I'm new to deploying web apps and I've run into a strange SEO issue. I developed a web application for a friend's business using Laravel, SQLite, and Vue, and I deployed it on a server at Hetzner. After adding it to Google Search Console, I noticed that when I search using my SEO keywords, my title and meta description show up, but the URLs lead to a completely different Portuguese website. For instance, a route like /my-awesome-route goes to theirdomain/my-awesome-route instead of mydomain/my-awesome-route. I checked the logs, and they are filled with URLs from this other domain. I tried using TrustHost middleware and resubmitting my sitemap, but it hasn't fixed the problem yet. Does anyone have any ideas on what could be going wrong?
3 Answers
You should definitely add a canonical link tag to your pages that points to your domain. This helps Google understand that your site is the original one. However, keep in mind that Google might take time to update their search results, so it might be a waiting game for a bit while you keep resubmitting your sitemap.
It might also help to clear your browser's cache or try accessing your site from a different network. Sometimes, cached versions can hold onto old data that causes confusion in terms of redirects and indexing.
Make sure to check your DNS settings on Cloudflare. Implement tight `TrustHosts`, add those canonical tags, and set up redirects so that only your domain serves content. Keep resubmitting that sitemap and using Google's removal tool; over time, those bad URLs should clear up.
I've already added canonical links to each page! Any idea how this could even happen in the first place?