TOPIC:

Hello,
I maintain the cork toastmasters webpage 1868.toastmastersclubs.org/
I have not spend much time maintain the website of late but spend some time on the website this weekend, and noticed a number of SEO issues on Google Webmaster tools.
It seems that some of these issues may have been caused by

Robots.txt blocking jdownload:
As the robots.txt file is blocking jdownload
(User-agent: Googlebot Disallow: /jdownload/)

I can no longer submit a sitemap.xml file as I would have used the jdownload folder in the past
to store the sitemap, and then submit my sitemap.xml to Google using that location.
Also there are documents in jdownload, which are linked in the clubs webpages, this causes 404 issues when google crawls.
Can I create my own robots.txt file for my club website, I don’t believe I have access to root folder.
Thus I don’t believe this is possible.

Duplicate meta descriptions:
In webmaster tool it is reporting “Duplicate meta descriptions” but I have unique meta descriptions for each page.
When I look at the source code though I can see that the meta description is the same for all pages.

Is the CMS not reading these descriptions from each page?
This seemed to work in the past, and seems to be relatively recent issue.

Mobile(and m):
Webmaster consoles reports errors with Mobile and M folders.
I understand the current CMS solution does not support Mobile platform(read related threads where it states it was originally
only designed for desktop).
Just wondering is the Mobile folder possibly being used to support mobile usage in the future?

Regards
Conor

Well, FreeToastHost is "sort of a CMS"... it is more appropriate to say it is a "CMS hybrid". It has CMS features, but it is not strictly a CMS. Also the CMS features are custom and not dependent on any CMS library.

Also, there is functionality you can control and there is functionality we control and cannot give up control of. The main reason is that the system creates the illusion of each club having its own website, when it is really the case that all clubs are housed in the same database and the same folder structure on the server. In order to maintain the illusion, there are some common folders that we manage in code and cannot expose to outright modification by users.

So lets see if we can address some of your questions...

tmcork wrote:

Hello,
I maintain the cork toastmasters webpage 1868.toastmastersclubs.org/
I have not spend much time maintain the website of late but spend some time on the website this weekend, and noticed a number of SEO issues on Google Webmaster tools.
It seems that some of these issues may have been caused by

Robots.txt blocking jdownload:
As the robots.txt file is blocking jdownload
(User-agent: Googlebot Disallow: /jdownload/)

Ok, that was an error in robots.txt--I fixed that. The /jdownload/ folder was moved a long time ago and you cannot have access to it since it is for the downloader javascript plug-in. All download paths mention jdownload, but it is not a folder, it is a download *script* that does the download.

tmcork wrote:

Hello,
I can no longer submit a sitemap.xml file as I would have used the jdownload folder in the past
to store the sitemap, and then submit my sitemap.xml to Google using that location.

Also there are documents in jdownload, which are linked in the clubs webpages, this causes 404 issues when google crawls.
Can I create my own robots.txt file for my club website, I don’t believe I have access to root folder.
Thus I don’t believe this is possible.

jdownload is not a folder for user storage, it is a folder containing the jdownload script.
You do not control robots.txt, we do. Not going to give up control of that.

tmcork wrote:

Hello,
Duplicate meta descriptions:
In webmaster tool it is reporting “Duplicate meta descriptions” but I have unique meta descriptions for each page.
When I look at the source code though I can see that the meta description is the same for all pages.

Is the CMS not reading these descriptions from each page?
This seemed to work in the past, and seems to be relatively recent issue.

The meta descriptions will be the same for the pages that are generated by the server--that is the way it has always been. If you look at the source code, you have to keep in mind that you are only seeing what the server is outputting for a given context. It will vary quite a bit given whatever content is being viewed, the login state, and the access settings.

However, you correct that the custom page descriptions and keywords were not getting properly plugged into the template--thanks for the heads up. That has been fixed.

tmcork wrote:

Hello,
Mobile(and m):
Webmaster consoles reports errors with Mobile and M folders.
I understand the current CMS solution does not support Mobile platform(read related threads where it states it was originally
only designed for desktop).
Just wondering is the Mobile folder possibly being used to support mobile usage in the future?

Regards
Conor

Not sure what that is related to. We really do not have a mobile folder per se. Also, the only reason that Googlebot is even given any access to our javascript is because we were getting a lot of complaints about it generating warnings about not being able to scan the javascript. Frankly, I don't really like giving the bot access to javascript.

I plan to do some things related to responsive design (mobile) in the future... However, it is subject to my available spare time and life priorities.

Also, the thing that most users really just do not seem to get at this point about responsive design is how much of a bearing their content has on the ability of the system to generate markup that is really responsive. If I generate a responsive "shell" (the template), but the user content inserted into the template will not adjust for mobile, then it is not my fault if the resulting website will not work on mobile.

tmcork 29/08 wrote: Thanks for your response, I appreciate your help.
please see my comments below


Well, FreeToastHost is "sort of a CMS"... it is more appropriate to say it is a "CMS hybrid". It has CMS features, but it is not strictly a CMS. Also the CMS features are custom and not dependent on any CMS library.

