MSUKForum Posted July 1, 2020 Share Posted July 1, 2020 Articles from my databases are not showing up on Google, is there something I've not configured? I have one database that creates a forum topic, and the forum topics show up in Google fine but the article page just doesn't get indexed at all? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
opentype Posted July 1, 2020 Share Posted July 1, 2020 Have you done a site: check to see if it’s really not in the index? Google: “site:https://yoursite.com/your-article-page/” Chances are, the forum topic just ranks better, because the forum itself has gained more relevance already. (In which case it might be a good idea to hide that article-only forum from search engines.) Normally, there is nothing to configure. If the articles are public, they will be indexed. MSUKForum 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MSUKForum Posted July 1, 2020 Author Share Posted July 1, 2020 I've done a Google URL inspection and it says its all okay and indexed but I just can't find it myself, it seems like articles are dead in the water compared to forum topics in search results? Here is an example article:https://www.msuk-forum.co.uk/articles/reviews/flying-cars-film-review-r2/ If I Googlesite:msuk-forum.co.uk flying cars review It doesn't come up from what I can see, and topics referring to this article do fine. 1 minute ago, opentype said: Have you done a site: check to see if it’s really not in the index? Google: “site:https://yoursite.com/your-article-page/” Chances are, the forum topic just ranks better, because the forum itself has gained more relevance already. (In which case it might be a good idea to hide that article-only forum from search engines.) Normally, there is nothing to configure. If the articles are public, they will be indexed. Hmm, yeah it does come up, but why do forum topics have such better results? I thought being the same domain and site it would rank evenly. It just makes the whole articles side of my site a bit useless. Thank-you opentype. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
opentype Posted July 1, 2020 Share Posted July 1, 2020 Yeah, they are indexed. It’s not surprising. If you start a new article page, it doesn’t rank well instantly. But your forum already gained credibility. It could change over time if users start linking your articles directly. But it can be confusing with the same content twice on one site. If Google can’t decide where to direct the user, it will also hurt the ranking. You could remove the guest permission for the article forum or not post the articles there at all. MSUKForum 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MSUKForum Posted July 1, 2020 Author Share Posted July 1, 2020 21 minutes ago, opentype said: Yeah, they are indexed. It’s not surprising. If you start a new article page, it doesn’t rank well instantly. But your forum already gained credibility. It could change over time if users start linking your articles directly. But it can be confusing with the same content twice on one site. If Google can’t decide where to direct the user, it will also hurt the ranking. You could remove the guest permission for the article forum or not post the articles there at all. Hmm, some members don't view the articles pages so prefer seeing the forum topics. Being the same domain I didn't think this would cause an issue with ranking. The review article in particular doesn't create forum topics I just post a news article along with them to announce it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
opentype Posted July 1, 2020 Share Posted July 1, 2020 26 minutes ago, jpointer2_merged said: Hmm, some members don't view the articles pages so prefer seeing the forum topics. 4.x has the Activity feed, where everything can come together. That’s usually much better than having “forum users” which need special forum announcement to visit other sections as it was before 4.x. MSUKForum 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MSUKForum Posted July 2, 2020 Author Share Posted July 2, 2020 (edited) 9 hours ago, opentype said: 4.x has the Activity feed, where everything can come together. That’s usually much better than having “forum users” which need special forum announcement to visit other sections as it was before 4.x. It is good but that's not how some users work. The database "News" on my site has always had a forum section, even before databases/articles was a thing. I'm always for moving with the times, so removing it is possible, but I worry that by removing this forum section that my Google presence will tank as it's not picking up the database articles with the same priority. At the moment, the forum topics for News rank really high on Google, the database articles don't at all. I still don't get what Google is doing here and because of this it stops me really changing anything, or even wanting to use the database system at all. I don't know SEO too well but is it because the databases are not on my menu? Is Google not mapping it right? Edited July 2, 2020 by jpointer2_merged Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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