Site listing effected in Google after upgrading to Joomla 3

[syhussaini]

Hello Team,

This may sound strange, but unfortunately it happened to my site. There are few keywords for which my site use to appear in the first page of Google and Bing.

After upgrading from Joomla 1.5 to Joomla 3.x my site is no more on the first page of Google for the same set of keywords.

Surprisingly this has not happened in Bing, it still shows on the top in Bing for the same keywords. [See images below from Bing showing my site on the first page]

bing.png

bing2.png

I have been struggling to know why this happened and would like to bring my site back to top pages just the way it is in Bing.

Please help me get my site back to how it was i.e. on the top pages of Google.

[NathanHawks]

Check for errors and other messages/signs in Google Webmaster Tools?

[syhussaini]

No errors in Google WebMaster .

I've in-fact used SEO Boss to enhance the Meta information to see if that can help me improve the ranking with not much luck.

[pranabmistry]

is your sitemap updated? or all the links of your site is unchanged after joomla up-gradation??

[syhussaini]

yes, only download links ates changed. Rest everything is intact.

[ribo]

i think that there is a problem in your server. your joomla site is very very slow and many times you have 500 error in your page that you show in bing and also in other pages you have Error displaying the error page: Application Instantiation Error: Could not connect to MySQL.

[syhussaini]

Ribo: This issues of 500 internal error has started since a week now... I was able to enhance the performance of the site to load in half a second with not more than 10 requests.

I am struggling with this internal error since a week now.

500 Internal Server Error

The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request.

Please contact the server administrator, [email protected] and inform them of the time the error occurred, and anything you might have done that may have caused the error.

More information about this error may be available in the server error log.

Additionally, a 404 Not Found error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.01

My host has asked me to enable either "EAccelerator for PHP" or "Xcache for PHP"".

What would you suggest?

[ribo]

My host has asked me to enable either "EAccelerator for PHP" or "Xcache for PHP"".

What would you suggest?

what is your Php Version?
what is your joomla version?

[ribo]

also are you in shared hosting or not?

[syhussaini]

I am on VPS from BlueHost

[ribo]

eaccelerator is faster but is conflict with joomla 3, xcache is fast but there are faster alternative cache. it depends from your php version. Also it s good to optimize mysql server

[syhussaini]

Any tips please.

[ribo]

about cache if you use php 5.4 apc is a good solution if you use apache , if you use php 5.5 zend opcache is a good solution if you use apache
About mysql optimization you can google it and find what to do for your server requirements

[Webdongle]

... There are few keywords for which my site use to appear in the first page of Google and Bing.

After upgrading from Joomla 1.5 to Joomla 3.x my site is no more on the first page of Google for the same set of keywords. ...

You may want to rank high for your desired search terms but not everyone will use the exact terms you use.

example
search for
bespoke satchels
then search for (in another window)
handmade satchels
Two similar search terms but two totally different results. Then add to the equation all the myriad of terms people would use ... just shows how insignificant that it is for you to be high using the search words of your choice !!!

[syhussaini]

Here is the current system information:

PHP Built On Linux server 2.6.32-504.12.2.el6.x86_64
Database Version 5.5.42-cll
Database Collation latin1_swedish_ci
PHP Version 5.5.25
Web Server Apache
WebServer to PHP Interface cgi-fcgi
Joomla! Version Joomla! 3.4.1 Stable [ Ember ] 21-March-2015 20:30 GMT
Joomla! Platform Version Joomla Platform 13.1.0 Stable [ Curiosity ] 24-Apr-2013 00:00 GMT

[ribo]

ask from your host to install for you Zend OPcache for php. Apc not work in php 5.5, EAccelerator conflict with joomla 3.x and Xcache is slower than Zend OPcache

[syhussaini]

My host says:

Extremely hi wa% which is I/O wait which is causing your site problems. What this means that something on this server is asking more from the disk than its able to handle. Looking further I did notice that there were php process reading and writing a ton to the disk and narrowing it down even further it seems like the cwd of those process are located here ---> <Site Directory Names>. Error logs are extremely large in those directory's also which could indicate that there are some problems.

One of the Tech recommended me to consult with Tom at http://www.wewatchyourwebsite.com to get malware cleanup and protection.

Your advise please.

[ribo]

there are commands about I/O and you must search in google about these commands and investigate from where you have these I/O waits. Also there are forums for servers to ask or have a vps with managed support to secure your vps, here is just a joomla forum.

[syhussaini]

After a long study I've figured out that there is a heavy load released on the CPUs. The moment I turn the site live, the CPU load jumps from 0.5 to 10+ which is kind of giving me a real hard time.

Please help.

[Webdongle]

...

One of the Tech recommended me to consult with Tom at http://www.wewatchyourwebsite.com to get malware cleanup and protection.

