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#2763 – Creating a redirect

Posted in ‘sh404SEF’

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Sunday, 25 September 2016 11:49 UTC

ian

Hello,

We have links showing up in search engines, which we can't find as a link on our site. They go to a category blog page: http://www.xxxx.uk/schools/teacher-workshop-s-inset-days/ - http://www.xxxx.uk/schools/teacher-workshop-s-inset-days/page-2.

The correct page on the site for this subject is here: http://www.xxxx.uk/teacher-workshop-s-inset-days/inset-days

We have opened the correct page URL in SHF 404 and tried to add the two URLS at the top of this message as aliases, so visitors will be redirected, but we get a message which says: ERROR Could not save date. Alias schools/teacher...... already exists as an alias or as a SEF URL.

They do exist as SEF URL, but not as aliases. How do we redirect the two first two URLs to the correct URL.

Also the first two URLs rank higher than the correct page URL.

Help!

Thanks

Ian

Monday, 26 September 2016 07:42 UTC

wb_weeblr

They do exist as SEF URL, but not as aliases. How do we redirect the two first two URLs to the correct URL.

You delete the URL first.

Rgds

Monday, 26 September 2016 08:45 UTC

ian

Thanks for the response.

Delete these two wrong URLs?

http://www.xxxx.uk/schools/teacher-workshop-s-inset-days/ - http://www.xxxx.uk/schools/teacher-workshop-s-inset-days/page-2.

Monday, 26 September 2016 08:49 UTC

wb_weeblr

Hi

You delete the URLs that prevent you from saving the alias you want to add. With any duplicate it may have (if there are duplicates, they'd be counted under the "Duplicates" column in the URL manager. Just select that URL and Click on the "Delete with duplicate" button in the tool bar.

Rgds

Monday, 26 September 2016 08:55 UTC

ian

Thanks for the response.

Just so I am clear

I should delete these two urls:

http://www.xxxx.uk/schools/teacher-workshop-s-inset-days/ - http://www.xxxx.uk/schools/teacher-workshop-s-inset-days/page-2.

and set up aliases in this URL

http://www.xxxx.uk/teacher-workshop-s-inset-days/inset-days

to the two URLs that have just been deleted?

Is that likely to pass the ranking from the tow deleted URLs to the new one.

We are also unable to update SHF404 in the back end of Joomla. Any suggestions for this?

Thanks

Ian

Monday, 26 September 2016 09:24 UTC

wb_weeblr

Hi

OK, so you had this error message:

ERROR Could not save date. Alias schools/teacher...... already exists as an alias or as a SEF URL.

so you just delete the URLs that can't be added as Aliases because they already exist as SEF URLs. I'm sorry, I can't think if any other way to put it, and I'm not sure what's stopping you to do that.

Is that likely to pass the ranking from the tow deleted URLs to the new one.

A 301 redirect will pass ranking if the pages are really similar to each other. "Similar" really means very, very close content, layouts and appearance. Otherwise, redirects are just convenience for your users, for instance, and that's already something very good.

We are also unable to update SHF404 in the back end of Joomla. Any suggestions for this?

What happens when you try? have you correctly setup your access/secret key as described on the "Updating" page of documentation?

Rgds

Monday, 26 September 2016 09:29 UTC

ian

I'm sorry, I can't think if any other way to put it, and I'm not sure what's stopping you to do that.

Nothing is stoping us doing it. We are just being cautious before we start diving in and deleting URLs that rank quite well for us at the moment, and redirecting them to a URL that doesn't at the moment.

I will get back to you about the update issue.

Thanks

Ian

Tuesday, 04 October 2016 16:45 UTC

ian

Hello,

Is there any reason why SHF404 would create a category blog link in the first place, which then goes on to be indexed on search engines?

Thanks

Ian

Tuesday, 04 October 2016 16:48 UTC

wb_weeblr

Is there any reason why SHF404 would create a category blog link in the first place, which then goes on to be indexed on search engines?

sh404SEF cannot and does not create URLs. It only turn them from non-sef to SEF. If you see such a URL in the URL manager, then it means it exists somewhere on your site.
Without sh404SEF, it would exist all the same (but you would not see it, as it would not be recorded in the database and visible on a page).

Rgds

Tuesday, 04 October 2016 16:50 UTC

ian

OK Thanks,

Will have a root around and see what exists. Could it be left over in the database from a redesign, but not showing as a link anywhere?

Thanks

Ian

Ian

Tuesday, 04 October 2016 16:52 UTC

wb_weeblr

Could it be left over in the database from a redesign, but not showing as a link anywhere?

That would not matter. You can have 1000 records in the database, that's not what decide what's displayed on pages, and visible to search engines. Joomla, your extensions and your template decides what's displayed on pages, and thus made accessible to search engines.

Rgds

Tuesday, 04 October 2016 16:53 UTC

ian

OK thanks

Wednesday, 05 October 2016 06:51 UTC

wb_weeblr

Hi

Closing this ticket now, feel free to open a new one as needed. If you do so, please mention this ticket number in the new one.

If you created any superadmin account for us, be sure to delete or block it now to avoid unnecessary risk in the future.

Be sure to also check out wbAMP, our new Accelerated Mobiles pages plugin for Joomla - the next big thing is SEO, direct from Google themselves!

Rgds

This ticket is closed, therefore read-only. You can no longer reply to it. If you need to provide more information, please open a new ticket and mention this ticket's number.