Old homepage in google on branded keyword
-
Hello there,
I have a strange problem:
if you search "probike" (romanian google.ro), i get an OLD homepage with https://www.probike.ro , and my new homepage is https://probike.ro, the real problem is that title/meta description are not available (see attachment).
Redirect 301: Ok
Robots.txt: Ok
Sitemap: OkHelp, is annoying
With respect,
Andrei
-
Other stuff (since I was able to reproduce exactly with a Romanian proxy):
https://d.pr/i/sSkF9X.png (screenshot)
So above you can see some links boxed in green, which have properly updated URLs (HTTPS only no WWW prefix) whereas the entries in red contain links which still contain the WWW protocol (incorrect, not updated)
I can see that the GMB (Google My Business) listing is still linking to a very old version of the URL (HTTP WWW, so wrong protocol and prefix) - updating that might also be a positive signal to Google which could help
I notice that the redirect (sometimes) doesn't go to OPs homepage, it goes to a child-variant of the homepage which contains parameters assumedly for tracking purposes (e.g: "https://probike.ro/?SID=nn565sjakv33nk6h2haenvbr7k"). The thing is, it's not (always) going 'straight' to the 'clean' version of OPs homepage (sometimes it does, sometimes not), and Google can sometimes be slightly adverse to indexing and listing parameter-based child URLs (unless they significantly alter content in a truly useful way, which this does not)
Check out this video which shows it working perfectly as it should do, in Firefox:
https://d.pr/v/v3lIiS (video)
Looks fine right? But when I try in Chrome:
https://d.pr/v/IABstn (video)
... just so you know, I have sometimes had the redirect work fine in Chrome and at other times I have seen the failure in Firefox, so it's not browser specific. I think it actually has more to do with session data or cookies, as I can usually reproduce the issue when I clear all browsing data, but every time I try to repeat it after that it's less likely to happen (in series)
If Googlebot is following the 301 to some weird parameter URL instead of the true homepage that could be why Google is taking SO long to update this
-
Hi Andrei,
Found your issue: There is an already blocked in robots.txt parameter added when redirected from www to non-www.
I'm attaching an image so you can follow me better.
I used this web: whregoes.com
To solve this issue, I'd try to figure out why that parameter is being added, and remove it or allow its crawling.That parameter it's blocked in the 2nd line of your robots.txt:
Disallow: /*?Another way to check what's going on is via the inspect URL tool in search Console.
1- Log in to the www property
2- Inspect URL, only the home page (https://www.probike.ro)
3- Ask to check the live version
4- (wait a few seconds) Google will tell you what they are seeing
--> I guess here you'll find the message that it's being blocked in robots.txtAlso, checking your declared sitemap, it goes to a 404 page. You'd want to take a look here: https://probike.ro/pub/sitemap.xml
Hope it helps.
Best luck.
Gaston
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Website homepage temporarily getting removed from google index
hi, website: www.snackmagic.com The home page goes out of google index for some hours and then comes back. We are not sure why our home page is getting de-indexed temporarily. This doesn't happen with other pages on our website. This has been happening intermittently in the gap of 2-3 days. Any inputs will be very useful for us to debug this issue Thanks
Technical SEO | | manikbystadium0 -
What should I name my Wordpress homepage?
I work almost exclusively in wordpress now. And I always hesitate when it comes to naming a site's homepage. I have to give it a name - right? I usually pick the business name or /home. And then that is identifies as the site's static homepage in the Wordpress settings and it works just fine. But I've started to get warning that it is an issue because it creates redirects. For example, I just ran the Ryte service analysis on a website and it warned me about "Non-indexable pages with high relevance" and it's basically my homepage that has 29 incoming links that "passes all pagerank to https://ourdomain/home But what am I supposed to call my homepage if not "Home"? It's not like the old days where anyone has to type it in. The root domain loads the homepage just as it should. Can anybody advise me regarding best practices for what to name a Wordpress homepage for good SEO? With thanks in advance for your help.
Technical SEO | | Dandelion0 -
Does google look at H3 tags?
I've had someone tell me that google doesn't pay attention to H3 tags -- only H1 and H2. I haven't found much online to back this up or discredit it; thought I'd ask the Moz community!
Technical SEO | | LivDetrick5 -
Google is still indexing the old domain a year after 301 redirects are put in place
Hi there, You might have experienced this before but for me this is the first. A client of mine moved from domain A (www.domainA.com) to domain B (www.domainB.com). 301 redirects are all in place for over a year. But the old domain is still showing in Google when you search for "site:domainA.com" The HTTP Header check shows this result for the URL https://www.domainA.com/company/cookie-policy.aspx HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently =>
Technical SEO | | iQi
Cache-Control => private
Content-Length => 174
Content-Type => text/html; charset=utf-8
Location => https://www.domain_B_.com/legal/cookie-policy
Server => Microsoft-IIS/10.0
X-AspNetMvc-Version => 5.2
X-AspNet-Version => 4.0.30319
X-Powered-By => ASP.NET
Date => Fri, 15 Mar 2019 12:01:33 GMT
Connection => close Does the redirect look wrong? The change of address request was made on Google Console when the website was moved over a year ago. Edit: Checked the domainA.com on bing and it seems that its not indexed, and replaced with domainB.com, which is the right. Just Google is indexing the old domain! Please let me know your thoughts on why this is happening. Best,0 -
Titles tags: Smart to split brand name composed of multiple keywords?
Hello, We've been following the best practices outlined in this Moz article for title tags for a long time, however I have a question about the spelling of the brand name when the brand name is composed of keywords. For example, let's say your company is called FitnessGearUSA and your website url is www.FitnessGearUSA.com. How would you spell the brand name in the title tag? In a single word 'FitnessGearUSA' or in 3 words 'Fitness Gear USA'. We've been using the first approach for a long time, but I am starting to think that the second approach would be better, especially when the customer might include a single keyword that's part of the brane name in his search For example, a product page title tag would then look like this:
Technical SEO | | yacpro13
Model ABC Weight Lifting Bar | Fitness Gear USA I am inclined to think that this page would rank better for a search like:
"Model ABC Lifting Bar USA" Thoughts?0 -
Words order in keywords phrase
Hello, I read that Google can "read" in all directions a while ago. Does this mean that keyword quires "Santa Monica appliance repair" and "appliance repair Santa Monica" are the same? Would you track both of them, or tracking only one would be enough? Thank you!
Technical SEO | | kirupa0 -
Homepage not showing for searches
Hi Looking for a bit advice our client - www.financial-wise.co.uk We worked with this client on his old website www.mortgage-wise.co.uk we had him ranking for most local searches. The client then re-branded the full company and got another company in to do this, they did him new website www.financial-wise.co.uk, the company then launched the new domain with the old one still showing, some of the content was the same, including homepage. Anyway the issue im having now is, for certain searches im struggling to get them ranking again and for searches such as financial wise, its inner pages showing instead of the homepage? I have che checked and homepage is indexed, i have also re-written all the text on the homepage but still having some issue, its almost like the homepage has been penalised any help would be great?
Technical SEO | | rfksolutionsltd0 -
Google May Update
As per google the May update takes care of all content scrapping sites Then why is this site - http://www.viduba.com is still having good ranking ? All of its videos are hotlinkled from youtube
Technical SEO | | krishru0