Redirect misspelled URL or not ?

[JorgeV]

Hello,

Is it a good (or bad) idea to redirect misspelled URL? For example, in my logs, I see requests such as

domain.ext/path/blue-widget/check%20about%20blue%20widget

the right URL being :

domain.ext/path/blue-widget/

This is the result of someone making a mistake while creating a link to my site. I have several like that, looks like lot of people are making mistakes :-/

Since all request are processed by a .php script , I am able to add a piece of code, to analyses the URL and redirect to the "right" URL. Good or bad idea?

I am asking because it ends to be "soft 404".

Thank you,

[not2easy]

Is is possible to capture the request and suggest the correct URL on your 404 page? That could be better than creating a soft 404.

[lucy24]

If it’s a choice between redirecting, and serving content at the original misspelled URL, redirect every time.

The choice is especially easy when it just involves one specific URL that was wrong for some specific cause.

To this day I have a redirect in one directory because in an earlier incarnation of the site I goofed in php, leading to a set of internal links with // in the middle. The server doesn’t care, and will serve content as if it were a single slash, but, well, I don’t like it. And unfortunately I didn’t notice the blunder until after the bingbot (in this respect they are worse than google) had discovered the link.

If it is in your power to do so, see if you can get the linking site to fix it at their end. I realize this is often not possible, but it’s nice when it works. That way, the unwanted link won't keep getting reinforced every time a search engine sees it.

[phranque]

I am asking because it ends to be "soft 404".

could you please clarify this statement?

[lucy24]

On re-reading, I think it means the php script rewrites to (i.e. serves content from) the correct page while continuing to display the incorrect URL. That’s a soft 404--or was, back before G started using the term to designate “any page we don’t feel like displaying in SERPs”.*


* I have one site where the front page got labeled “soft 404”, so all searchers got sent to an interior page that was less useful to them. I figured out how to make the designation go away, but seriously, the front page?!?

[Robert Charlton]

I am asking because it ends to be "soft 404".

Clarifications I felt that were needed when I published the post from premod very late at night (or early in the morning).....

- what is the antecedent of the indefinite pronoun "it"?
- "ends" suggests a process of some sort. Please describe what the process was.
- please be more precise about the situation that creates the soft 404

[not2easy]

On re-reading, I think it means the php script rewrites to (i.e. serves content from) the correct page while continuing to display the incorrect URL.

@lucy24 - yes, that's how I read it which is why I thought it would be better to post the new link to the 404 page rather than rewrite it and have a soft 404. That way the visitor gets to the right page and sees that there was an error so they can note the correct URL (maybe).

[JesterMagic]

I return a 404 with a few links if it can determine what maybe the user was trying to reach

For example if the user is in the forum it would try to find a similar URL and return that along with a link to the index of the forum and a link to the search page.

[JorgeV]

Hello,

My bad, I misunderstood the meaning of Soft 404. I always thought it was a the fact of answering/processing all requests, even for non existing pages. But redirects do not fall in this category apparently. So forget, my question. Sorry.

[lucy24]

I misunderstood the meaning of Soft 404

Originally a “Soft 404” meant handling all page-not-found errors by redirecting--typically and infuriatingly, by sending everyone to the home page, so you have no way of figuring out whether you'd simply mistyped your request, or maybe a stray punctuation mark sneaked in at the end (especially in auto-generated links, as from a forum).

Somewhere along the line, G decided that a “Soft 404” is instead any request that results in content they don’t consider adequate. Hmph.

[tangor]

Chasing typos ... that can be a time sink, plus g might not like it.

Add to your 404

"NOT FOUND. Did you enter the URL correctly? Please try again."

[phranque]

Originally a “Soft 404” meant handling all page-not-found errors by redirecting--typically and infuriatingly, by sending everyone to the home page, ...

originally "soft 404" meant handling what were essentially page-not-found errors not by redirecting, but by sending everyone typically to the home page, and returning a 200 OK status code instead of a 404 or a 301 to a suitable url.

[phranque]

Chasing typos ... that can be a time sink, plus g might not like it.

that depends entirely on whether or not it's real traffic.
who cares what G thinks? getting a 404 because of a mere typo in the url is a poor user experience.

[not2easy]

From the OP:

This is the result of someone making a mistake while creating a link to my site. I have several like that, looks like lot of people are making mistakes :-/

it looks like these are incoming links, not individual typos and they may have been caused by folks sharing links via email or documents that format the text.

The example given "check%20about%20blue%20widget" appears to be anchor text added after the URL but included as part of the URL. That can happen when someone (clumsily) copies from email or text. They have the right URL, but an accidental appendage at the end that gets urlencoded by the browser.

[lucy24]

If the added part is predictable--or the real part has a consistent format--you might also be able to handle it with a single global redirect, analogous to the way some sites redirect
blahblah.html?querystring
to
blahblah.html
(I think I actually have a rule like this, though I can't remember the circumstances that made it necessary. Possibly some specific forum or social media.)

[JorgeV]

Hello,

> getting a 404 because of a mere typo in the url is a poor user experience.

Good point.

[lucy24]

getting a 404 because of a mere typo in the url is a poor user experience

But it’s still preferable to getting redirected to some random page that isn’t where you wanted to go. That’s why it makes such a big difference how many URLs are involved, or whether there are predictable patterns.

[tangor]

Deal with the most common typos and redirect accordingly. Otherwise deal with the path modifications. Just know there's only so far you can go because the user is a very inventive character, even if they don't know they are inventing anything!

Deal with the URL rubbish first, and regex if your best friend in that regard.