Google caching meta tags from another site?
-
We have several sites on the same server.
On the weekend we relocated some servers, changing IP address.
A client has since noticed something freaky with the meta tags.
1. They search for their companyname, and another site from the same server appears in position 1. It is completely unrelated, has never happened before, and the company name is not used in any incoming text links.
Eg search for company1 on Google. Company1.com.au appears at position 2, but at position1 is school1.com.au. The words company1 don't appear anywhere on the site. I've analysed all incoming links with a gazillion tools, and can't find any link text of company1, linking to school1.
2. Even more freaky, searching for company1.com.au at Google. The results at Google in position 1 for the last three days has been:
Meta Title for school1 (but hovering/clicking actual goes to URL for company1)
Meta Description for school1
URL for company1.com.auClicking on the cached copy of result1, it shows a cached version of school1 taken on March 18.
Today is 29 March.
Logically we are trying to get Google to spider both sites again quickly. We've asked the clients to update their home pages. Resubmitted xml sitemaps.
Checked the HTTP status codes - both are happily returning 200s. Different cookies.
I found another instance on a forum:
http://webmasters.stackexchange.com/questions/10578/incorrect-meta-information-in-google
Any ideas?
-
hi Keri
The problem went away after 3 days without us doing anything much. But the client was pretty antsy during those 3 days.
I had posted on the Google forums, and one guy had suggested that there were problems with the dns - the intodns.com tool highlighted some. Possibly missing dns servers - there was unusual stuff in the intodns report.
We don't manage the nameservers for the siite with the problem, so there wasn't anything we could do.
The site was recrawled, possibly as a result of resubmitting the nameserver, and it was ok.
thanks
chris
-
Did this ever get resolved? If so, what was the result and do you have any idea what caused it?
-
Probably a bug from Google, you should ask them to look manually a it :
http://www.google.com/support/websearch/?hl=en
You may also create a forum post :
http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Webmasters/label?lid=1d4d2553a95152c2&hl=en
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
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
-
Why has google stopped showing one domain and switching to showing another that points to the same website?
My client has a website here: http://www.savannahchiropractic.com/ The site ranked really well for searches for the term "savannah chiroprtactor". Sometime last week (April 21 mobilegeddon?) the site slipped in rankings, but reappeared under the domain name: "www.whitemarshchiropractic.com" Both URLs go to the exact same site. and I don't even think that the whitemarshchripractic.com site is a redirect. I'm not sure how it's setup, but it's definitely not a duplicate site. The ranking is still lower than the savannahchiropractic.com site, but now appears. Anyone have any insights on this?
Technical SEO | | aj6130 -
Https Cached Site
Hi there, I recently switch my site to a new ecommerce platform which hosts the SSL certificate on their end so my site no longer has the HTTPS status unless a user is going through the checkout. Google has cached the HTTPS version of the site so in search it comes up sometimes which leads to a nasty warning that the site may not be what they are looking for. Is there a way to tell google NOT to look at the https version of the site anymore? Thanks! Bianca
Technical SEO | | TheBatesMillStore0 -
301 Multiple Sites to Main Site
Over the past couple years I had 3 sites that sold basically the same products and content. I later realized this had no value to my customers or Google so I 301 redirected Site 2 and Site 3 to my main site (Site 1). Of course this pushed a lot of page rank over to Site 1 and the site has been ranking great. About a week ago I moved my main site to a new eCommerce platform which required me to 301 redirect all the url's to the new platform url's which I did for all the main site links (Site 1). During this time I decided it was probably better off if I DID NOT 301 redirect all the links from the other 2 sites as well. I just didn't see the need as I figured Google realized at this point those sites were gone and I started fearing Google would get me for Page Rank munipulation for 301 redirecting 2 whole sites to my main site. Now I am getting over 1,000 404 crawl errors in GWT as Google can no longer find the URL's for Site 2 and Site 3. Plus my rankings have dropped substantially over the past week, part of which I know is from switching platforms. Question, did I make a mistake not 301 redirecting the url's from the old sites (Site 2 and Site 3) to my new ecommerce url's at Site 1?
Technical SEO | | SLINC0 -
SEO across sites built using Google Web Toolkit
Hi guys, General question around general SEO best practices, such as url and title, and how they fit in with Google Web Toolkit built sites that use a www.site.com/#!category=12345 format. The space we're getting into is heavily competitive, with many established players doing standard SEO well. I know there are some speed benefits to using GWT, however I'd like to better understand the SEO impact, if any, before the site development progresses too far. Cheers, Jez
Technical SEO | | jez0000 -
Why my site is not indexing in google
In google webmaster i have updated my sitemap in Mar 6th..There is around 22000 links..But google fetched only 5300 links for long time...
Technical SEO | | Rajesh.Chandran
I waited for 1 month till no improvement in google index..So apr6th we have uploaded new sitemap (1200 links totally)..,But only 4 links indexed in google ..
why google not indexing my urls? Is this affect our ranking in SERP? How many links are advisable to submit in sitemap for a website?0 -
'External nofollow' in a robots meta tag? (advertorial links)
I believe this has never worked? It'd be an easy way of preventing any penalties from Google's recent crackdown on paid links via advertorials. When it's not possible to nofollow each external link individually, what are people doing? Nofollowing and/or noindexing the whole page?
Technical SEO | | Alex-Harford0 -
Javascript to manipulate Google's bounce rate and time on site?
I was referred to this "awesome" solution to high bounce rates. It is suppose to "fix" bounce rates and lower them through this simple script. When the bounce rate goes way down then rankings dramatically increase (interesting study but not my question). I don't know javascript but simply adding a script to the footer and watch everything fall into place seems a bit iffy to me. Can someone with experience in JS help me by explaining what this script does? I think it manipulates the reporting it does to GA but I'm not sure. It was supposed to be placed in the footer of the page and then sit back and watch the dollars fly in. 🙂
Technical SEO | | BenRWoodard1 -
Is there any evidence that using Google Site Search will help your ranking, speed of indexing, or traffic?
I am considering using Google Site Search on our new site. I was told... "We have also seen a bump in traffic for sites when using Google Site Search because Google indexes the site more often (they claim using the paid Google Site Search has no effect on search rankings but we have also seen bumps in rankings after using it so that may just be what they have to say legally)." Is there any evidence of this? Would you recommend using Google Site Search? Thanks David
Technical SEO | | DavidButler710