Webmaster Tools shows Crawl error sources

Monday, October 13, 2008

Ever since we released the crawl errors
feature in
Webmaster Tools,
webmasters have asked for the sources of the URLs causing the errors. Well, we’re listening! We
know it was difficult for those of you who wanted to identify the cause of a particular “Not
found” error, in order to prevent it in the future or even to request a correction, without
knowing the source URL. Now, Crawl error sources makes the process of tracking down the causes
of “Not found” errors a piece of cake. This helps you improve the user experience on your site
and gives you a jump start for
links week
(check out our updated post on
“Good times with inbound links”
to get the scoop).

In our “Not Found” and “Errors for URLs in Sitemaps” reports, we’ve added the “Linked From”
column. For every error in these reports, the “Linked From” column now lists the number of pages
that link to a specific “Not found” URL.

Clicking on an item in the “Linked From” column opens a separate dialog box which lists each page
that linked to this URL along with the date it was discovered. The source URL for the
404 can be within or external to your site.

For those of you who just want the data, we’ve also added the ability to download all your crawl
error sources at once. Just click the “Download all sources of errors on this site” link to
download all your site’s crawl error sources.

Again, if we report crawl errors for your website, you can use crawl error sources to quickly
determine if the cause is from your site or someone else’s. You’ll have the information you need
to contact them to get it fixed, and if needed, you can still put in place
redirects on your own site to the appropriate URL.
Just sign in to
Webmaster Tools
and check it out for your verified site. You can help people visiting your site—from anywhere on
the web—find what they’re looking for.

Written by Jonathan Simon, Webmaster Trends Analyst and Michael Williamson, Webmaster Tools Intern