PLEASE HELP - Old query string URL causing problems

[iHasco]

For a long time, we were ranking 1st/2nd for the term "Manual handling training". That was until about 5 days ago when I realised that Google had started to index not only a query stringed URL, but also an old version of the URL.

What was even weirder was that when you clicked on the result it 301 redirected to the page that it was meant to display...

The wrong URL that Google had started to index was: www.ihasco.co.uk/courses/detail/manual-handling?channel=retail

The correct URL that it should have been indexing is: https://www.ihasco.co.uk/courses/detail/manual-handling-training

I can't get my head around why it has done this as a 301 was in place already and we use rel canonical tags which point to the main parent pages.

Anyway, we slapped a noindex tag in our robots.txt file to stop that page from being indexed, which worked but now I can't get the correct page to be indexed, even after a Google fetch.

After inspecting the correct URL in the new search console I discovered that Google has ignored the rel canonical on the page (Which points to itself) and has selected the wrong, query stringed URL as the canonical. Why? and how do I rectify this?

[Nigel_Carr]

Hi iHasco

Neither seem to rank.

What I think

Your sitemap has the wrong URL in it - with a trailing slash at the end: https://www.ihasco.co.uk/courses/detail/manual-handling-training/
The website has a version without a trailing slash! https://www.ihasco.co.uk/courses/detail/manual-handling-training

This means there are effectively two versions of this page so you have perfect duplication as both are regarded as different by Google.

The Solution: 1. Remove the trailing slash version of the page.
2. 301 redirect the trailing slash to the non-trailing slash in htaccess
3. Check for other problems in the sitemap - eg you have a page https://www.ihasco.co.uk/terms-and-policies/terms-and-conditions-of-use/ in the sitemap which redirects to **https://www.ihasco.co.uk/terms-and-policies. **If there is a redirect or a canonical in place DO NOT put the original URLs in the sitemap!
4. Put a general directive in htaccess 301'ing all trailing slashes to non-trailing slashes to avoid any further problems.
5. For a quicker result go to Seach Console and physically remove the trailing slash version of the page. It'll be gone tomorrow. At the same time to a Fetch Google for the correct URL - you will be back at number 1-3 within a week.

You basically have a situation where you have duplicate content, Google doesn't know which version to rank so ranks neither. You also have a problem where Google does not trust your sitemap so make sure the sitemap is a pure reflection of what is on the site. If you don't then Google will not trust your 301s or canonicals and could end up ranking other spurious pages.

I hope that helps

Regards

Nigel

[iHasco]

Hi Nigel,

Thanks for taking the time to respond.

That's an interesting point but why would this problem only affect this URL?

We have over 80 pages (courses) which use the same template. These pages are dynamic, so if one page is experiencing problems in Google (such as pulling an old URL) why aren't the other 79 pages doing the same?

Also, I understand that the trailing slash could be seen as a duplicate page in Google, however, this doesn’t explain why it’s pulling an old (now redirected) URL of that page? We don’t use that old URL anywhere on our site, no even in the sitemap.

Many thanks,

[Nigel_Carr]

Hi iHasco

It doesn't only affect this URL. I only quickly looked at the sitemap (https://www.ihasco.co.uk/site-map/google) but found that other one as well. I don't know what the defunct page URL so have no idea why it is listing that but it (Google) is not listing the main one or the one with the slash. The fact is that both work so you need to get rid of one.

I can't possibly explain how your dynamic system has done this I can only illustrate the problem and give you a solution. I hope you deem the solution more than just 'an interesting point'

Regards

Nigel

[iHasco]

Thanks Nigel,

This is being actioned

Hugely appreciate your time.

[Nigel_Carr]

Brilliant! good luck with it. Please do me a favour and hit the 'good answer' button thanks