Error Page is double content!

Many internet projects have an error page (e.g. error.php) where all uncorrect URLs link to.

But that is double content, isn´t it?
Many URLs for only one content/site!?

Maybe in the next version of vbseo could create an new feature which links the uncorrect URLs with 301 to the error page!


I think that isn´t such a huge work and mybe the feature is able soon


Greetings,

shaochun

i have an error page which is sending the 404 header with a search form on it. where is the DC there? i tell search engines, that the page ist not existing and let the visitor search my forums...

I dont see the harm in having a 404 page leading to duplicate content? Or else no one would be using them, there would only be an issue if you where using this duplicate content for means of boosting your sites content relevancy, but lets be honest who wants to rank highly for the "Page Not Found" record. Doesnt exactly scream reliability.

A 404 error page will not create duplicate content.

So,

there is still a problem. Since i´ve been running vbseo, there´s no redirect to my www.martialartsforum.org/error.php.

For example: www.martialartsforum.org/jibrsjobsdfjovns

Befor i ran vbseo, it redirected to www.martialartsforum.org/error.php. Now the wrong url is shown in the browserurlfield and not /error.php and that is doublicate content, isn´t it?

I may be entirely wrong here, but.. is it not that the duplicate content issue only relates to the content concerned?

IE: you have an article. It is repeated several times. Google doesn't like that, so doesn't give it PR, or links.. or something.

Why do you care about the PR/Links to your error page?

I don´t want an Page Ranking for my error.php. But that isn´t the problem
The problem is the redirection.

Since i have been using vbseo, there´s no redirect to /error.php anymore. The wrong URL is still in the browserurlfield, and not /error.php. So, when google gets more wrong urls it gives this wrong urls PR (!!!) and it´s the same content. Before vbseo, it redirected to /error.php (the url in the browserurlfield got /error.php and not e.g. /jibfjksbcfj).

For example:

Before vbseo the urls, which weren´t on server any more were redirected to www.martialartsforum.org/error.php This url was shown also in the browserurl field. So google saw, that was an error page...ok.

Today: You go to: www.martialartsforum.org/jkbfjksebk (wrong url) and you get also an error page, but in the browserurlfield the wrong url is shown!

Yes, that´s the Problem. The redirection to error pages.

All 404's work that way though...

My root isn't controlled by vbSEO at all. I'm just using custom 404 errors in my root .htaccess and I get the same thing:

http://www.fireblades.org/tempnotthere/

Originally Posted by shaochun

Today: You go to: www.martialartsforum.org/jkbfjksebk (wrong url) and you get also an error page, but in the browserurlfield the wrong url is shown!

That's the correct way of doing it.. if the browser redirects it to the actual error page it'll result in a Code 200 being sent which means all is ok and chances are Google will list that page and won't clear out the 404 pages.

But the way it's done it sends an Error code 404 and this shows Google that the page is missing and as such they'll clear it out of their system.

You can always include something like:

/home/user/public_html/error.php

via the 'Include Custom Error Page' field via the vBSEO CP, however, as ADM mentions, the only way to let google know that the page doesn't exists is sending a 404 code.