Google cache is showing my UK homepage site instead of the US homepage and ranking the UK site in US
-
Hi There,
When I check the cache of the US website (www.us.allsaints.com) Google returns the UK website. This is also reflected in the US Google Search Results when the UK site ranks for our brand name instead of the US site. The homepage has hreflang tags only on the homepage and the domains have been pointed correctly to the right territories via Google Webmaster Console.This has happened before in 26th July 2015 and was wondering if any had any idea why this is happening or if any one has experienced the same issueFDGjldR
-
Hi,
I thought I would let people know that since we updated the href langs to the below format we are still yet to see the US homepage become visible in Google US and the UK homepage is still ranking
-
Hi Kate,
Thanks for your response I will amend the href lang area as follows:
Just for some background information we originally only had:
Having the above format we still occurred the homepage issue however maybe the removal of will help clear the issue.
Thanks for the feedback, we'll get this live asap and I'll resubmit the the homepages. Another contributing factor is that we do not have href lang site wide.
-
Alright, so this is going to be a long and involved answer.
You are geo-targeting the root domain to the UK, but you also have it double tagged in HREFLANG. One is general English (root domain) and other GB English to the same place. Then you have an x-default pointing to the same place.
Google officially thinks that www.allsaints.com is a general English landing page and are probably ignoring the UK geo-targeting. Due to that, the fact that your root domain homepage is stronger than any other version, and because the content is basically the same, it's seeing what you see as your UK homepage as the root domain homepage without any targeting.
In short, you are sending mixed signals and need to sort that out. This might not all make sense but right now you need to:
- Remove the "en" hreflang tag since you have english variations.
- Remove the x-default hreflang tag since that page is not a place for anyone to land and choose a location/language. (ex. fedex.com)
Doing those two things might help clear up some of the confusion, but I also think you have the wrong international technical strategy. That's a whole other thing. Please DM me if you would like to talk about that, but the above should solve your posted problem.
-
I would attempt to get the US site reindexed by whatever means necessary and then check it.
First, I would add unique content to the US page and fetch again. Also make sure the homepage is in the sitemap - I'm not sure it is.
If you can get the US homepage reindexed, cache should work but I think in this case the cache issue is much smaller. The main issue is that your US homepage has been completely deindexed.
-
Matt,
Thank you for taking the time out to look at this, I very much appreciate that. We have not requested any URL removals for the last six months looking within Google Webmaster Console.
There are no manual spam actions for the site and we checked the https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/change-address?hl=en&siteUrl=www.us.allsaints.com and that hasn't been touched either.
In terms of actions last Friday we changed the meta data for the US, UK, CA, IE domains so they are unique. We also changed the image filenames and alt text as well as some of the copy on the page. After that was done the homepages were submitted to Google index using fetch. I was hoping that those changes would have helped the US appear to be different.
Our other international domain FR, DE, ES, IT are not suffering which lead me to thinking this is a duplicate issue or some how Google is getting confused.
-
Well ... I gave this as thorough a check as I possibly can. Guess what?
It's happening because your www.us.allsaints.com homepage is NOT INDEXED.
- site:fr.allsaints.com (1st result)
- site:es.allsaints.com (1st result)
- site:www.allsaints.com (1st result)
site:www.us.allsaints.com - Nope. You have subpages indexed but not the homepage.
Now, whether that's duplicate content or the massive amount of IP-related spam links to the site is hard to say. But your homepage has been deindexed and because it's not indexed, doesn't show up in the cache.
If you have the site claimed in Search Console, check for penalties. Check that you haven't removed the URL through Google Index > Remove URLs. Check that you haven't done a site move on https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/change-address?hl=en&siteUrl=www.us.allsaints.com
Once the homepage gets indexed, you should be good to go.
-
Hi Matt,
The first red box highlights I am trying to find the cache from www.us.allsaints.com. The second box shows that Google is returning the UK site which is www.allsaints.com and the third box shows our pop up. The pop up is executed when a customer comes online to a one of our sites and we suggest there is a local version which is better for them e.g. If you are from Germany and come to the UK site the pop will come up suggesting going to the Germany site.
In terms of the x-default page would the override the EN-US hreg lang?
-
Hi Kate,
Yes we are geo targeting www.allsaints.com to the UK
I am based in the UK
I used a US proxy using Incognito
Thank you for getting in touch any help would be appreciated
-
The image you posted a link to doesn't say UK anywhere I can see? Google is returning the x-default from your hreflang tags.
