Attachment Errors in Google Webmaster Tools

  • So, when I look at errors in Webmaster Tools I have literally thousands of “Server Errors” … all of them look like this – ?attachment_id=25394 (with different numbers).

    I don’t know if this means anything or not….. but I also have no clue what could be causing this. Obviously it must mean my images that have been uploaded, but I never refer to them as attachments … anyone know how to figure this out?

Viewing 7 replies - 1 through 7 (of 7 total)

  • You can request removal of nonexistent URLs by visiting your Webmaster Tools account.

    WordPress shows the images as attachments. So, before requesting removal, make sure that such attachment URLs are duplicates, else you will lose them from your indexed pages list.

    Thread Starter nickaster

    (@nickaster)

    Cool thanks. Well, that’s a solution, but first of all, why are all those attachement URLs invalid? Second, how in the world did google find them? there have been no links to anything like that as far as I can tell!

    why are all those attachement URLs invalid?

    Please review inserting images. It shows various sizes of the same image are created by default. So, though they cannot be said to be invalid, it makes no sense in getting various sizes indexed just because they show the same content.

    Thread Starter nickaster

    (@nickaster)

    Right…thanks. But all of the URLs that seem to have been indexed by google are dead links. I don’t know why. Any idea why that would be?

    Review these:
    https://www.ads-software.com/support/topic/plugin-wordpress-seo-by-yoast-replytocom?replies=4
    https://www.ads-software.com/support/topic/450-new-google-crawl-errors-13-digits-behind-the-existing-url?replies=20

    It has been known that because of plugins, scripts, or Google’s own mistakes, irrelevant/false links are created/indexed.

    Thread Starter nickaster

    (@nickaster)

    Thanks for your help… man, this thing is still killing me. There’s obviously something causing it (a script, plugin, i don’t know).

    Anyway, it’s incredibly hard to diagnose because it takes days of waiting before these things pop up again. I can’t completely disable Yoast for that kind of time. But I’ve slowly been disabling bits and pieces… thought I was in the clear and this morning *bam* 900+ errors on attachments just popped up again.

    Is there any way to just GET RID OF the entire “attachement” page thing? WHy in the world would anyone want a page on their site devoted to every single image they’ve ever uploaded? It seems like a ridiculous waste of time to me.

    Please read this (part of the link I quoted above):
    https://www.ads-software.com/support/topic/450-new-google-crawl-errors-13-digits-behind-the-existing-url?replies=20#post-3200765

    In that post I have quoted Google’s own reply to the question. They say to ignore it. I am quoting it again here for your convenience.

    Thanks for the examples, everyone! It does look like we’re picking up something funny via JavaScript there. We’re looking into what can be done in this particular case. In the meantime, keep in mind that 404 errors of URLs that are invalid (like these appear to be) are not something that would affect your site’s indexing or ranking, so while I understand that they may be confusing (and I’m sorry for the number of URLs here), it’s not something that you’d need to take action on.

    If the problem is still troubling you, you have to take up the matter with Google and get rid of the nonexistent links.
    Here are more Google links to help you identify the errors and also how to get Google’s help to deal with them.
    https://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/topic.py?hl=en&topic=2446029
    https://support.google.com/webmasters/?hl=en
    I am sorry but WordPress can offer solutions only if such multiple links are created by WordPress.

Viewing 7 replies - 1 through 7 (of 7 total)
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