Problem with my wordpress website

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18
I have created a lot of Wordpress sites, and never ran into this. I have a Wordpress site that has been ranking #1 for about two years, without me even having to touch it.

It has always had a simple four phrase title in Google search, that I created, using the all in one seo plugin.

However, when I checked it a couple days ago, it still had the four phrase search, but it also had the name of someone that made a comment on my site, in the title on Google.

So it always looked like this: The Best Widgets

Now it looks like this: The Best Widgets | By George1

George1, is one of the hundreds of people that have left a comment on this site.

I have noticed that a lot of the comments, are in the admin area, where you add the content. Is that normal.

I don't usually allow comments on my sites, so maybe that is the way it is supposed to be.

Any help in fixing this, would be appreciated. I am concerned that I will lose my ranking, because of the extra text that makes no sense, in the title.

Thanks You.
Glenn
#search engine optimization #problem #website #wordpress
  • Banned
    Do you have the same text as the page <title> above each individual comment? Look at the Google Cache (text version) of the problem page.
    • [1] reply
    • The person who writes a comment, is not showing in the comments that visitors can see, but it is next to every comment that I see, along with the page they commented on, their ip address, and their email, in the admin area. I assume that is necessary.

      It seems weird that this would just pop up, after the site has been up for a couple of years. The name of the person that is showing on the title, is obsessed with my site, and comments almost daily.

      But I don't understand how his name got into the title.

      Thanks Glenn
      • [1] reply
  • Banned
    Here's what's happening with Google changing your SERP title...

    Google is looking at your blog post xml feed for the problem page/s. I say page/s because you have 3 pages with the same SERP title problem, including the home page SERP title.

    Inside your blog post xml feed for the page your asking about in OP is 3 instances of the exact problem text showing up at the end of the SERP title (By: {user name}). I'll PM you the exact feed URL so you can see what's going on.

    Why Google is changing the SERP title...

    If you look at your HTML source code your feeds are setup as alternatives (link rel="alternate") to the live webpage. Notice the very end of the URL in the example below ():

    HTML Code:
    <link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="Your Blog Post Title Here" href="http://domain.com/your-blog-post-title-here/feed" />
    [source]
    BTW, the original problem page you talked about in OP has 47 instances of the problem text (comment name) on the current Google Cache (text version) but that blog post page doesn't show the text , only the xml feed shows that exact text ( {user name}). That's how I know the xml file is the problem.

    Doing a site:domain.com " {user name}" search doesn't return any results because the xml feed pages aren't indexed or cached so it won't show any results which meant the text was coming from somewhere else on the domain because Google doesn't just make up text out of the blue.

    I browsed the HTML of the problem page, found the rel="alternate" feed URL & sure enough there's 3 instances of the problem text wrapped in <title> tags on the xml file:
    • <title>By: {user name}</title>

    What Google is doing is combining the live webpage <title> with the <title> inside the xml file. I have no idea why they picked that specific comment name or why it started happening now.

    My advice is, If you don't need that xml feed (I'll PM the URL) remove the xml feed URL from your HTML source code & reindex the page inside Webmaster Tools via Fetch as Google. Google will reindex the problem page URL very fast (minutes) & hopefully update the SERP title since the alternate xml feed is removed.
    • [1] reply
    • Hi, if I take that url out, that ends with feed, will that solve the problem? Will it affect anything else on my site? Will people still be able to make comments?

      I also have to ask how I remove that link. I may be able to figure it out, but never did it on any sites I have, so any tips will be helpful.

      Thanks for your help.
      Glenn
      • [1] reply
  • Banned
    BTW, the only feed that was a problem included comments, so If you have a feed plugin look for turning off comments feeds.
    • [1] reply
    • I didn't find the url you mentioned yet, and I have checked most of the site code, but I just noticed that I have a plugin on my site, that I don't have on my other sites, called Sociable, and it says it will, Automatically add links on your posts, pages and RSS feed to your favorite social bookmarking sites. That is a quote from the plugin.

      Could that be the problem. I assume that plugin has been there since the site was created.

      Also would the url you mentioned to delete, be in my wordpress template code, or would I find it by going into the hosting account, with my external tool. I use the flexsqueeze template.

      Glenn
      • [1] reply
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    Problem with my wordpress website

    I have created a lot of Wordpress sites, and never ran into this. I have a Wordpress site that has been ranking #1 for about two years, without me even having to touch it. It has always had a simple four phrase title in Google search, that I created, using the all in one seo plugin.