Question
So I've been using sitemaps for quite some time now and last Thursday I noticed that there was an error.
On about 10 (total of about 125) of my pages I get a DNS timeout error. The sitemap wasn't changed, and prior to Thursday no errors.
I haven't changed providers or DNS servers, so I'm wondering why the errors? The pages that they "say" are unreachable are perfectly reachable by me.
I know that they just did some changes and was wondering if anyone is having similar issues.
TIA
Answer
No problems here.
Any chance your website/host was down for a tad during the bot?
Answer
Originally Posted by Kathleen
No problems here.
Any chance your website/host was down for a tad during the bot?
I have access to the logs and it doesn't appear so.
Maybe just a fluke, it seems to be ok for now.
Answer
As long as your site map is getting downloaded rugularly, don't sweat the intermittent errors that you may encounter.
I've attached a snapshot of my errors page.
Note the 404 errors. All pages were checked shortly after receiving the error and were found to be functioning as advertised.
Google's site maps has some quirks!
Cheers
Answer
I found that many of those 404 errors (mine, not yours) were from other sites "framing" pages of mine. Once I changed the page name, or sold the item and removed it, those 404 error notices popped up like fleas.
Over about a month, they slowly disappear.
(As too did the "framing" websites.)
A few were also from older Froogle feeds of items which had been sold.
Not that it should hurt you, but if you do the Froogle feeds, try to keep it updated and remove items that you no longer have available.