noindex nofollow problem on lite_blue template

Hi

I am currently using the lite_blue template and have recently noticed after upgrading to 1.51 that my ranking in google has dropped. I just noticed tonight that my product pages all have the following line in them :<meta name="robots" content="noindex, nofollow" />

which I guess is causing some problems. If I switch to lite_orange template the noindex nofollow is no longer there.

Please can someone point me in the right direction as to why the one template has it and not the other? Where can I change this?

Thanks

Download this file
includes/templates/lite_blue/common/html_header.php file
Look for to see if it is there

 <?php [B]//[/B]if (defined('ROBOTS_PAGES_TO_SKIP') && in_array($current_page_base,explode(",",constant('ROBOTS_PAGES_TO_SKIP'))) || $current_page_base=='down_for_maintenance') { ?>
<meta name="robots" content="noindex, nofollow" />
<?php [B]//[/B]} ?> 

If so replace with this

 <?php if (defined('ROBOTS_PAGES_TO_SKIP') && in_array($current_page_base,explode(",",constant('ROBOTS_PAGES_TO_SKIP'))) || $current_page_base=='down_for_maintenance') { ?>
<meta name="robots" content="noindex, nofollow" />
<?php } ?> 

A quick search and I could not locate the source of your template "lite_blue"

Thanks Kobra

I do not have a html_header.php in that folder, everything in that folder starts with tpl_

12leaves.com is the souce of the template.

Do you have that file in your lite_orange template?

No, not there either, these are the files in /common.

tpl_box_default_left.php
tpl_box_default_right.php
tpl_box_default_single.php
tpl_footer.php
tpl_header.php
tpl_main_page.php

I see the file is in the template_default/common but I guess that would have no effect on the blue/orange templates?

1. Does your /includes/templates/template_default/common/html_header.php file match the original one that comes with original Zen Cart code?
   (You can download the original code by clicking on the download link on the home page of www.zen-cart.com )

2. Also, does the problem continue if you temporarily switch to the "Classic" template via Admin->Tools->Template Select ?

It seems that by coincidence everytime I was on lite_blue I was viewing the source of product x and when I changed to lite_orange I viewed the source of prduct y (which (not thinking the problem may be different on the different products)

I then tested a new product which did not put in the "nofollow..." On looking through other products it seems fairly random, most have the "nofollow" but a few of them do not.

I apologise Kobra for not giving you the correct info.

It seems if I recreate each product it will sort out the problem but that means many hours work and would be great to avoid that if possible. Any suggestions?

1. See my questions above.

2. Please post URL links to your site's pages which are exhibiting the problem. (If you really want to obscure your URL, then put spaces b e t w e e n letters so search engines ignore them.)

Thanks DrByte

This one has nofollow noindex : http://www.staystuck.co.za/kids-labels-c-10/school-starter-pack-p-109.html
This on doesn't : http://www.staystuck.co.za/kids-labels-c-10/iron-on-labels-p-120.html

If I change to classic, yes the problem still occours on the different product pages, some pages it is there and others it is not.

According to winmerge the html_header.php files are identical.

The one that has noindex,nofollow is doing that because your URL is invalid. You're actually specifying an invalid category.

Your product 109 doesn't exist in category 10. It is being told not to index because your URL is invalid.
But product 120 does exist in category 10 ... so it gets no robots direction instructions, because it is correct.

So, your problem has nothing to do with robots/noindex/nofollow.

Your problem is that whatever you're using to create your URLs is either creating them wrong, or you've hard-coded specific URLs with invalid categories on them.

How about this one: http://www.staystuck.co.za/kids-labels-c-10/bag-tags-p-117.html

If I look in my product listing it falls under c-10 and is p117 but also has the noindex

I think Ultimate SEO is handling the url names

Sorry, real beginner here trying to wrap my head around it.

This one doesn't have the noindex: http://www.staystuck.co.za/kids-labels-c-10/bag-tags-p-117.html

It could be that your URL-rewriter is causing the troubles. Turn it off and see.

DrByte:

The one that has noindex,nofollow is doing that because your URL is invalid. You're actually specifying an invalid category.

Your product 109 doesn't exist in category 10. It is being told not to index because your URL is invalid.
But product 120 does exist in category 10 ... so it gets no robots direction instructions, because it is correct.

So, your problem has nothing to do with robots/noindex/nofollow.

Your problem is that whatever you're using to create your URLs is either creating them wrong, or you've hard-coded specific URLs with invalid categories on them.

Ok, think I have it. After looking into what you said about product 109 not existing I looked into each product and noticed that some of them had not been assigned a master category (I think this may have been from the import from OSCommerce to Zen). Once I assigned a master category that corresponded to the category in the url all seems ok now. The nofollow has been removed from the product pages now.

Thanks DrByte and kobra for pointing me in the right direction.

Thanks for posting back your solution.
I may add that in the future it's useful to include information like the fact that your data was recently imported from another data source, etc. The more "context" you provide, the better and faster the solution.

To be honest, it was imported about a year ago and everything was working fine until the upgrade from 1.3x to 1.5 which was not done by myself. It may have been an underlying problem that I had never picked up before or maybe it was my drop in rankings that made me go looking for a problem. Either way I am glad and grateful to have it fixed.

I am having a similar problem V1.5.1 but only with my Contact Us page. I switched to Classic and it was still in the source code. :(

pixelpadre:

I am having a similar problem V1.5.1 but only with my Contact Us page. I switched to Classic and it was still in the source code. :(By default that page is correct and not indexed.
Why would you want it indexed?

Well because goooogle seems to like websites who dont hide their contact information. Top sites in generic returns tend to have contact information in search results. I am sure you have seen it.

Been chasing this down for 2 hours.

pixelpadre:

Well because goooogle seems to like websites who dont hide their contact information. Top sites in generic returns tend to have contact information in search results. I am sure you have seen it.

Been chasing this down for 2 hours.

Is there a file I can edit. I have done a string search on every file and could not locate it. Tried the Db also.

After a large bowl of spaghetti alfredo with Chicken, I found it. :)