Forum Moderators: Robert Charlton & goodroi
Matt Cutts blogged about this issue today:
I thought we'd nailed this issue in December, but we found another way that this can happen. I believe a fix has been submitted and is percolating its way through the system... However, if you1) have a .com that is hosted outside the US,
2) searching on (say) google.co.uk for [site:yourdomain.com] returns your root page and all your pages for "Search the web";,
3) if you switch to (say) "pages from the UK", the root 'page does not appear but the rest of your pages do,...then this paragraph applies to you. I'd wait 4-5 days to let this second change percolate completely into our index, and if you still see the behavior after 4-5 days, please leave a comment with the name of your site.
[mattcutts.com...]
[edited by: tedster at 6:15 pm (utc) on Jan. 11, 2007]
I thought we'd nailed this issue in December
Obviously it was the "fix" in December that took my index page out again.
However, it has returned this morning, so perhaps my earlier pessimism was unwarranted. Let us hope this now has fixed it for everyone.
5 .com sites have their home pages coming up OK.
3 .com sites do not.
5 .com sites have their home pages coming up OK.3 .com sites do not.
What was the case yesterday?
One of my competitors (currently world #2 for key search term) has not returned. I'm keeping a close eye on it, but right now it looks to me like:
1. The fix is running on that DC (my own site is now in), and (therefore)
2. The fix is flawed (it isn't working for all sites affected).
If so, we're looking at another bout of some sites coming back in, and some going back out.
Thats was all except one domain. I forgot all about it and never checked it until yesterday.
When I do site:www.mysite.com there is no root page showing up on google.com or google.co.uk
When I do the same search on google.co.uk and hit "pages from the UK" it appears top of the pile.
The domain in question is a blog, it's also entirely supplemental with exception to the root page when doing the search on google.co.uk and hitting "pages from the UK"
Do you think this is related to the problems being discussed here? Any thoughts you may have would be appreciated.
I do not know whether to post my domains on Matts blog or just sit it out for a few more days.
when you post on his blogs one field is for your url...
almost sounds like it was a site by site fix.......
I doubt it, there's just too many sites to fix, and if there's one thing that Google likes is a nice scaled, algorithmic solutions.
Has anyone here found their homepage back in the UK index?
No I have an authority site that has its index page out of the UK search for over a week now. Can't see what harm it does to post on mc's blog, so I am off to do this now...
I doubt it, there's just too many sites to fix, and if there's one thing that Google likes is a nice scaled, algorithmic solutions.
except that matt said he had about 7 examples i believe....since only the examples posted on his blogg sem to be fixed it would seem a site by site fix of the examples he had....
I know one thing - almost all sites that are posted there seem to be fixed now.
I'm not seeing that. In fact, the problem has become more and more widespread since he posted, at least for the sites I'm watching.
As I say - checking site:www.domain.com on UK filtered results for the example domains posted there - most seem to be fixed.
Yes of course Google are fixing this through the algo - but all I am saying is that most of the people who have posted their URL on MC's Blog appear to have the problem fixed.
I have static sites where nothing changes that were hit and I have at least 1 dynamic site that changes every page refresh (and it's all spiderable) that has never been hit.
I still see it on many sites.
<But one of our websites> shows inner pages. It is not a .COM, but is a .NET website, listed at #2 or so in the SERPs for: <search term removed>
We did briefly see the home page in the SERPs, but for a while it's been back to showing one of the inner website pages.
I sent Matt Cutts a blog posting on this. But I wonder if the .NET sites are affected the same way as the .COM sites...
<Sorry, no specifics.
See Forum Charter [webmasterworld.com]>
[edited by: tedster at 2:20 am (utc) on Jan. 26, 2007]
Yesterday, I changed the meta description for my home page and added unique meta descriptions to those pages without meta descriptions. I'm hoping this will help based on past experience.
This issue has been going on since August last year, and since then, I have:
- redirected .com.au to .com
- redirected non-www to www
- redirected index.php to /
- redirected any unnecessary query strings to non-query stringed URL.
- redirected https to http
- rewritten most of site's meta descriptions
All seem to have worked previously, so I am hoping I am on the right track with my latest fix.
- redirected non-www to www
- redirected index.php to /
Slightly off topic, but you have a double redirection here. While it shouldn't be a big problem, it would be adviseable to redirect (301) index.php to www too.
What are you seeing? Are your .coms back in?
