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No index detected in robots meta tag GSC issue_Help Please
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Hi Everyone,
We just did a site migration ( URL structure change, site redesign, CMS change). During migration, dev team messed up badly on a few things including SEO.
- The old site had pages canonicalized and self canonicalized <> New site doesn't have anything (CMS dev error) so we are working retroactively to add canonicalization mechanism
- The legacy site had URL’s ending with a trailing slash “/” <> new site got redirected to Set of url’s without “/”
New site action :
- All robots are allowed:
- A new sitemap is submitted to google search console
So here is my problem (it been a long 24hr night for me
)
1. Now when I look at GSC homepage URL it says that old page is self canonicalized and currently in index (old page with a trailing slash at the end of URL).
2. When I try to perform a live URL test, I get the message "No: 'noindex' detected in 'robots' meta tag" , so indexation cant be done. I have no idea where noindex is coming from.
3. Robots.txt in search console still showing old file ( no noindex there ) I tried to submit new file but old one still coming up. When I click on "See live robots.txt" I get current robots.
4. I see that old page is still canonicalized and attempting to index redirected old page might be confusing google
Hope someone can help to get the new page indexed! I really need it
Please ping me if you need more clarification.
Thank you !
Thank you
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Hi - have you considered contacting the old website hosting providers? Any chance of sharing the URL in question?
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Hi there - any chance you can share the url?
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