Also, there is functionality you can control and there is functionality we control and cannot give up control of. The main reason is that the system creates the illusion of each club having its own website, when it is really the case that all clubs are housed in the same database and the same folder structure on the server. In order to maintain the illusion, there are some common folders that we manage in code and cannot expose to outright modification by users.

tmcork 29/08 wrote: Thanks for your clarification

So lets see if we can address some of your questions...

tmcork wrote:
Hello,
I maintain the cork toastmasters webpage 1868.toastmastersclubs.org/
I have not spend much time maintain the website of late but spend some time on the website this weekend, and noticed a number of SEO issues on Google Webmaster tools.
It seems that some of these issues may have been caused by

Robots.txt blocking jdownload:
As the robots.txt file is blocking jdownload
(User-agent: Googlebot Disallow: /jdownload/)
Ok, that was an error in robots.txt--I fixed that. The /jdownload/ folder was moved a long time ago and you cannot have access to it since it is for the downloader javascript plug-in. All download paths mention jdownload, but it is not a folder, it is a download *script* that does the download.

tmcork wrote:
Hello,
I can no longer submit a sitemap.xml file as I would have used the jdownload folder in the past
to store the sitemap, and then submit my sitemap.xml to Google using that location.

Also there are documents in jdownload, which are linked in the clubs webpages, this causes 404 issues when google crawls.
Can I create my own robots.txt file for my club website, I don’t believe I have access to root folder.
Thus I don’t believe this is possible.
jdownload is not a folder for user storage, it is a folder containing the jdownload script.
You do not control robots.txt, we do. Not going to give up control of that.

tmcork 29/08 wrote: thanks tried a publicly available sitemap andwas able to submit it to google
1868.toastmastersclubs.org//jdownload.cg...oad&path=sitemap.xmI
I can understand you wanting to keep control of the robots.txtl

tmcork wrote:
Hello,
Duplicate meta descriptions:
In webmaster tool it is reporting “Duplicate meta descriptions” but I have unique meta descriptions for each page.
When I look at the source code though I can see that the meta description is the same for all pages.

Is the CMS not reading these descriptions from each page?
This seemed to work in the past, and seems to be relatively recent issue.
The meta descriptions will be the same for the pages that are generated by the server--that is the way it has always been. If you look at the source code, you have to keep in mind that you are only seeing what the server is outputting for a given context. It will vary quite a bit given whatever content is being viewed, the login state, and the access settings.

However, you correct that the custom page descriptions and keywords were not getting properly plugged into the template--thanks for the heads up. That has been fixed.

tmcork 29/08 wrote: Thanks, my day job is a software tester, so glad to be able to find "defects" in my spare time
This seems to work ok now

tmcork wrote:
Hello,
Mobile(and m):
Webmaster consoles reports errors with Mobile and M folders.
I understand the current CMS solution does not support Mobile platform(read related threads where it states it was originally
only designed for desktop).
Just wondering is the Mobile folder possibly being used to support mobile usage in the future?

Regards
Conor
Not sure what that is related to. We really do not have a mobile folder per se. Also, the only reason that Googlebot is even given any access to our javascript is because we were getting a lot of complaints about it generating warnings about not being able to scan the javascript. Frankly, I don't really like giving the bot access to javascript.

Tmcork 29/08 wrote: yes, i can see why you would not want to give access to the javascript

I plan to do some things related to responsive design (mobile) in the future... However, it is subject to my available spare time and life priorities.

Also, the thing that most users really just do not seem to get at this point about responsive design is how much of a bearing their content has on the ability of the system to generate markup that is really responsive. If I generate a responsive "shell" (the template), but the user content inserted into the template will not adjust for mobile, then it is not my fault if the resulting website will not work on mobile.

Tmcork 29/08 wrote: This is indeed a challenge
I feel our website is usable on mobile devices.
Just seems that google have been pushing the mobile friendly agenda with some time
I get just 2 mobile errors from a google perspective

1.Touch elements too close (think this is related to how close the links are on the right hand side menu)
2. Content not sized to viewport (nothing can be done about this for now)

tmcork wrote:

tmcork 29/08 wrote: Thanks for your response, I appreciate your help.
1.Touch elements too close (think this is related to how close the links are on the right hand side menu)
2. Content not sized to viewport (nothing can be done about this for now)

Yeah, I have seen those. I may be able to do something about the first one eventually, but I need to basically redesign the menu. The menu redesign is going to be an ongoing thing that I started in the last release with the Menu Style setting. There will be more work done on menu styling moving forward.

The second one is what I am pointing to as being sort of a product of both our template and the user content. I do not think most users understand responsive design concepts, so I will need to also get them up to speed on that a little bit.

Thanks for your updates on those 2 mobile SEO issues