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Home / Search Engine Optimization / Can Images Serve 404 Errors in Webmaster Tools

Can Images Serve 404 Errors in Webmaster Tools

November 13, 2014 By John Lincoln

URLs that images live on can serve a 404 error. This point is not necessarily up for debate, as I have verified it on multiple sites and it is an excellent way to deal with images that are no longer in place (sure you could redirect the URL, rel canonical, etc., but we don’t need to go there in this post). This post is to address a very niche questions, one that 99.99999% of the world really wont care about, but that SEO people generally like to hear about. The question is, can an old URL that an image used to live on serve a 404 error that will be registered in the crawl errors report in webmaster tools. Here are some things to think about.

Does the Image Actually Live on its Own URL

In order for an image to serve a 404 it needs to live on its own URL. Here is an example of an image that lives on a URL (https://ignitevisibility.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/mobile-2014-statistics-facts.jpg). The reason I point this out is because many times an image is pulled from a URL, but is not actually live on a URL. So it needs to be live on a URL to be broken and serve a 404 like so (https://ignitevisibility.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/mobile-2014-statistics-fddacts.jpg).

Is the Image Delivered from a CDN or Subdomain

In many cases, images are delivered from content delivery networks or subdomains. The reasons this is important is because webmaster tools is set up on a subdomain level. So if you do not have webmaster tools installed on that subdomain, it would be impossible to see 404 errors for images in either a crawl errors report or image sitemap report.

Crawl Errors Report and Image Sitemap Report

Google does not display information on image URLs serving a 404 in crawl errors report.

Crawl Errors Report
Crawl Errors Report

As far as the image sitemap report is concerned, I reviewed 10 image sitemaps but was unable to find any 404 errors.

In addition, Google does not show image URLs in the top pages report when filtered by image. In this report, however, Google does show the URL the image lives on.

Search Queries Report Webmaster Tools by Image
Search Queries Report Webmaster Tools by Image

While this is the case, Google will let you fetch an image URL with fetch as Googlebot tool.

After doing analysis in this area, it appears Google is only reporting on URLs with a /, .html or .pdf (generally). Google does not report on URLs that end in image extensions.

Chime in on this topic below!

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About John Lincoln

John Lincoln (MBA) is the CEO of Ignite Visibility, a top performance marketing agency backed by Mountaingate Capital. A digital marketing strategist and keynote speaker, Lincoln has managed over 1,000 marketing programs for brands like DoorDash, HBO, Tony Robbins, and Experian. Under his leadership, Ignite Visibility has been named a leading digital marketing agency in the U.S. and made the Inc. 5,000 list six times. Lincoln also spearheaded the development of CertaintyTech, a cutting-edge media mix modelling and forecasting platform. An award-winning marketer, Lincoln has authored three books, including Advolution (2022), and produced films such as SEO: The Movie. Recognized as a Top Business Leader, he has been featured in Forbes and The New York Times and spoken at global events like Web Summit and SMX. Lincoln's mission is to empower businesses through innovative digital strategies while reinvesting in clients, employees, and the community.

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Ignite Visibility is a premier full-service digital marketing agency. We were founded in San Diego, CA but are now a 100% remote-first company with Igniters and clients around the globe.

Ignite Visibility is one of the highest awarded digital marketing agencies in the industry, works with some of the biggest brands in the world and is a 6x Inc. 5000 company.

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