404 errors from google

[recover]

Okay, I'm new at this so let me know if I should look elsewhere for an answer.

My site (www.recoverings.com) is finally showing up on Google, but the liinks which point to inside pages (anything other than my "front door" page) always come up with 404 "page not found" errors. When the link to the home page is activated, everything works fine, or when the URL is just typed into the address field.

Is this something I can fix or is it a problem from Google? What can I do about it?

Any help is appreciated.

[stratplan]

When I looked at your site, and checked the code, I don't think you have really anything for google to 'grab' - image maps aren't really read, and you don't have any 'links' to hit and draw the google bot into the site. It works for mouse clicks, sure, but bots like links.

You might try:

Some visible links outside the image map (will help human eyes too) and put some text on the front page so it can be read with some pertinent key words.

I would add some meta tags for description and key words also. There's some discussion as to whether they are used, but I think they are.

[recover]

Thanks for your suggestions, stratplan.

It took me a while to get around to it, but I made some changes to the site by adding "live" copy links to each of the pages. I already had keywords and meta tags in the front page, should I add them to ALL the pages?

I know the Google bot is finding my pages because I can do a search on "Tarzan jackets" for instance, and come right up on top. But I'm still getting 404 errors when I try to follow the link from Google. Maybe it takes a while for Google to recognize the changes?

Is this when I should set up custom error pages, or redirect pages? Is there a good site somewhere that answers these kinds of questions since I don't see much of this "basic" information on the Page-Zone site.

[recover]

Why does that little envelope over to the left of this thread have a black spot on it? I didn't see anything about setting that when I started this.

[stratplan]

Originally posted by recover
I already had keywords and meta tags in the front page, should I add them to ALL the pages?

IMO, all pages should have them, and they should be appropriate for that page

I know the Google bot is finding my pages because I can do a search on "Tarzan jackets" for instance, and come right up on top.

That's good

But I'm still getting 404 errors when I try to follow the link from Google. Maybe it takes a while for Google to recognize the changes?

That's bad. What does the link (blue usually) have? You can right-click your mouse and copy it. If google has a link it is from your page so it isn't google's fault. But yes, they only spider every so often.

Is this when I should set up custom error pages, or redirect pages?

Yes. Always (again IMO) have a custom error page. You can have a generic one for all pages that works no matter where the error is that politely says "some pages may have changed, please click here to go back to the homepage {your index here]" etc. Put it in your root directory.

Is there a good site somewhere that answers these kinds of questions since I don't see much of this "basic" information on the Page-Zone site.

There are a lot - I like:
http://www.echoecho.com/school.htm
for openers.

[stratplan]

Originally posted by recover
Why does that little envelope over to the left of this thread have a black spot on it? I didn't see anything about setting that when I started this.

I don't see a little envelope...nor black spot. Sounds like a conspiracy to me. (just kidding) I really don't see it tho.

[grobe]

While Google is constantly scanning the web, there is a deep scan only once a month for most sites and a later monthly update to the index. So it definitely takes a while for changes in your site to be reflected at Google. There is a forum for Google at http://webmasterworld.com