Your advise please.

Treat as hacked http://forum.joomla.org/viewtopic.php?f=714&t=757645

[leolam]

Treat as hacked http://forum.joomla.org/viewtopic.php?f=714&t=757645

Sorry but based on what? Securi gives a bill of health so why such conclusion? That I do not agree with at all!

@ Ribo: eAccellarator works just fine with Joomla 3.4.x. It only works ok when running in a persistent (DSO/FCGID) manner and when the settings of the module are correctly addressed otherwise you indeed might get errors.

@ Syhussaini: A lot depends how your mycnf (your mysql-config) is tuned, what php modules are compiled and tweaked and much more. Just running a default Bluehost VPS won't make your site fly and you not specialized tuning and security.

We use Memcache with great success on all our servers

If you want more info send me a PMB

Leo

[ribo]

@ Ribo: eAccellarator works just fine with Joomla 3.4.x. It only works ok when running in a persistent (DSO/FCGID) manner and when the settings of the module are correctly addressed otherwise you indeed might get errors.

in cgi-fcgi Eaccelerator with php 5.4 hangs the install of joomla 3.x but in joomla 2.5 works ok . Supports PHP 4 and all PHP 5 thread-safe releases including 5.4. i did n test it with php 5.5 but no need as there is zend opcache for php 5.5.
Memcache is good too but for different things
About Mysql server i told him that must optimize it.
Now about I/O waits could be many things even he will optimize his mysql server

[Webdongle]

Treat as hacked http://forum.joomla.org/viewtopic.php?f=714&t=757645

Sorry but based on what? Securi gives a bill of health so why such conclusion? ...

https://sitecheck.sucuri.net/ does not always pickup malware (btw Securi.net reports version 3.4.0 not 3.4.1 as stated by the OP) +

...

One of the Tech recommended me to consult with Tom at http://www.wewatchyourwebsite.com to get malware cleanup and protection.

= at least one of their Tech team wants to rule out the possibility of malware creating extra load.

Deleting the files on the server and replacing with the fresh ones only takes a few minutes. Installing a fresh copy of Joomla (making sure it is the same version as the live site) to a new database(or on localhost) and installing 3rd party extensions gives the fresh files to connect to the original database.

Posting the results of the FPA ( http://forum.joomla.org/viewtopic.php?f=714&t=757645 ) could also be useful in pinpointing any problems.

[ribo]

Installing a fresh copy of Joomla (making sure it is the same version as the live site) to a new database ....

Posting the results of the FPA ( http://forum.joomla.org/viewtopic.php?f=714&t=757645 ) could also be useful in pinpointing any problems.

I agree with this you must check every possibility

[leolam]

I not in this case it is waste of time and effort

Leo

[syhussaini]

After studying the error logs, i could see there are several lines talking incompatibility with two plugins. Here is the excerpt from the logs:

[08-Jun-2015 08:14:17 America/Denver]
PHP Strict Standards: Non-static method JApplicationSite::getMenu() should not be called statically, assuming $this from incompatible context in /plugins/system/expiresheaders/expiresheaders.php on line 24

[08-Jun-2015 08:14:17 America/Denver]
PHP Strict Standards: Only variables should be assigned by reference in /plugins/system/expiresheaders/expiresheaders.php on line 24

[08-Jun-2015 08:14:18 America/Denver]
PHP Strict Standards: Only variables should be assigned by reference in /plugins/content/contentads/contentads.php on line 123


[08-Jun-2015 08:14:46 America/Denver]
PHP Strict Standards: Non-static method JApplicationCms::getMenu() should not be called statically, assuming $this from incompatible context in /libraries/cms/application/site.php on line 272

Since the front/back-end is not accessible, I will be attempting to disable these plugins through database and see the behavior.

Will post back the outcome.

[syhussaini]

Geeks .... Looks like I am simply not getting through this. The moment I bring the site live, the load on the CPUs spike up from 0.34 to 32+

Any tips please.

[syhussaini]

I see two directories which looks alarming to me.

1. /libraries/fof
2. /libraries/f0f

the second one has a zero number instead of letter 'o'

Can someone add some light here.

[syhussaini]

They both carry almost the same directory structure. The one with zero instead of letter 'o' has a latest date on it, whereas the other one has a date from March 22.

[syhussaini]

Huff Huff Huff....

First off, thank you @ribo, @webdongle and a Giant Thank you to @Leo who gave a very wise advise. It was all due to a badly configured VPS.

Now with the help of Leo, I am proudly using gws-host fully optimized and tuned for performance. No CPU heart-fails, no resource crunch.

I have the same site with no major changes running smoothly here. After experiencing shockwaves from Blue-Host and Hostgator, I am now in very safe hands.

Truly a full value for money.

The issue can be marked as solved.