Webmaster Tools - Sitemap Issue

chipj

Last night Google updated Webmaster Tools for my account. It now shows a feature/tool they call "Site Health".

For my SmugMug site Google Webmaster Tools is displaying the message, "Severe health issues are found on your site". There is a "Check site health" link to get more info. When I click on the "Check site health" link, I get the message "Some important page is blocked by robots.txt". I click on that link and it shows an issue with a SmugMug link that looks odd.

This link appears to be a link created by the date filtering/search tool, but it looks incorrect. The link is:
[my site domain]/date/1969-12-31/2011-08-26/26/1297159435_XP7zHTr#1502197968_cG7Ld2v

I don't how how Google was able to find this link, but if I try to use the search filter to recreate this link (12-31-1969 to 8-26-2011), the following link is created (by the search/filter tool):
[my site domain]/date/2010-01-1/2011-08-26#1449378495_b4gPfkv

A couple of issues stand out. First, I am unable to select 1969 in the date filtering tool, so I'm not sure how Google was able to find/follow a link with a year earlier than what's available (2010). In addition, the breadcrumb at the top of the search results page is displaying:
[my site name] > Date > 2011-08-26 to 26

Not sure how it's possible to filter "2011-08-26 to 26" dates, and so I'm suspecting that there may be some sort of redirect code in use on the SmugMug server that is incorrectly creating links and resulting in the "Site Health" error.

Is anyone else seeing similar issues being reported by Webmaster Tools?

rainforest1155

Hi,

This shouldn't be anything to worry about. It's probably that Google tried to access your site during our last night's maintenance. Next time Google comes by, it should clear that message.

The date links are part of our timeline feature that might have been indexed at some point in the past. The invalid date might have been due to some old bug. I really wouldn't worry about it as if it's listed as a blocked link, it'll eventually get removed by Google.

All in all, take the errors and problems Webmasters Tools with a grain of salt. Most of the errors showing will eventually clear automatically.
It's more useful for webmasters that host their own site and manage everything around it themselves.

Sebastian

chipj

I'll keep an eye on it, but another aspect of this is that the "/date" directory is actually disallowed in the robots.txt file. Not sure why Google would report a disallowed folder as an issue, but just thought I'd pass all this along...

rainforest1155 wrote: »

This shouldn't be anything to worry about. It's probably that Google tried to access your site during our last night's maintenance. Next time Google comes by, it should clear that message.

rainforest1155

Yes, I referenced that in my second paragraph. I can't see any /date reference in your site which is why I'm thinking this may be some old link that Google still has in its index somewhere.
That said, if you were to enable the 'timeline' box on your homepage, it would be normal for webmasters to show all timeline in the "restricted by robots.txt" section as we don't allow those to get indexed. Again that particular section of Google Webmasters shouldn't worry you.

Sebastian

PS: For future questions please include a link to your SmugMug site or at least your SmugMug nickname so we and other helpers can take a look at your site. It wasn't very easy to locate your site this time.

chipj

Interesting, I've never noticed the timeline feature before. The help file for Timeline feature states that; "you'll be able to decide whether to show photos by date taken or by date uploaded."

I don't see a selection for "date taken" or "date uploaded" when I add this to my home page. Are these settings located somewhere else in the control panel? If not, how does the tool know how to filter?

BTW, the Google Webmaster error has now disappeared, so I guess that's a non-issue now.

rainforest1155 wrote: »

[...]if you were to enable the 'timeline' box on your homepage, it would be normal for webmasters to show all timeline in the "restricted by robots.txt" section as we don't allow those to get indexed. Again that particular section of Google Webmasters shouldn't worry you.

rainforest1155

When you enable the photo timeline box via the 'homepage layout' button on your homepage you should see this:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/283274/sc4/20111002155300-00467x0015253.jpg

chipj

Okay, I missed this... thanks. Is this something new? I'd love to have these options available (sort on "date taken" or "date uploaded") with the "Recent Photos" widget (for the home page) OR even be able to set these per each gallery...

rainforest1155 wrote: »

When you enable the photo timeline box via the 'homepage layout' button on your homepage you should see this:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/283274/sc4/20111002155300-00467x0015253.jpg

rainforest1155

chipj wrote: »

Okay, I missed this... thanks. Is this something new? I'd love to have these options available (sort on "date taken" or "date uploaded") with the "Recent Photos" widget (for the home page) OR even be able to set these per each gallery...

Nope, this isn't new. Currently only the timeline box offers these options. You're welcome to put in a suggestion on our feedback pages:
http://feedback.smugmug.com/forums/17723-smugmug

Sebastian