Help with an incorrect URL picked up by Google

1

This is an odd one, and not something I’ve ever seen before.

A couple of weeks ago I did some work to a client site to improve their search results for the wedding dress range called Modeca. In short, we were getting results for terms like “modeca Edinburgh”. But not when introducing a dress name into the search, so like “Modeca Nanette Edinburgh”.

So I did some SEO work and for the term “Modeca Nanette Edinburgh” the lcient is top, but the URL Google has picked up is wrong. It doesn’t exist!

If you type “Modeca Nanette Edinburgh” into Google, hopefully you will see it…

Screenshot 2022-04-06 at 14.55.02
Screenshot 2022-04-06 at 14.55.021920×1005 79.7 KB

Googling is sending you to Modeca Wedding Dresses which isn’t a page. That URL is actually an almagation of two brands folder… enzoani and modeca.

I can’t for the life of me work out where Google got that URL from.

Worth mentioning that each brand page contains an instance of @Jannis Poster 2, and I’m using friendly URL’s, so maybe that is the cause?

The htaccess code used for the two brands that Googles seems to be merging is below, maybe there is a mistake in it?

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule modeca/author/(.*) /modeca/index.php?author=$1 [L,NC,QSA]
RewriteRule modeca/category/(.*) /modeca/index.php?category=$1 [L,NC,QSA]
RewriteRule modeca/date/(.*) /modeca/index.php?date=$1 [L,NC,QSA]
RewriteRule modeca/search/(.*) /modeca/index.php?search=$1 [L,NC,QSA]
RewriteRule modeca/tag/(.*) /modeca/index.php?tag=$1 [L,NC,QSA]

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule modeca/(.*) /modeca/index.php?post=$1 [L,NC,QSA]

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule enzoani/author/(.*) /enzoani/index.php?author=$1 [L,NC,QSA]
RewriteRule enzoani/category/(.*) /enzoani/index.php?category=$1 [L,NC,QSA]
RewriteRule enzoani/date/(.*) /enzoani/index.php?date=$1 [L,NC,QSA]
RewriteRule enzoani/search/(.*) /enzoani/index.php?search=$1 [L,NC,QSA]
RewriteRule enzoani/tag/(.*) /enzoani/index.php?tag=$1 [L,NC,QSA]

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule enzoani/(.*) /enzoani/index.php?post=$1 [L,NC,QSA]

Anyone any ideas?

2

Did you create in page enzoani a blog post with the name modeca ?

3

No.

Screenshot 2022-04-06 at 15.17.30
Screenshot 2022-04-06 at 15.17.301920×1017 122 KB

But what I have just discovered in that with the pretty URL function on, and the code in the htaccess file, any incorrect URL that starts with a page on which Poster 2 exists with pretty urls setup, the 404 redirect in the htaccess doesn’t work.

For instance…

4

Sure. These are all virtual URLs without real pages.

I am not sending a 404 if you request a post which doesn’t exist. Which I should do, maybe.

1 Like
5

That should fix things I’d suggest.

6

This still does not explain why this URL was indexed by Google.

7

True. But most likely we’ll never know. It’s Google. They don’t know why they do the things they do!

For now, I’ll just put in a redirect for that url.

1 Like
8

I’m pleased to say Google seems to have dropped the incorrect URL and is now returning corect URL’s in search results.

So I’m just gonna put this down to Google.

1 Like