SEO: Google lists child page – and not parent page?

  • Hello, Shoreditch.

    This is a general question, that is related to use of child pages versus search engine optimization (SEO).

    1. I create a new page at /abc, select the panel page template, sets a featured image and fill out the SEO related meta data in the Yoast plugin fields.

    2. Then I create another new page as a child page to the first page at /abc/def and deselect search engine listing for this child page. I finally create the main content in this child page.

    3. I assume, that I now have the correct page at /abc and a hidden child page at /abc/def. The sitemap for search engines only contains the /abc page.

    However: 2 days later, Google indexes the child page higher than the parent page. This means, that users will see wrong meta data and click at /abc/def and see a not so good looking page without the feature image.

    Am I using the page template correct or am I doing something wrong here?

    Thanks for a great theme!

    • This topic was modified 6 years, 6 months ago by Michael H.. Reason: Missing code tag
Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)

  • @micskidk – I’ll report back. It’s a good question and I need to do a bit of research.

    Hi there,

    Sorry to butt in.

    By default, all pages will be indexable – so this is more of an issue making sure that plugins are doing their job correctly.

    If a page has been correctly noindexed with Yoast SEO, it shouldn’t appear in Google’s search results – assuming the page has been crawled by Google since the change has been made.

    If a noindexed page is appearing in SERP’s, please post a link to it, along with details of the (rough) date you set it to ‘noindex’.

    We can then check the page’s HTML to see if the plugin has correctly added the required meta tag, and we can check Google’s cache of the page to see if things match up.

    If you can’t provide a URL that we can troubleshoot, one possible solution would be to use a plugin to create a 301 redirect from the child page to the parent page.

    Anyone who clicks on the child page from a Google SERP can be redirected to any page you prefer. The child page will eventually drop out of Google’s index.

    Added: Please note that it’s the noindex meta tag that’s required to prevent a page from appearing in Google’s search results. A page can still be indexed even if it doesn’t appear in a sitemap.

    • This reply was modified 6 years, 6 months ago by Gary Barrett. Reason: updated info about sitemap

    Ok, back as promised.

    The issue here, is that your Yoast site map isn’t matching the changes made on the site. I think this is going to be the best resource:

    https://kb.yoast.com/kb/sitemap-does-not-update/

    Give that a look and follow up with Yoast or here with more questions.

    @gary-barrett –

    I failed to refresh and see the advice you had offered. Appreciate your help.

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)
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