#2903 – A URL needs to be off from indexing

Hi

though it is not in my system.

It is in your system, or else Google would not display it.

xxxx.com/?presets=preset3

This is not a 404, and so we cannot trigger a 404 for it. This is just a URL with some additional variables (preset=preset3), but the actual URL is still xxxx.com/.

1 - I would suggest you find where that link is coming from. You can use tools such as Screaming Frog. It's also possible this link is NOT on your system, but is a link somewhere on somebody else system.

2 - sh404SEF always add a canonical link to the home page. It's doing that correctly:

[xxxx]

It means search engines will eventually discard the xxxx.com/?presets=preset3 link and just use xxxx.com/

I am actually very surprised this can happen,considering you have a canonical. I tested myself, and I do get the correct URL:

[xxxx]

When and how does this problem occur actually?
Rgds

Hi

So, this link is supposed to be directed to homepage? Did I understand right?

There is absolutely nothing to do. The page has the right canonical, and from the page content standpoint, and sh404SEF standpoint, all is done perfectly, following all rules.

we cannot say why Google (are you talking about google?) would show another URL before the main one, but that's entirely up to them and we cannot guess that. Remember that I don't see it, so you may actually be the only person on the planet seeing this (because of Google personalize results).

If you have any such problem, you should probably look at the Google Search console rather than on your site, this is where you can probably find more information about any crawling or indexing issues on your site.

Rgds

Hi

I didn't click on any link. Those screenshots above are from your home page.

The link in the arrow at the right of "Find sports activity partners" is http://xxxx.com/activities-friends

Clicking it doesn't bring up anything with ?preset=preset3 at all. THat's expected as http://xxxx.com/?preset=preset3 is actually your home page, so if that link was attached to this arrow, you would just come back to the home page.

Using the site command on Google brings up this:

[xxxx]

IMHO, you are just seeing of of the (many) bugs in Google results.

Rgds

Hi

Personnally, I don't see the difference but you know your site...

Those preset variables are usually coming from templates, they use them for default setups. I don't remember which template company use them, but you are probably seeing one of those variants.

What's for sure, again, is that you have the correct canonical on those pages, so Google should not index those variants.

Rgds

Hi

Indeed, this is not related to sh404SEF. I have read the discussion on the forum, and the problem is not there. Adding a canonical or noindex would help, but again that's not the problem. The problem is that this link is found by Google somewhere on your site. Again, my experience is that this kind of links are used by templates.
When you find where the link is created, you can probably suppress it.


Rgds

Hi

I would suggest you first take a copy of your .htaccess, so as to be able to restore it, that's a safe thing to do. Likewise, if you have akeeba backup, doing a backup before letting them access is a good safety measure.

That said, I'm pretty sure they do that often and can handle it properly, without breaking things.

Hiring someone is possible, but if the template makers look at it, you can certainly get their opinion first I'd say.

Rgds

Hi

It sure will do something. It's unfortunate they didn't search the root of the issue though. Glad it's fixed anyway. I will leave this ticket open in case you need to add something. It will automatically close in 2 weeks, if not further comment is made.

Best regards