daverado

Thanks @benbodhi. Could you post back here when you have any more news, either positive or negative?

Dave

| Your site loads from the HTTPS/WWW version, so that’s the property to focus on. If possible, you should remove the other properties to avoid confusion.

That doesn’t make sense to me because:

1. When I went to https://search.google.com/search-console/welcome it asked me for the domain name and wouldn’t let me go any further until I had verified the domain, and
2. When I look in the GSC Overview page, if https://www.jackieradophotography.com/ is selected in the Property drop-down at the top-left of the screen, it says “0 indexed pages”; but if the domain jackieradophotography.com is selected in the property dropdown, it says “30 indexed pages”.
3. If I try to inspect any url on the website when https://www.jackieradophotography.com/ is selected in the Property drop-down at the top-left of the screen, it says “URL not in property”. But if I try to inspect the same urls when the domain jackieradophotography.com is selected in the property dropdown, it says “URL is on Google” and “Page is indexed”.
4. So it would surely make more sense to remove the https://www.jackieradophotography.com/ Property as GSC doesn’t seem to be using it – but I can’t see any way to do so.

| Requesting indexing doesn’t mean your changes will be reflected instantly.

I wasn’t expecting the changes to be reflected as soon as I requested reindexing.

I was expecting the changes to be reflected as soon the reindexing had been completed.

Reindexing was completed on 26 Jun 2024 at 12:38:22.

In any case, it’s now well over 48 hours since reindexing was completed and if you search for site:jackieradophotography.com, the meta descriptions that are displayed are still mostly unrelated to the meta-descriptions that were set in Yoast but are instead random text that Google has taken from the webpages.

| I recommend that you start by re-submitting your XML sitemap index.

GSC is already using the correct sitemap index. If I inspect any page on the site in GSC it says:

Sitemaps: https://www.jackieradophotography.com/sitemap_index.xml

Which is the correct url for the sitemap.

So not clear why I should re-submit the XML sitemap index when it’s already using the right one.

• This reply was modified 4 months, 4 weeks ago by daverado.

Update: I discovered that there were 3 items in the property drop-down on the far top left of the Google Search Console screen, as follows:
1. https://www.jackieradophotography.com/
2. https://www.jackieradophotography.com/
3. jackieradophotography.com
Domain Property

For some reason the third one, the domain itself, said it hadn’t been verified although the other two had.

The reason I didn’t notice it before was that the property https://www.jackieradophotography.com/ was selected initially and it said that had been verified. It was only when I clicked on the dropdown that I discovered it was listing 3 properties, one of which, the domain itself, it said was unverified.

So I clicked on the link to verify the domain and followed the instructions and veified it by pasting some text it gave me into the hosting company’s DNS page and now it says the domain property has been verified.

I don’t understand why there are three entries in the property dropdown – one for the domain, one for http url of the home page and one for the https url of the home page. And I don’t understand why it said before that the http and https properties had been verified but not the domain.

Anyway, after verifying the domain I then pasted the urls of most of the articles on the website into the “Inspect” search box. It said they had all been indexed in early June or late May.

I then clicked clicked “Request Indexing” for as many articles as it allowed me to before I exceeded my daily limit, and most of the pages have been reindexed today, after I verified the domain.

But that’s made no difference.

For instance, https://www.jackieradophotography.com/training/ has been reindexed by Google today, after I verified the domain. But if you search for site:jackieradophotography.com and scroll down to where it says “https://www.jackieradophotography.com ? training”, the description it displays is still:

“MENTORING AND COACHING · Tailored 1:1 mentoring sessions where we look in depth at your goals and obstacles and help you to achieve your photographic objectives”

But the meta-description for that page is and has been for more than a year:

“I love to teach photography and share my experience; and I delight in helping others to achieve extraordinary results that surpass all expectations.”

So how can I get to the bottom of why Google is indexing the site but ignoring the meta descriptions?

Dave

• This reply was modified 5 months ago by daverado.
• This reply was modified 5 months ago by daverado.
• This reply was modified 5 months ago by daverado.
• This reply was modified 5 months ago by daverado.

PS – I’m confused.

When I clicked on the “Sign up now for Google Search Console” link in the article you linked to, it took me straight to my Google Search Console account page at https://search.google.com/search-console?utm_source=about-page&resource_id=https://jackieradophotography.com/

And if I then click on Settings and then click on “Ownership verification”, it says “Verification methods used HTML file Successfully verified.”

But if instead I go to https://search.google.com/search-console/welcome and type the domain name jackieradophotography.com and click Continue, it pops up a dialogue box asking me to “Verify domain ownership via DNS record”.

It makes no sense that your link lets me log in to my GSC account, which says the domain has been succesfully verified, but that if I try to log in through their welcome page it implies that it hasn’t.

Any ideas?

Dave

• This reply was modified 5 months ago by daverado.
• This reply was modified 5 months ago by daverado.

Hi @maybellyne

The site was registered with Google Search Console in 2020 and I get regular emails from them. The site appears to be indexed by Google quite regularly so I’m not clear why requesting indexing now would make any difference. Any idea how I can get to the bottom of why they’re ignoring all but two of the meta descriptions (but aren’t igoring the page titles)?

Many thanks

Dave

• This reply was modified 5 months ago by daverado.

PS – I’ve just realised that there’s one – but only one – webpage for which Google is currently displaying exactly the same description as the meta description we created using Yoast SEO , which is the “Family Gallery” page. The meta description for that page is exactly 160 characters long, so makes no sense that Google is truncating the meta description of the Home page.

Also my previous post contained several typos, but I can’t see any way to edit it. Is this possible? It’s letting me edit this post but not my original post.

Dave

• This reply was modified 5 months ago by daverado.

It takes 3 screen captures to get it all in. Here, here and here.

Hi @maybellyne

Not sure if you saw my previous message. I don’t know what the word metabox means. Please could you explain?

Thanks

Dave

What is a metabox?

Is this what you’re asking me for?

Hi @611shabnam.

1) As I wrote in my reply to @maybellyne above, I haven’t received any analysis or suggestions from the plugin. Every page on the site has the key phrase field filled in, and most pages have done for a long time – so when will I receive the analysis or suggestions from the plugin?

2) In any case, if all it will tell me is whether or not the page and its title contain the key phrase, it wouldn’t take me any more time to check that manually than it would take me to fill in the key phrase field. Does it do more than just check the page content and title and let me know whether they contain the keyphrase? If not, I still don’t see the point of filling in the field.

Thanks for your help.

Dave

Hi @maybellyne

As far as I can see, the page you linked to doesn’t say anything about how or whether Google’s algorithm uses the focus keyphrase field in the plugin.

It says the plugin uses the contents of the keyphrase field to give me feedback to help me optimise the wepage itself, but

(a) I haven’t received any feedback about that from the plugin, and

(b) in any case if all it means is that it will tell me to include the keyphrase on the webpage itself then I still don’t see the point in filling in the field.

is there any point? If so, what is the point?

Dave

• This reply was modified 8 months, 1 week ago by daverado.
• This reply was modified 8 months, 1 week ago by daverado.
• This reply was modified 8 months, 1 week ago by daverado.