Truncated SEO Friendly URLs?

[blueedge]

In the last one or two weeks, I have notice several 404 errors. The errors are from visitors attempting to call up a page using a nonexistent URL.

 

The URL that is attempted is a truncated version of a valid URL. For example, the actual URL might be word1-word2-word3.html. (SEO friendly URLs are set up on my web site.) However, 404 errors have been generated by calls to ?word1-word2?, ?word1-word2-word3.h? or similar truncated versions a valid URL.

 

The 404 errors are not coming from visitors who have already clicked on pages within the web site. The 404 errors are from visitors trying to initially access the web sit. So, it is not a problem of internal broken links.

 

I have not discovered a pattern to the 404 truncated URL errors. They involve several of different pages/URLs. The length of the truncation does not seem to be consistent. The errors are generated from visitors from different IP addresses.

 

Somehow these visitors are trying to reach the site using a truncated URL. What could be causing this? Has anyone else experienced this?

[blueedge]

I'm still receiving 404 errors from visitors attempting to land on nonexistent pages (although not as frequently). The URLs that are attempted are truncated valid URLs.

 

Although I don't know why/how they are occurring, I have noticed that the truncation is 24 characters long. For example, instead of http://www.mysite.com/word1-word2-word3-word4.html, the truncated URL is http://www.mysite.com/word1-word2-word3-word4. The valid URL page is available. Others are finding the pages without difficulty.

 

I'm not sure if the visitors are bots or humans. They attempt a nonexistent URL two or three times then leave. The most recent attempts have come from

 

68.50.21.13

66.249.58.246

24.60.107.67

67.142.130.47

69.22.113.13

72.66.79.87

 

Anyone else experiencing 404 errors from visitors trying to access pages with truncated URLs?

[Terra]

I've looked up the IP addresses on arin.net and they don't seem to be bots. Any chance that e.g. customers are sending emails with URLs which get truncated by line breaks?

 

I'm also using SEO URLs and haven't seen any problems with it.

 

Terra

[blueedge]

I've looked up the IP addresses on arin.net and they don't seem to be bots. Any chance that e.g. customers are sending emails with URLs which get truncated by line breaks?

 

Thanks for the reply, Terra.

 

On the one hand, it is nice to think that visitors are emailing a link to others. On the other, it is a little distrubing knowing that they are receiving a 404 error when they try the link. I guess it could be a truncated emailed link. That would make sense since the errors are from a variety of IP addresses and involve a number of different URLs.

 

The length of the entire URL is 47 characters. That seems short for an email column break.

 

Example:

 

Truncated URL http://www.mysitex.com/word1-word2-word3-word4.

Valid URL http://www.mysitex.com/word1-word2-word3-word4.html

 

When I notice that an IP address tries a truncated URL, it is tried several times (2 to 5 times) then leaves. The visitor does not try any other pages. The 404 error page has a menu and links to other products and link to help pages. Although I can understand a visitor getting frustrated that a page he/she wanted is "no longer available or has moved," I would think that at least a few would link on at least one link displayed on the 404 error page.