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My site is getting 404. That’s an error. message when I click on cached from Google search results.

This is the error message from Google:

That’s an error.

The requested URL /search?q=cache:8kxLAgFrhZQJ:www.mysite.com.....&cd=8&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=uk was not found on this server. That’s all we know.

What I did before I was getting this error is that about 10 days ago, I moved my hosting from Ixwebhosting to Gearhost (cloud based). I also added 301 redirect from non www to www.

I have no idea why I am getting this error. Please advise what might be the reason if there is a solution for it.

All of my pages are indexed by Google though.

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  • The cache is not the problem. It is a symptom. Do a fetch and render in search console and wait a few days. Don't be in a hurry. It could be a week. – closetnoc Jul 16 '18 at 13:42
  • Its been a month already, I wonder how the cache is available in http and not in https. Also when I do fetch as google from the console, its working fine. – adeviloper Jul 16 '18 at 13:57
  • Huh. Now you've got me! Double check that fetch and render captures the entire page. Also, when you do this, check your access and error logs to see if there is an issue. It may take a few attempts to be sure you are looking at the right access. Make sure all resources such as JavaScript and CSS is accessable. You may want to use chromes developer tools and make sure it is all error free. Cheers!! – closetnoc Jul 16 '18 at 14:14
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You should login to Google Webmaster Tools and do a fetch as Google, if the page returns a status 200 then you know that your pages are working as intended and what you're experiencing is just the Google cache service not working, which should resolve itself in time.

Google Cache is not Realtime

It's worth mentioning that the Google cache system runs independently and does not effect the real time rankings of Google and the index. So even if there is no cache, cache errors doesn't mean there are problems with your site or rankings. Simply do as suggested with the fetch as Google, once you ruled out that your pages are not at fault which I suspect they are not (Google's caching service often has problems), then its just a simple matter of putting your feet up and waiting for the Cache system to resolve this issue on its own.

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  • 1
    Hi fetch as Google works perfectly. That is a big relief! Thank you. – user2357716 May 7 '13 at 12:54
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    @user2357716: If the answer resolved your issue, please mark it as an answer to your question. – user555 May 7 '13 at 15:15
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    Note that I think it's self explanatory that the page is properly indexed since the user just did a search and found that very result in the list of search results (which is how most everyone have access to the cached version of a page, right?) – Alexis Wilke May 28 '18 at 2:49
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As I'm watching one of my sites closely, I noticed that the cache is now giving me a 404.

I just bought a new domain name and the Google cache of that domain home page would return the old home page for about 1 month after I switch that domain to my own website.

Now I get the 404 error. I did not expect the 404 to last that long or even exist since my website has always been up. But at least they recognized that it changed and needed to be rebuilt. So I guess they have a clean the cache command.

What I think is more surprising is that Google Search gives you the ability to go see the cache when it does not exist. If only they had the time to check that and remove the link if not available. That's how I thought it was before. But I could imagine that there is a disconnect between the search results and the cache which gets resolved over time (remember that Google manages billions if not trillions of pages.)

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2

There is a workaround to bypass the 404 and view cached pages even while Google's cache is having issues.

I will use my own domain as an example here only because neither example.com nor webmasters.stackexchange.com have the Google cache issue, and I have no other neutral domain to use as an example.

If you search my domain in Google search and click "cached", you get the following broken link:

https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:khJl3eT_-08J:https://www.maxlaumeister.com/+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

However, if you remove everything starting with your domain name and replace it with x.xyz, the cache link will suddenly start working:

https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:khJl3eT_-08J:x.xyz

You can use this trick to view just about any Google cached page that shows as a 404.

Source: Search Engine Roundtable

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John Mueller from Google said on Reddit that if your cache link in Google returns a 404 error, that it doesn't mean your rankings will be hurt in Google. John said "that can happen, it doesn't mean anything."

https://www.seroundtable.com/google-cache-returns-404-error-seo-25565.html

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