Solution for 404 http header on empty categories/locations

[teseo]

Hi,

Just found a neat way to send a nice 200 Ok when there are no search results (we want search engines indexing that page anyway), with no modification in core files.

Add this at the very bottom of your theme functions.php (take care not to leave blank lines after this):

Code: [Select]

<?php
function cust_avoid_false_404() {    
    if (!Search::newInstance()->count()) header('HTTP/1.1 200 Ok'); 
}

osc_add_hook("after_search", "cust_avoid_false_404" );
?>

Regards

[itcafeonline]

This is one mod that was badly needed. Awesome teseo....as always...Thank You

[itcafeonline]

Hi teseo, I have been watching the soft 404's on web masters. They seem to have NOT gone down. They have remained the same. Will track more and let you know.

[teseo]

Hi,

This method is working, test any of those Webmasters URL's here:

http://httpstatus.io/

to see a 200 OK with no redirection.

Probably those were indexed before you made this modification. You'd need to ensure that Google re-index your whole site or mark those as errors (on Google side), so they should try again.

Regards

[Aficionado]

Nice change, thanks TESEO.

Especially on multi-country as subdomains mode this is needed to avoid a HUGE ammount of 404.

[serjuc11111]

maybe this is better....
header response 200 ok status header('HTTP/1.1 200 Ok')
and put in meta ="noindex, follow" for empty pages!

!

[p206ab]

Awesome, been wondering about this empty categories noindexing problem for a while now.. thanks Teseo! 

serjuc11111, why noindex,follow?

[Aficionado]

Just found out that Bender and some other bended-based themes, null empty cat/subcats with http: #

And that function above doesn't work any more.

[teseo]

Hi,

Really nothing to do with this matter, in Bender there's no link to another page if the category is empty, just "#". If you want to change this behaviour you need to alter bender/functions.php:

1.-

Code: [Select]

                    <?php } else { ?>
                    <a class="category <?php echo $_slug; ?>" href="#"><?php echo $_name ; ?></a> <span>(<?php echo $_total_items ; ?>)</span>

to:

Code: [Select]

                    <?php } else { ?>
                    <a class="category <?php echo $_slug; ?>" href="<?php echo $_url; ?>"><?php echo $_name ; ?></a> <span>(<?php echo $_total_items ; ?>)</span>

2.- A few lines below:

Code: [Select]

                        <?php } else { ?>
                        <a class="category sub-category <?php echo osc_category_slug() ; ?>" href="#"><?php echo osc_category_name() ; ?></a> <span>(<?php echo osc_category_total_items() ; ?>)</span>

to:

Code: [Select]

                        <?php } else { ?>
                        <a class="category sub-category <?php echo osc_category_slug() ; ?>" href="<?php echo osc_search_category_url() ; ?>"><?php echo osc_category_name() ; ?></a> <span>(<?php echo osc_category_total_items() ; ?>)</span>

Regards

[Aficionado]

Thanks, still what do you think it is the best way to handle this ?

404, #, nothing ?

[teseo]

On empty category, vanilla Bender just creates a pseudo-link, Infinity (based on Bender) doesn't put any link at all, Modern gives a normal link => 404 normally, 200 with this modification.

My changes above make Bender acting like Modern, if you're interested in all your categories being indexed by search engines as soon as possible, better always provide a valid link (Modern model).

Regards

[design]

long awaited beautiful code :-) thank you!!

[lineinfire]

This is brilliant. Thanks a ton.

[SmaRTeY]

Okay, this sounds like a good thing but I am a noob when it comes to Google and how they go about 404's let alone any other search engine (do they react all the same?) 

Tell me if I understand correct, the 404 is sent by Osclass in case an ad is no longer available but was indexed by Google?
So this fix tells Google, hey here's your 200 OK page, no 404 problem and Google is happy but you actually let Google keep the lost page indexed? Or is something else happening here?

On empty category, vanilla Bender just creates a pseudo-link, Infinity (based on Bender) doesn't put any link at all, Modern gives a normal link => 404 normally, 200 with this modification.

My changes above make Bender acting like Modern, if you're interested in all your categories being indexed by search engines as soon as possible, better always provide a valid link (Modern model).

Regards

[Aficionado]

@Eric

Osclass Modern theme sends a "soft" 404 (404 in http header) for empty categories but SHOWS the page.

The above code is removing that.

Now, for Google, not sure what it is best to do. With any kind of 404 error the categories with no items willl never be indexed. And that for a new website is not good.

Personally i have tried both solutions and i haven't seen any benefit from Google OR any penalty from Google. So i have installed the 404 removal.