[Luci]

I’ve been battling this issue with the Connections plugin for a few years now…… Hoping someone can point me to a FIX.

We have this page on our website:
https://milescitychamber.com/lodging/
It shows a list of all businesses in the “Lodging” category.
Page code is: [connections category="43" home_id="7" enable_search='false' enable_category_select='false' enable_pagination=’false’ str_work_phone=Phone str_work_fax=Fax str_home_phone=Phone str_bio_show='Photos' str_bio_head='Photos' str_bio_hide='Close Photos' str_note_head='Info' str_note_show='Show More Info' str_note_hide='Close Info']

Now if I search for any business via Google, I will find this URL high in the SERPS:
https://milescitychamber.com/lodging/name/big-sky-financial-planning-group/
the issue is here ….. /lodging/name/ then the business…………..

Obviously this is wrong. How can I stop these stupid pages from being MADE and SHOWING up in the SERPS?
Please help!

[Steven Zahm]

@ Luci

I suspect that you entire directory was visible on the lodgings page when Google had indexed the site. When Google starts updating its index of your site, the links will get corrected. Or it could be Google being Google…

Doing a search on your site for Big Sky Financial Planning Group

https://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Amilescitychamber.com+Big+Sky+Financial+Planning+Group

There are two pages of results returned.

Seems only the first two are links to two pages on your site which seem valid. On the second page the lodging page does show up, but that is because Google is matching just “Big Sky” You can tell this because Google bolds the matching terms.

If you do the same search again but add quotes to the search "Big Sky Financial Planning Group"

https://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Amilescitychamber.com+%22Big+Sky+Financial+Planning+Group%22

The lodging page does not display as a result at all because of the far more specific query quoting the text causes.

So, things seem exactly as they should as far as search results go.

The one thing I see as an issue is that you’ve embedded the directory on many pages throughout your site. Connections does support this to allow multiple directories on the same site separated out by categories or other criteria. But this does not seem to be how you are using Connections, so, I highly recommend using the force_home shortcode option on all those pages which are not your Business Directory page. Before doing this, ensure your business directory page is set as the directory home page. That should improve the SEO of your site.

Hope that helps!

[Luci]

First let me say – this is NOT A BUG – maybe move to different forum category.
Seems my settings are causing the strange URLS – plus old index from Google.

Second – thanks for the quick reply Steven!

Okay for step one –
Here is my “directory home page”
https://milescitychamber.com/business-directory/

Here is the CODE on the page.
I don’t know if this is “set” as the directory home page or not?.?

[connections str_work_phone=Phone str_work_fax=Fax str_home_phone=Phone str_bio_show='More Photos' str_bio_head='Photos' str_bio_hide='Close Photos' str_note_head='Info' str_note_show='Show More Info' str_note_hide='Close Info' show_empty_categories=’false’]

Thanks,
Luci

[Luci]

So the /recreations/ issue is showing for all businesses in the dashboard.
https://milescitychamber.com/recreation/name/600-cafe/
Here is the code on my RECREATIONS page: Makes listings marked “Recreation” shop up at the bottom of the page….
[connections category="51" enable_search='false' enable_category_select='false' enable_pagination=’false’ str_work_phone=Phone str_work_fax=Fax str_home_phone=Phone str_bio_show='Photos' str_bio_head='Photos' str_bio_hide='Close Photos' str_note_head='Info' str_note_show='Show More Info' str_note_hide='Close Info']

[Steven Zahm]

RE: I don’t know if this is “set” as the directory home page or not?

Navigate to the Connections : Settings admin page and make sure the correct page is set as the directory home page.

RE: So the /recreations/ issue is showing for all businesses in the dashboard.

If the /recreations/` page is showing as the “View” links on the admin pages, then the it seems the incorrect page is set as the directory home page. I would expect /business-directory/.

On the Recreation page, add force_home=true to the existing shortcode so all the links reference the directory home page instead of the recreation page.

Hope that helps, let me know.

ps. I can take time for Google to update its index. Most of the time it is pretty quick but that dos depend on how often Google crawls the site and when their algorithm decides to remove “dead” links.

[Author]

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