304 "If Modified Header" Triggers Error in Google Ads?

[mirabile]

We have a client who is launch some Google Ads campaigns, and they recently asked us to fix 304 "Errors" on their website as per this feedback:

"When we inspected the website we came across a number of 304 status errors. In order to get the ads running, we will need all of the website domain status codes converted to 200. “

Of course, all of their website pages return a 200 Status, it's just the HTTP headers that additionally clarify with a 304 Response (not an error).

Has anyone else ever run into this issue with Google Ads? IMHO it makes no sense to remove this functionality. Google has even recommended in the past to use this it:

https://webmasters.googleblog.com/2008/11/date-with-googlebot-part-ii-http-status.html

Thanks for any tips or feedback!

[effectdigital]

This means that Google believe there is an error with the landing pages which you have entered for your ads. 9 times out of 10, this comes down to someone putting the wrong URL into the Google Ads back-end and then having issues. This is especially the case for 3XX errors which usually indicate that redirects are at play. In your case, the story seems to be a bit different

Google is telling you that when they visit your landing URLs for your ads, instead of the ad connecting straight to the page, Google gets redirected:

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Status/304##targetText=The%20HTTP%20304%20Not%20Modified,redirection%20to%20a%20cached%20resource.

"The HTTP **304 Not Modified** client redirection response code indicates that there is no need to retransmit the requested resources. It is an implicit redirection to a cached resource."

So basically, Google cannot load your landing page because they are being redirected to a cache of the landing page instead of the live URL. This is unlikely to be down to someone entering the URL incorrectly in Google Ads (as that would be more likely to spawn a 301, 302 or 307). If you keep serving Google a cached version of your landing page, they can't know what's underneath of that redirect. As such, they can't trust the contents of the web-page

Some unscrupulous marketers, might use a 304 to get Google to evaluate a fake landing page, then send actual users to a completely different landing page (other than the one which Google evaluated). My guess is, this is a vulnerability which Google are unwilling to tolerate on their ads platform

[mirabile]

So - we pushed back a bit because we seriously couldn't fathom why we'd need to remove all of the 304 functionality from the website due to a directive from the Google Ads team.

Turns out, our gut instinct was right. The client's PPC agency ended up giving the Google Ads team a call, and then they learned that there was actually a 404 error happening (face palm) for one page. Not a 304.

Leaving this post here for good measure in case this ever happens to anyone else. Watch out for typos!