Also, from here I see your .com in both the cache and the SERPs. You don't have an Australia language setting so it seems to be working right.
I'm not sure where you're seeing the issue, though. You have three things highlighted in that pic and they are right, right?
-
You're sending a few mixed signals via hreflang. I need to ask a few questions.
- Are you geotargeting www.allsaints.com to the UK?
- Where are you located?
- How did you do the search attached? From what country? Incognito?
-
Moz had a similar caching issue one week ago (/ugc/ content cached instead of /blog/ pages). They posted this question on Webmaster forum - may be the answers can help you find a solution (there was an answer from John Mu as well).
Dirk
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
-
How to rank my website in Google UK?
Hi guys, I own a London based rubbish removal company, but don't have enough jobs. I know for sure that some of my competitors get most of their jobs trough Google searches. I also have a website, but don't receive calls from it at all. Can you please tell me how to rank my website on keywords like: "rubbish removal london", "waste clearance london", "junk collection london" and other similar keywords? I know that for person like me (without much experience in online marketing) will be difficult task to optimize the website, but at least - I need some advices from where to start. I'm also thinking to hire an SEO but not sure where to find a trusted company. Most importantly I have no idea how much should pay to expect good results? What is too much and what is too low? I will appreciate all advices.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | gorubbishgo0 -
Why is a poor optimized url ranked first on Google ?
Hi there, I've been working in SEO for more than five years and I'm always telling clients about the more than 200 factors that influence rankings, but sometimes I meet several urls or websites who haven't optimized their pages nor built links and still appear first. This is the case of the keyword "Escorts en Tenerife" in google.es. If you search that keyword in google.es you'll find this url: escortislacanarias.com... (I don't want to give them a link). My question is why the heck this url is ranking first on Google for that keyword if the url isn't optmized, the page content isn't optimized and hasn't got many or valuable incoming links? Do an on page grader to that url regarding that keyword an it gets an F !!! So there is no correlation between better optimization and good rankings.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Tintanus0 -
How to resubmit a Web 2.0 site to Google?
I have 3 web 2.0 sites that look like theyve been hit by a penalty. I have checked their backlinks and there are a lot of backlinks from sites that have been deindexed. I have requested the removal of lots of the links, but now I need to resubmit the site to Google. Is this even possible with them being a web 2.0 site? I don't have webmaster tools for the site so how would I do this?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | JohnPeters0 -
How to change a site without loosing ranking .
How to change a site without loosing ranking .I have a WP site for my own company .locally i have good ranking for few keywords .but I decided to change site theme and improve site contents further .but still i am not sure how to change these thing and doing without loosing ranking .expert advices welcome .
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | innofidelity0 -
Why my blog ranks poorly on Google ?
Hi 🙂 I need help for my blog, my blog http://www.dota2club.com/ for many keywords it is not in first 50 results on google. What am i doing wrong ? Can you tell me what errors / mistakes i have made and what can i do to improve my blog ? Thank you !!!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | wolfinjo0 -
Why is google showing our blog like this?
Why is our blog title saying "the blog" before it in Google? X4vTU.png
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Tatango0 -
Why my site is "STILL" violating the Google quality guidelines?
Hello, I had a site with two topics: Fashion & Technology. Due to the Panda Update I decided to change some things and one of those things was the separation of these two topics. So, on June 21, I redirected (301) all the Fashion pages to a new domain. The new domain performed well the first three days, but the rankings dropped later. Now, even the site doesn't rank for its own name. So, I thought the website was penalized for any reason, and I sent a reconsideration to Google. In fact, five days later, Google confirmed that my site is "still violating the quality guidelines". I don't understand. My original site was never penalized and the content is the same. And now when it is installed on the new domain becomes penalized just a few days later? Is this penalization only a sandbox for the new domain? Or just until the old URLs disappear from the index (due to the 301 redirect)? Maybe Google thinks my new site is duplicating my old site? Or just is a temporal prevention with new domains after a redirection in order to avoid spammers? Maybe this is not a real penalization and I only need a little patience? Or do you think my site is really violating the quality guidelines? (The domain is http://www.newclothing.co/) The original domain where the fashion section was installed before is http://www.myddnetwork.com/ (As you can see it is now a tech blog without fashion sections) The 301 redirect are working well. One example of redirected URLs: http://www.myddnetwork.com/clothing-shoes-accessories/ (this is the homepage, but each page was redirected to its corresponding URL in the new domain). I appreciate any advice. Basically my fashion pages have dropped totally. Both, the new and old URLs are not ranking. 😞
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | omarinho0