G'day there!

I have a Joomla 1.6 site that I'm building with a Kunena forum. My site structure (if that's the right term) is a dog's dinner.

I've created several categories as I've built the site and either renamed them or created a new category and deleted the old one.

These old categories are gone from the back end and I can't find them in the database (though I'm out of my depth in the database).

Google has the categories indexed and also the articles in those categories.

In some cases, when I click on the indexed URL (site:domain.com.au) I get a 404 error which is as it should be. I can then use the URL removal tool or let them go away with time.

But in other cases, where it's a category, the link leads to a category page, which I suppose would be a category blog if there were any articles in that category.

In still other cases, where it's a category/article, it will redirect (if that's the right term) to an unrelated article, such as About or Forum Rules or maybe to a version of the home page with the two articles but not the sidebars. This latter may be the remains of the category blog I created for the home page in desperation when I couldn't get the Featured Articles working properly.

However, the URL in the browser address bar is the URL that I clicked on, not the correct URL of the article.

So, I'm looking for some guidance on where to look to get rid of the junk.

Maybe it's something I've done wrong but I haven't had this sort of trouble with my 1.5 sites.

I doubt that it's a Joomla 1.6 problem. I've already, once, deleted everything but the sql user and started from scratch.

In all the confusion, it seems that some of the junk belongs to the installation that I deleted. If the first bit is impossible, this is doubly impossible.

I'm using Crazy Host. Could there be some backup system that is causing this?
MySQL version 5.0.92-community
PHP version 5.2.14
Apache version 2.2.17
Kernel version 2.6.18-194.26.1.el5

I've tried disabling the Joomla 1.6 Redirect plugin and I've cleared the cache (Site>Maintenance>Clear Cache) as well as the browser cache.

I have no redirects in the Joomla Redirect and none made through cPanel.

I know this all sounds impossible, but it's all true. I'm at the point where if I can't get some guidance I'll save my copy to notepad, uninstall and go back to Joomla 1.5 If that doesn't help, I'll give Crazy a miss.

But I know there are some pretty clever people using Joomla 1.6 with more sophisticated sites than I'd ever imagine and they have no trouble.

If you can't help me, maybe you could lend me your hanky. ,)

Thanks.

Hey Laurie,

It sounds like Google has indexed your site with one set of URLs and then you've gone in and changed them all from what was originally indexed.

Is that correct?

If you, you need to create a redirection table with all of your broken URLs and redirect them using 301 redirects to point them over to the new URLs.

You can either do this with htaccess or with the Joomla 1.6 redirect component.

Add in the old URL and then choose the new url to where it is suppose to be redirected to.

Give that a go IF I read your thing correctly.

Regards,

Peter

Thanks for the reply Peter.



Yes, that's correct.

These should give a 404 Not found, and some do. But others go to various pages that as far as I can see don't exist. They shouldn't exist anyway. I've deleted them.

I resist the temptation to blame the software and try and take responsibility myself. That way the problem is within my control. But I'm wondering if there's something wrong in the new Joomla Redirect system.

From the Google site search:

The one below is for Kunena forum. I've changed the category to forum so forum-index no longer exists. But it goes to the About article. There is no redirect either in cPanel or Joomla Redirect. It goes to the about article but should throw a 404.

The page has the original URL in the address bar which is how the Redirect plugin works (correct?). This makes me think the problem is related to the Redirect plugin.

forumphotographyDOTcomDOTau/forum-index/1-main-forum

Main Forum - Photography Forum Australia
This is the main forum section. As a level one section it serves as a container for individual boards or categories. It is also referred to as a level 1 ...
forumphotographyDOTcomDOTau/forum-index/1-main-forum - Cached

I think the one below must be a category with a nested category. It takes me to a page with the same URL. It has the framework of the page but no content. I still have a category named about but no nested category named 2-uncategorised (or uncategorised).

I have a Latest Posts module for Kunena on the Joomla pages. Google must have picked up the description from that. Surely that module wouldn't be conflicting wit Joomla Redirect?

forumphotographyDOTcomDOTau/about/2-uncategorised

Uncategorised - About
- 3:50pm
14 Feb 2011 ... Walls of China - Lake Mungo A few months back we visited Lake Mungo in Willandra Lakes Heritage Area which is in outback New South Wales ...
forumphotographyDOTcomDOTau/about/2-uncategorised - Cached

The one below is weird! It throws a 404 so it's not an issue. But I don't know how it got that page title with that URL. The page title is the title of one of the two featured articles from the home page and the URL is for one of the categories in the Kunena forum (now changed to /forum/4-snapshots).

forumphotographyDOTcomDOTau/forum-index/4-snapshots

Australian Images
- 3:53pm
Granddad's Famous White Bread Yes, my grandchildren call it Granddad's Famous White Bread, so that's what I call it also. Granddad's Famous White Bread ...
forumphotographyDOTcomDOTau/forum-index/4-snapshots - Cached

I hear what you're saying, Peter, about redirecting the pages that throw a 404, though I'd rather get rid of them and have a clean site.

But it's the pages that I know don't exist, yet they do exist, that I'm worried about. I could do a 301 redirect of these but I can't do a Joomla Redirect because they don't show up there. I'd rather clean the mess up.

Thanks.

Hey Friends!

I'm becoming more convinced that I've found a bug in the Redirect component.

Striving to deal with my duplicate content issues in Google, I clicked on an indexed URL for an article that I deleted a month ago, with a view to using the URL removal tool to remove it from the index.

It should have thrown a 404 error but I was redirected to an article that I created yesterday.

I have no active redirects in the Redirect component.

The URL given in the address bar was the URL of the indexed (deleted) article, not the URL of the new article. So I conclude that the Joomla Redirect component is doing this. Surely this is not correct?

I haven't seen anything in the blurb that indicates the Redirect or any other feature of Joomla 1.6 will do a random redirect rather than throwing a 404.

Am I missing something?

Thanks.

Laurie,

You might care to join the Joomla Bug Squad list where you'll find all sorts of experts to help you out on J1.6.

More info on JBS here.

Well, thanks Pete for that good advice.

I'm a bit slow replying. I just don't know where to put my feet at this time. I've sussed out the Bug Squad a bit but haven't followed up yet.

I've more or less got on top of the duplicate problem with the Google URL Removal tool. I was surprised to see the number of indexed pages falling by the hour all through yesterday.

Today I found another problem that is compounding the troubles. Xmap is giving the non SEF URLs for the Kunena Forum posts. The other Kunena URLs are OK and the Joomla URLs are OK. Just the Kunena posts.

So this gives me duplicate versions of the posts I'm making in an attempt to get the forum looking used.

So I've disabled the Redirect plugin and Xmap.

Thanks.