site title coming up as 'Index of/' in google instead of site name

  • Hi,

    I’ve just gone live with a wordpress site – moving it from the directory I built it in (called ‘welcome’) to the root directory’s URL.
    [so: site built at alisonlight.org/weclome and moved to alisonlight.org ]

    But when I put alisonlight.org into google search (not into the address bar) I get this result:

    Index of /
    https://www.alisonlight.org/
    Index of /. cgi-bin/ · welcome/

    However, what I have set up to come up in Google, using WordPress SEO by Yoast, is:

    Home – Alison Light
    https://www.alisonlight.org/
    Alison Light: writer, teacher and independent scholar. She writes and broadcasts chiefly on issues to do with British cultural life, literature and history.

    FYI: I used the article https://codex.www.ads-software.com/Giving_WordPress_Its_Own_Directory do (the section Using a pre-existing subdirectory install) for doing the move – I’ve done this before and it’s been fine – but maybe I did something wrong this time?

    Can you help me correct this please?

    Many thanks,
    Isabelle

Viewing 10 replies - 1 through 10 (of 10 total)

  • How long ago did you change this and have you asked Google to reindex the site (via Google Webmaster Tools)?

    Thread Starter dizigniz

    (@dizigniz)

    Changed it yesterday. And Haven’t asked google (this has never happened before). Just now looking at their webmaster tools section – can you advised best method with a WP site?
    Their recommended method (download verification file and upload to site) – I’m not sure how i’d upload it to a WP site?
    Thanks

    Hi dizigniz,

    Since you already have WordPress SEO by Yoast installed, check out this article for an easier way to verify your site.

    Thread Starter dizigniz

    (@dizigniz)

    Thanks – I’ve just tried that several time but it won’t work – I get this message:
    Verification failed for https://alisonlight.org/ using the Meta tag method (less than a minute ago). The connection to your server timed out.
    Verify your ownership of https://alisonlight.org/.

    Make sure to use ‘www.alisonlight.org’, when you enter your site URL in Google Webmaster Tools.

    Their recommended method (download verification file and upload to site) – I’m not sure how i’d upload it to a WP site?

    You’ll need to upload the file by FTP. You can get the login information from your host, and use a FTP program to upload the file. Filezilla is a good option.

    Thread Starter dizigniz

    (@dizigniz)

    Ok – just tried your first method again using https://www.alisonlight.org and it failed again.
    If I do it via FTP – should I just upload to the root?
    thanks

    If I do it via FTP – should I just upload to the root?

    Exactly.

    Thread Starter dizigniz

    (@dizigniz)

    Hi rwaynick,
    I just tried your method as described in this article again and it works if in Step 3 you ignore what he says and copy/paste the whole code, not the portion he suggests!

    My site has now passed the verification process – I’m guessing it will take a day or so to see the changes?

    Hi dizigniz,

    I’m glad you got it working. Google doesn’t tell you exactly when they will crawl your site again. But it looks like your title and meta description are showing up properly in the SERP (Search Engine Results Page).

    Thread Starter dizigniz

    (@dizigniz)

    Thanks rwaynick.

Viewing 10 replies - 1 through 10 (of 10 total)
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