Severe Health issue on my site through Webmaster tools
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I use Go Daddy Website Tonight. I keep getting a severe health message in Google Webmaster tools stating that my robots.txt file is blocking some important page. When I try to get more details the blocked file will not open. When I asked the Go Daddy peeps they told me that it was just image and backup files that do not need to be crawled. But if Google spiders keep thinking an important page is blocked will this hurt my SERPS?
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From what I know, Godaddy Website Tonight does not offer you the opportunity to create a custom robots.txt. I believe you have to sign up for there Search Engine Visibility services. Here is some more information: http://support.godaddy.com/help/article/5321
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Yes you are correct. I forgot to mention (sorry) that I do use S.E.V. It allows you to create a robots.txt and lets you choose pages to block. However, even when you choose allow all, by default it blocks certain files. Go Daddy tells me they are only system files but Google tells me an important page is blocked.
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Below is the robots.txt Website Tonight Creates when I tell it to allow all pages:
User-agent: *
Allow: /
User-agent: *
Disallow: /cache/
Disallow: /_backup/
Disallow: /_mygallery/
Disallow: /_temp/
Disallow: /_tempalbums/
Disallow: /_tmpfileop/
Disallow: /dbboon/
Disallow: /Flash/
Disallow: /images/
Disallow: /plugins/
Disallow: /scripts/
Disallow: /stats/
Disallow: /statshistory/
Disallow: /WstxSearchResults.html
Disallow: /WstxSearchResults.php
Disallow: /QSC/ -
Can you place the following in your browser and replace website with your domain name and www or non www in front. website.com/robots.txt
Let me know if you see the same stuff you sent me in your last response
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Yes. When I type www.shakes4life.com/robots.txt the same list shows.
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Is there something on it that would be detrimental to my SERPS?
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Is Google webmaster tools giving you the specific name of the files that are being blocked?
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When did Google last index your site? You can check this through webmaster tools. When did you instal the robots.txt file. The reason I ask: If Google's last crawl was before you uploaded your robots file then that could be the issue. Please look at these statistics and verify this before we move further.
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Also, the following are duplicates: http://www.shakes4life.com/shakeology.html & http://www.shakes4life.com
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It was just crawled. And it was after robots.txt was uploaded. This is the page it lists: siteUtil.js
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This is a javascript file and I don't see it being an issue unless Google thinks your hiding it to be spammy . Also, there are some that say it's a benefit to block js files from the search for SEO purposes. Here is an example of that situation: http://www.seomofo.com/advanced/do-not-let-google-crawl-javascript.html I think since this is out of your control and goes by the standard of how Godaddy sets up there sites, then it shouldn't be an issue.
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Oh OK great. Thanks so much for your help. I just got nervous because Google puts up the Severe Health Issue warning everytime I get crawled.
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Your welcome! I'm also sending the other side of the story not to confuse you but to allow you to make a decision based on both sides: http://groups.google.com/a/googleproductforums.com/forum/#!category-topic/webmasters/crawling-indexing--ranking/8nyxCtv9RHM
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Yes thanks. I foolishly renamed my home page and caused a duplicate page. Website tonight will not allow me to do a 301 redirect. I put a canonical tag on the /shakeology. Should this do the trick?
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Since I can't 301 it, would it be bad to delete the dupe page?
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Personally, that's what I would do is delete it. Unless, there is a reason you need that page.
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I really do appreciate all of your help. Here's the issue I'm having with this though... After I renamed the homepage file to add /shakeology.html to it (because I thought it would be beneficial to have a main keyword in the url) Website Tonight only shows me the homepage.com/shakeology.html and not the homepage.com. I'm afraid that if I delete /shakeology.html I will show neither one and in essence, according to Website Tonight just be deleting my homepage. I'm not sure how to properly accomplish what I'm looking to do without screwing myself any further??
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I found some great info here that I believe explains it: http://support.godaddy.com/help/2986/organizing-your-website-using-the-organize-site-page
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Yes I saw that but unfortunately the organize your site page on website tonight only shows the new page. I'm afraid to delete it and lose both.