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News module, Google description, and META all wrong

Posted: Mon Feb 23, 2009 2:57 am
by replytomk3
I have been trying to do everything proper with META tags and all, but all of the Google search result descriptions are all wrong.
search for http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=site%3Amkrd.info&btnG=Google+Search&cts=1235357712237&aq=f&oq= site:mkrd.info to see what I mean.

Also, what the heck is going on here:

Code: Select all

http://mkrd.info/news/7/69/Transfer-and-cleanup-is-mostly-done-now-for-content.html
what is this /news/7/69/ business all about and why does it break everything???

By the way, congratulations on everything else. I have my own small page on CMSMS if want to take a look:
http://mkrd.info/software-discussions/cms-made-simple.html

Re: News module, Google description, and META all wrong

Posted: Mon Feb 23, 2009 3:03 am
by replytomk3
OK, I have now deactivated the News module. Now the link

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[url=http://mkrd.info/news/7/69/Transfer-and-cleanup-is-mostly-done-now-for-content.html]http://mkrd.info/news/7/69/Transfer-and-cleanup-is-mostly-done-now-for-content.html[/url]
returns 404, but I can still see the heading of the "News" box on all of my pages. How do I remove the "News" box for good?

BTW, if someone needs to verify that the above link was really improperly working before, I can reactivate the news module on request.

Good job with everything else!

Re: News module, Google description, and META all wrong

Posted: Mon Feb 23, 2009 3:13 am
by replytomk3
OK, I got rid of the leftover "News" box. I went to my template, used Firefox search to find "News", and I have commented that block out. It is now gone. I hope that Google reindexes the website soon, and I will see what it will come up with.

I would still appreciate an explanation as to what is going on with the News module.

Is this a bug?

Re: News module, Google description, and META all wrong

Posted: Sun Mar 01, 2009 1:48 pm
by reneh
No idea! Needs a lot of detailed data to look into that. And all such is gone now as far as I see....

Re: News module, Google description, and META all wrong

Posted: Fri Mar 06, 2009 12:18 am
by replytomk3
reneh wrote: No idea! Needs a lot of detailed data to look into that. And all such is gone now as far as I see....
So, when I Google site:mkrd.info, am I supposed to get the news articles with dates in front of the pathname? I will be happy to turn the news back on to test this. Is this how it is with other people?

I think that this should be tested out. I will be glad to help track this down.

Re: News module, Google description, and META all wrong

Posted: Fri Mar 06, 2009 1:45 am
by Dr.CSS
Please don't post the same problem twice...

And I think you need to explain what the problem is in a more concise manner, as I have no idea what you are talking about...

Re: News module, Google description, and META all wrong

Posted: Fri Mar 06, 2009 1:49 am
by replytomk3
I found a bug in the News module. The problem has been previously described on another post: http://forum.cmsmadesimple.org/index.ph ... 214.0.html, but it had several topics. I would like to separate this bug out.

The only solution for me was to uninstall the News module and delete the "News" code block from my page template.

Description of the problem: Urls mixed up and wrong when Googling for site:yoursite.com

Example:
My site: http://www.mkrd.info/ (look at google results)

Example site (found in the Showcase category): http://www.cosolar.com/news/5/61/San-Mi ... ebates.htm

NOTE HOW THE TITLE AND CONTENTS OF THE PAGE DO NOT MATCH. ALSO NOTE PAGE FILE PATHNAME.

also, search for Google site:cosolar.com. You will see many entries with the likes of /news/5/61/, which all lead to the wrong jumble of a page.

I hope that this is fixed soon. Otherwise, the only solution I see is not to use the News module untill it is.

Re: News module, Google description, and META all wrong

Posted: Fri Mar 06, 2009 7:11 am
by RonnyK
Try upgrading to latest, and use the canonical logic that is inside that (Keep in mind that the detail-template for News has a new logic on top to support that).

That way the pages will be found like the URL they have inside. Also process_template should be set to false in the config.php to have the effect for the new canonical logic.

Could you describe if this gives the results expected?

Ronny

Re: News module, Google description, and META all wrong

Posted: Sat Mar 07, 2009 12:42 am
by replytomk3
I have upgraded to 1.5.3.
Right now I am busy trying to exclude /news/ from the Google index.
I will see if I can reenable the News module and replicate the problem.

Since I have prooved that the problem is real (at least with 1.5.1), I would like someone else to try replicating this as well. Like I said, right now I am mostly worried about submitting a request to Google to remove /news/ from their index.

And yes, I still do not understand wrong META descriptions in Google search results. I am working on that as well.

Re: News module, Google description, and META all wrong

Posted: Sat Mar 07, 2009 11:44 pm
by replytomk3
UPDATE: If you want Google to remove the error /news/ links, you will need to do two things. First, add this to your robots.txt file "Disallow: /news/".Then, sign in to Google Webmaster Tools, and navigate to Tools>Remove URLs. In New Removal request, type in "news/". As you can see site:mkrd.info no longer shows the /news/ entries.

http://mkrd.info/software-discussions/cms-made-simple/cmsms-and-modules-bugs-and-problems.html

Re: News module, Google description, and META all wrong

Posted: Fri May 29, 2009 7:48 pm
by replytomk3
Any responses to the fact that News URL is not SEO/SEF?