Problems with the google cache version of different domains.

[Humix]

We have problems with the google cache version of different domains.
For the “.nl” domain we have an “.be” cache..
Enter “cache:www.dmlights.nl” in your browser to see this result.

Following points are already adapted:

• Sitemap contains hreflang tag
• Sitemap is moved to the location www.dmlights.nl/sitemap.xml
• We checked the DNS configuration
• Changed the Content language in de response header to : Content-Language: nl-NL
• Removed the cache with webmastertools
• Resolved serverrequest errors.

Can anyone provide a solution to fix this problem?

Thanks,

Pieter

[Andy.Drinkwater]

The only think I can see that is missing, is a self rel=canonical to the home page. I would have this as a matter of course.

I also can't do a quick crawl on the site as I am getting a 403 Denied error.

-Andy

[Humix]

Hi Andy,

Thank for your response. I've checked the HREFlang tags and to me it looks like everything is inserted correctly. The problem is that google keeps on indexing the cache of the .be domain for the .nl domain. Any idea why Google might do this (indexing the .be domain as the .nl domain?)

Thanks

Pieter

[gfiorelli1]

Hi Pieter,

can you answer to this question?

I checked you .nl website with flang by Dejan SEO, and it is not showing me any hreflang annotation... I check directly looked into the code and confirmed that was not a Flang mistake.

So... are you using hreflang in your sitemaps.xml file?

[Humix]

Hi Gianluca,

Thanks for your response. The HREFlang tags are a part of the sitemaps.xml. Do you think it might be a better idea to insert the HREFlangs on each page? Any idea why Google might cache another domain for this website?

Pieter

[gfiorelli1]

Using the hard coded hreflang or the sitemap option is indifferent.

Regarding why Google is caching the .be flemish version of your website, instead of the .nl one, I sincerely have no answer to give you, but - with the few information I have about it right now - what I would look is at the CMS you are using, in the case you have a centralized CMS that then distributes the content along the domains.

Your case is weird, because that something I usually experience with hacked sites.

I put this in discussion, and ask others to give their answer.

[katemorris]

The one issue I see is that at least for the homepage, these two sites are identical. You have so many different geo-target sites, but between two sites of the same language regardless of location, does anything change? I'm seeing no differences on the homepage so I need to ask.

This might be part of why .be is cached for .nl, you're not giving them something new to index. They are hreflang'd as well, which is telling them even more that the content is the same.

I am going to assume that .be launched before .nl, or has gotten more play in the search results. Something is making it the go to for Dutch.