Site showing Index of / on google

[ssente01]

Hi everyone,

I´ve been looking up if there where any topics with the same problem as mine, but couldn´t find any, so I hope I´m asking this in the right place.

I had a joomla site, since 2009, if I´m not mistaken, but it was still the old 1.5 version. I had stopped updating Joomla because I´m no expert and everytime I did it, my site would go down and I had to ask for help.

Beggining of this year though, I decided to update Joomla to the 2.5 version and I completly messed up the whole thing, lost all the content in the site, all.
I had Akeba backup instaled in the site, but didn´t know how to recover the backup, so I asked my host provider to just reset my account and start everything from scratch.

It was a friend who built the first site for me, I just added the content, so didn´t know a thing about building sites, been learning the hard way, lol...

So, I have a clean account and cpanel, bought a template and instaled everything with "quickstart", not so dificult, but somehow, something went wrong and I had a 404 error.
I asked for help to my host provider and they said they didn´t work for google and I had to wait until it cleared.

And so I did, for some months I quit the idea of rebuilding the site and now I´m starting again, no 404 errors anymore, installed the whole thing again with quickstart and now everything seems to be working, but when I do a google search for my domain, it shows:

Index of /
www.domainname.com
Index of /. Name · Last modified · Size · Description · cgi-bin/, 2018-07-30 08:07, -

If I press the url, it takes to my offline page, (I have the site offline while I´m working on it).

If I do a search by my website´s name, it doesn´t show at all.

I´ve been learning every step, as I evolve and I added the domain to "google search console", no data there, but there is one 503 url server error.
I added www and non-www to the "search console" and set www as the prefered url, both url´s have the same 503 error.

I don´t know if I´ve messed anything in my files, I´ve learnt what .htaccess is and added something I read in other topics, but still have the same result.

I have index.php file and don´t have index.html file.

I don´t know if my domain is considered a new domain, because I put the website down and reset the account in my host provider or if it´s considered an older domain that was already on google abd is penalized now, because I put it down or something, because from what I´ve been reading it looks like the site is not indexed.

The site doesn´t have any content yet, I don´t want to continue until I have this fixed, in case I need to reset everything up again.

Sorry about the long discription, want you to understand the context of the errors.

Thanks so much for any help and please, don´t be too technical, otherwise I have to google every instruction...

[imanickam]

If the link provided is your site then be known that the site referenced is a WordPress site.

Could you please explain, what you are expecting from the Joomla! forum?

[AMurray]

While "domainname.com" is an actual live domain, I don't know if it's s the OP's site. But indeed that is a Wordpress site......it's registered with GoDaddy (from what I can tell on whois.com....) but that's about it.

[mandville]

i think they are using domainname.com as a foobar.site placeholder (representation of proper domain name) the actual domain is

Code: Select all

https://sandrasentieiro.com/

google shows a 5 month old snapshot of their site, possibly when they didnt have one set properly .
tell google to reindex it

[ssente01]

Hi,

Thanks all for the replies.

Yes, that domain I gave was just to serve as an example.

My domain is indeed www.sandrasentieiro,com and is a photography site, that was up and running since 2009, until I messed it up at the beggining of this year and had to reset my cpanel account and start from scratch.

I already added the domain to google search console and I see a 503 error there and been back and forward with my host provider, only to gave them tell me they´re not google snd can´t do a thing.

I´d appreciate if someone could explain me what I must do, I´m not a computer savvy.
Thanks much.

[ssente01]

I think I´ll just ask my host provider to reset my cpanel account again and aplly all I´ve learnt so far from the beggining.
I think I messed up my htaccess.text and .htaccess, I´ve been adding lines to .htaccess, that I´ve benn picking here and there, to have word_rewrite and SEF urls, etc., but still also have the htaccess.text file in the public_html, when I was rewriting it, I think I did something wrong.

Thanks.

[AMurray]

htaccess.txt won't do anything - that's likely the original file from your Joomla installation. It is named "htaccess.txt" until you need to use it, then you rename it ".htaccess".

You may be able to get your site working by putting a clean copy of htaccess.txt into your joomla root folder, then renaming it ".htaccess" - after removing any other copies that might be present in that folder. You can obtain "htaccess.txt" from the joomla download package. Rename it ".htaccess" after you've copied it, and then see if the site will work.

I don't think you need to go to drastic lengths to "reset your entire hosting account" as you would seem to be suggesting? Also to restore an akeeba backup you need only the *.jpa file and the kickstart script available from akeebabackup.com

[ssente01]

Thank you Amurray for your reply.

So, you´re saying I should delete the htaccess.text and .htaccess copies I have in my instalation now and then add a new fresh htaceess.txt copy?
How do I get it from the download package? I instaled everything using the "quickstart" method, so I´d have to uninstall and install everything again?
And do you think my site shows on google like "Index of/" because of that?
All the things I added to the .htaccess were things I saw here in the joomla forums, to try and get my site show as Sandra Sentieiro Photography, instead of "Index of/".
That´s why I was thinking og reset my cpanel account again, because there´s an error that I´ve done somewhere and I don´t have enough computer knowledge to find out where, I´m sure it must be something really easy, but I can´t figure it out.

