Webmaster Tools and 404's

[alvin123]

In webmaster tools I'm seeing 404's for pages that do not exist. For instance the correct URL is www.example.com/widgets.htm Googlebot returns URL www.example.com/wydgets.htm as a 404?

Googlebot is misspelling the correct URL's and returning 404's.

Has anyone experienced this or know why it would happen?

Thanks for any help.

[trimmer80]

a) If you use sitemaps check for the misspelling
b) It may be someone misspelt the url on their site linking to yours

[Keniki]

I think the cause will be a mispelt internal link. There are many linkchecker both desktop and server side that can be used to do this. I was unaware that an incorrect link from another site can cause this if google see's it as a external link, but would be pleased is there is more information on this from other webmasters.

[alvin123]

trimmer...I don't have a site map so that couldn't be the reason, it's possible someone linked to my site with an incorrect URL.

kiniki...I'll download a link checker and see what I can find.

I just went webmaster tools, a couple of the URL's Googlebot says are not working, work fine when I click on them.

Thanks for the replies.

[Keniki]

Hi alvin123,

Yes webmastertools often alerts pages that have no problem thats not too much of a concern. Please keep us posted if you find an internal page causing the 404 after using a linkchecker.

Thanks :)

Keniki

[trimmer80]

Also, if you have access to server logs, you can search them for the misspelt word and it may give you information on the referring page.