, everything works fine and a 404-code is returned. Even if I disable and remove vBSEO completely from my forum, everything works fine in the scope of my forum url and a 404 is returned. So what's wrong with vBSEO here?

If you select "Include custom script" option, you should handle all http codes in YOUR script. vBSEO does not affect it.
Or use "Send 404 code" option to let vBSEO handle it.

And vBSEO is still sending a 200-code.

vBSEO does not send http code "200" anywhere, regardless of entered URL or defined settings.

http://www.kenttalk.co.uk/454535 example of my error pages.. is that wrong?

I have the same problem when I select 'Redirect to homepage ' for '"File Not Found" requests handling?' in vbseocp.

'Send 404 HTTP code' does it correctly though.

haven't tested the third option.

Originally Posted by Oleg Ignatiuk

If you select "Include custom script" option, you should handle all http codes in YOUR script. vBSEO does not affect it.

Like I said before, I already did that (at least I tried). Are these two lines of PHP-code mentioned above correct or did I forget something?

Originally Posted by Martyn

http://www.kenttalk.co.uk/454535 example of my error pages.. is that wrong?

How does your error-script look like? Are you sending 404-header-lines explicitely? If yes, are they different from my approach above?

http://www.kenttalk.co.uk/454535 example of my error pages.. is that wrong?

Yes, your custom "File not found" page returns 404 http code.

I have the same problem when I select 'Redirect to homepage ' for '"File Not Found" requests handling?' in vbseocp.

'Redirect to homepage' option means sending *redirect* http code instead of 404.

Like I said before, I already did that (at least I tried).

You said that this is a vBSEO bug, while it is not. vBSEO doesn't send ANY http code when this option is selected.

Originally Posted by Oleg Ignatiuk

You said that this is a vBSEO bug, while it is not. vBSEO doesn't send ANY http code when this option is selected.

Yes, I already read and understood that before I wrote my last reply in this thread. I didn't doubt it after you explained it. So why are you repeating this instead of answering my last question?

Here you go: Create a Custom vBulletin "404 Page Not Found" Page, and direct vBSEO to use it.

Ouch! Problem solved. Of course it did not work when I first tried it because I did not send the 404-codes in my script. But then I also tried it with the 404-header-codes like I said here. And the only problem was, that my browser cached the error-page and also the previous http-status-code. Pressing F5 wasn't enough, I had to press CTRL+F5 and now I can see the correct status-code (404).
Thanks for trying to help me, although it was my own fault (=foolishness) .