I´ve been reading that maybe the home page is not in the index.php file and added that line to .htaccess and it still doesn´t work.
Why isn´t my site´s tittle show up on a web search? And why does it show the cgi-bin on the search?
Sorry about the silly questions, but my host provider is not helping me much...
Thanks.
Sandra

[mandville]

rename you current htaccess files to something like htaccess.bak1 bak2 bak3 etc
you can get a current version of the htaccess.txt file here https://github.com/joomla/joomla-cms

[ssente01]

Right Mandville,

Thank you.
Will do that, so I delete all that´s in htaccess.txt now, copy what´s in the link you gave me and past it on htaccess.txt and then rename it to .htaccess and it should get my site showing properly on google?
Going to try it now, thanks

[ssente01]

Ok,

So, I´ve renamed htaccess.txt and .htaccess to htaccess.back1 and htaccess.back2 and then created a new htaccess.txt file and pasted the new version there and then renamed it to .htaccess, but it´s all still very much the same.
Still showing "Index of /" in search engines...

[ssente01]

Hi again,

And thanks all for the help you gave me.
I couldn´t get things to work, so I just asked my host to reset my account and put building the website to the back of my mind for some time.

Now, I´m back and been able to have evertyhing working.
Still had the "Index of/" as my title tag on web searches, talked to my host again, that said I had no index.php. added domain to google console.

I reinstaled everything again, index.php is there in my public_html, htaccess is renamed to.htaccess, added domain to google console and I´m visible on search browsers now.
But something strange just happened and have no idea why, I´m not an expert, just a user trying to build my website.

So, what´s happening is this (see also the screenshots, please):

- When I put sandra sentieiro photography on the browser´s search bar, I have 2 results:
"Tags-Sandra Sentieiro photography", wich shows my offline page when I click it and
"Displaying Items by tag:video-Sandra Sentieiro Photography", that I have no idea how it got there and also shows my offline page.

_ If I do a search using only my name Sandra Sentieiro, "Sandra Sentieiro Photography:Home" shows up and shows also my offline page, when you click it.

What am I doing wrong? Why Have I Tags-Sandra Sentieiro Photography?

I´ve been investigating a lot, but can´t find any related topic.
I know it must be something really minor, but it goes beyond my computer knowledge sorry about the silly question...

Also, in order to put an image in my offline page I had to go to the template and rename my offline.php, saw it in one of the topics here in the forum, thanks for that, it´s really useful place to learn and find fixes for begginers.

Thanks

[ssente01]

Hum..can´t upload the screenshots, wonder why...sorry

[john-doe]

Of first place how are you updating the site on Google Search Console?
My best guess is that is something broken on the sitemap.
Do you have an extension for it?
If you don't have it Install OSMap, it will generate the sitemaps required and after is done you copy and paste the sitemap's address.

Ensure that in the site's root is only one index (index.php). If you have index.php AND index.html get rid of the last one.

[ssente01]

Thanks John-Doe,

I didn´t create any sitemaps yet, as I´m still building the site.
The only page I have visible is the offline page.

I´ll do what you suggested and install OSMap and then put in on the google console, will do it straight away.

About the index, I think I only have index.php, but will also check in in Cpanel and eliminate index.html if I have one.

Will let you know how it goes, once I´ve done it.
Thanks again.
Sandra

[ssente01]

Hi again,

So, it´s done.
Added the sitemap to google console and it says "processed".
Only index.php, no other index.
At the moment it´s all still the same, with the funny results on web searches, maybe it´ll change in a day or so?
Also, I only added www.sandrasentieiro.com to google console. Did not add sandrasentieiro.com, because it was showing me an old server´s error.
Could that be the reason for the strange results?
Thanks
Sandra

[john-doe]

At the moment it´s all still the same, with the funny results on web searches, maybe it´ll change in a day or so?
Also, I only added www.sandrasentieiro.com to google console. Did not add sandrasentieiro.com, because it was showing me an old server´s error.
Could that be the reason for the strange results?
Thanks
Sandra

Google Search Console process the sitemap(s) and the results must be shown after at least 48 hours. This method is more reliable than leave it into the wild when the sitre gets processed by the crawlers after 3 weeks or a month.

Be pending of your email if Google sends you something related to your request.

[ssente01]

Right John-Doe,

Will wait then and see what happens and will pay attention to my e-mail and will also be updating the sitemap as I advance in te site building.

Thanks for your precious help.
Sandra

[ssente01]

Hi John-Doe,

Just to update you on what´s happening.
Going to send a help form just now, BIG problem.
Thanks for everything.
Sandra Sentieiro

[john-doe]

Going to send a help form just now, BIG problem.

Gee! What happened?

[ssente01]

Hi,

Got hacked with "junglesec" ramsom virus.
Was so careful and still this happened, everything is down.
Waiting for answer from my host.