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On one of my sites I see several hundred Soft 404 Errors in Google Webmaster Tools.
They look like this:
/images/22129harry-potter-and-the-sorcerers-stone-epub.html
/images/19808xbox-360-tools-hazard.html
/images/8988windows-7-activator-100-working-pack-1-all-in-oneactivator.html
Of course, the site is neither about Harry Potter nor about Windows 7.
Where is this coming from? What should I do?
I just did a search for the first image at Google using the link: operator and they returned 3 results, the first one clearly stating some of the words in the link did not exist (IDIOTS this means the result should not be there) and the other two results did NOT contain the exact link either (which again shows the idiocy of google since they have no clue on what website those image links actually exist either)
Since one of the 404's you posted Dan has the windows7 activator in it, my guess is that came from Kat (the torrent site) since they often have image links from other sites, how they are pointing at your site is just another of the great goog mysteries.
This is not a surprise to me as I run in to this kind of stupid stuff all the time. Try search for information about Server 2008 and NOT getting info about Windows 7.....even when you use the - (minus) operator it doesn't help.
And there is nothing more frustrating than spending hours looking for technical information and keep getting pages that do NOT even contain the words you are looking for, and this is becoming more of a problem every single day.
Rick
Universal4
Side note: Finding a little bit of cross reference stuff on windows 7 or windows vista when looking for server info has a little bit of logic to it since 200 R1 was built on the same code base as vista and 2008 R2 is built on the same code base as windows 7, but if you post the queries correctly, even at times using the quotes in the query looking for "Server 2008" stuff and you are sent to pages that do NOT contain the words you are looking for (if the words are in quotes the pages are supposed to have the EXACT phrase contained on the page) it is no wonder the above happens.
In my opinion I think the problem is that the algo is such a mess anymore, Google does NOT follow it's own rule set in their query structure.
And this is the message I'd get when clicking one of the links:
Not Found
The requested URL /exe-mix-71/12193ecs-n8400gs-128dy-v10-nvidia-graphics-driver-19741-64-bit.html was not found on this server.
Apache/2.2.22 (Debian) Server at viagra-in-russia.ru Port 80
Note the viagra-in-russia.ru part. The URL displayed here is also completely different than the URL of the link I clicked. This one doesn't even start with /image folder.
In the meanwhile I have set up custom error pages so now this doesn't show anymore but...WTF?
LOL....
OK..Dan I will only say this since I am not sitting across the table from you so you can't smack me....
Welcome to Google.....lol
I agree...W T F?
Rick
Universal4
So what you're saying is that I have nothing to worry about and that this is not some sort of attack?
And that I shouldn't be checking my backlink profile and perhaps disavowing some links?
I am not sure, but it seems strange that even google has it wrong that the links exist and I could not seem to find them in the cache either.
Let's see what the other recommendations are as to whether to disavow or just 301 them...
I would not recommend not watching for this stuff, it's just that not everyone agrees with how to take care of it.
Rick
Universal4
Ok thanks Rick.