cami_leisk Posted March 31, 2022 Share Posted March 31, 2022 Site URL: https://www.leighsuggs.com/ Hey I'm wondering if this is an issue that I can fix within Squarespace? I recently switched a client over from 7.0 to 7.1 and rebuilt her website with a few changes to the way it was organized and with a bunch of new content. We connected the old domain to the new site and canceled the old site. When I initially resubmitted the sitemap for the new site and requested indexing on all important pages, there was no issue and her ranking was excellent - showing up 1st in google search results. Now, her home page is not being indexed at all because of a soft 404 issue -- all other pages are being indexed with the exception of https://www.leighsuggs.com/ and https://www.leighsuggs.com/home -- both of which are active links as far as I can tell. And incidentally -- these are the most important pages to be indexed! I submitted a help request to google and their response was that the URL doesn't exist? Help. I've tried removing the home page as the page that people get directed to when there is a 404 message (to catch the old random links from her old site that may exist on various institutions websites) and that didn't help so I turned that back on. Anytime I request indexing within google search console it thinks for a little while and then says "Oops! something went wrong!" I've tried over and over again for the past week with no results. Attached is a screenshot of what it looks like within console. Anyone else run into this problem? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Cami Link to comment
Solution paul2009 Posted April 1, 2022 Solution Share Posted April 1, 2022 18 hours ago, cami_leisk said: Her home page is not being indexed at all because of a soft 404 issue -- all other pages are being indexed As a first step, I suggest adding some relevant text-based content to the homepage and then request reindexing. I say this because the homepage doesn't contain any useful text content that can be indexed - at least none that I could see. Here's what I saw when I viewed the homepage: Google wants to provide users with the best "answer" to their search "question" so, for the homepage to be indexed and considered valuable, it must contain useful information on the topic you want to rank for. As a minimum, Google has to know what the page is about, otherwise it will be considered "thin content". Did this help? Please give feedback by clicking an icon below ⬇️ cami_leisk 1 About: Squarespace Circle Leader since 2017. I value honesty, transparency, diversity and great design ♥.Work: Squarespace Developer and founder of SF Digital, building the features Squarespace didn't include™. Content: Links in my posts may refer to SF Digital products or may be affiliate links. Catch up on all the release notes and announcements 2023 [for Circle members only]. There's a public version here too!If I helped, you can thank me by clicking one of the emojis below. If you prefer, you can buy me a coffee.Improve your online store with our extensions. Link to comment
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