Google 'Empty Redirect' 'Not Followed'

[BWoodward]

Hello,
I am not a developer but more work in SEO so find the technical side a bit harder to figure out.

The crawl errors section in our google webmaster account shows around 500 of the pages on our site are 'not followed' due to an 'empty redirect'.

The urls 'not followed' are listed like below:

http://www.example.co.uk/favourite-set.php?product_id=1
http://www.example.co.uk/favourite-set.php?product_id=101

I know our developer used a mod re-write so all of these pages are actually rewritten and do appear structured as normal urls should e.g.
http://www.example.co.uk/brand/brand-model/product-name

Can anyone tell me if this is something we should be worried about?

Much Appreciated

[edited by: jdMorgan at 2:27 pm (utc) on Sep. 20, 2009]
[edit reason] example.co.uk [/edit]

[jdMorgan]

I've no idea what an "empty redirect" is, but you could use the "Live HTTP Headers" add-on for Firefox/Mozilla browsers to "watch" a request for one of these redirected URLs, and observe the transactions between the browser and your server. That would help you (and us) to understand what Google is complaining about.

If you're using 'static-looking' URLs without query strings, and linking only to those URLs from within your own site, then Google should not be complaining. So check that first: Query-string URLs should never appear on any of your pages.

If they do, then that must be fixed in the scripts that generate those pages.

And if they don't, then it's possible --even likely-- that you've got your mod_rewrite rules out of sequence, and that an internal rewrite of static->dynamic URLs is being followed by an external redirect that is 'exposing' the previously-rewritten filepath to the client as a URL... big problem.

In general, RewriteRules should be ordered with all external redirects first, in order from most-specific patterns and conditions to least specific, followed by internal rewrites, again in order from most-specific to least specific.

Also, do not mix the use of mod_alias Redirect directives and mod_rewrite RewriteRule directives; If you use mod_rewrite at all, then use it exclusively. This prevents problems that can arise because it is the server configuration that controls whether mod_alias or mod_rewrite is executed first, and that could change due to a 'server upgrade' or a change in hosting providers.

Jim

[g1smd]

An 'empty redirect' is when a resource returns a 301 response code WITHOUT a URL to redirect to in the header.

Look to a programming error in the script running the site more than an error in the .htaccess file.

[BWoodward]

Thank you for your answers. Our Webmaster has now changed the mod re-write slightly so the search engine doesn't follow pages from our shopping cart page and the "not followed" pages are on the decline.

I have a new question, this may be the wrong forum now but I have submitted a sitemap to google for our website www.example.co.uk and still a lot of our tail end pages (individual pen pages like: www.example.co.uk/caran-d-ache/dunas/caran-d-ache-dunas-ballpoint-pen-black) aren't getting indexed, could this have something to do with the php links/script ing used on our website?

Any help would be great.

[edited by: jdMorgan at 12:30 pm (utc) on Sep. 29, 2009]
[edit reason] example.com.uk [/edit]

[jdMorgan]

Pages not getting indexed could be for any of a thousand reasons...

> Our Webmaster has now changed the mod re-write slightly so the search engine doesn't follow pages from our shopping cart page and the "not followed" pages are on the decline.

I hope you are saying that your Webmaster found and corrected whatever it was that allowed a redirect status to be returned by your server without a "Location" header specifying the redirect target URL. If not, you have simply borrowed time and will likely have problems again with this or a related consequence. The problem you reported was very serious, and is nothing to trifle with. Please do be sure that you've fixed the root cause, and not just treated the symptoms.

Jim