Google caching meta tags from another site?

[ozgeekmum]

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.au

Clicking 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?

[baptisteplace]

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

[KeriMorgret]

Did this ever get resolved? If so, what was the result and do you have any idea what caused it?

[ozgeekmum]

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