Update to Brizy Cloud Sync Competes with SEO
Hi guys,
I really appreciate the update to the Cloud Sync. It syncs much faster and automatically. Way to go!
BUT... there is an issue that needs to be addressed asap.
With the new Sync, the brizy subdomain is still visible online whereas before it wasn't. I tested this by first typing in my clients name in Google with the old cloud sync version and the Brizy subdomain url does not show up in search. I then switched to the new sync and this is what happened:
This isn't good and is going to crush people's SEO because of duplicate content. Please make the correction asap to avoid having to redo the hours of SEO already applied to sites that have been switched.
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Hi David,
Thank you for reaching out to us.
To ensure that the subdomain don't show in searches, you can disable Search Engine Visibility as shown below:
If you have any further questions, please let us know.
Best regards,
Ariel H.0 -
Is that not affecting Robots.txt for the entire site? What is it syncing?
Additionally, I can confirm that this did not happen in the previous sync versions. You can see it happening also if you type "Mallorn Financial Key West" in a Google Search. The Brizy site is ranking higher than the main website. However you are handling the syncing, I would revert back to how it handled the subdomain before.
Please confirm that turning off visibility in dashboard for the site will not affect live domain robots.0 -
Actually. I just answered my question....
That is NOT a viable option. With sites that are syncing live, it specifically has the correct domain listed on the SEO settings page. See screenshot. See additional screenshot showing performance AFTER the new sync structure.
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Hi David,
Changes you make to one website will also impact the other because two are synchronized. Therefore, disabling Search Engine Visibility is not a good solution for websites published using the Server Sync option.
When one website synchronises with another, both websites will eventually get listed in Google SERP. Hence Server Sync may not be a suitable publishing option for you. Kindly consider these two possible solutions.
- Republish the website using the HTML Export option. In this case, one website is not synced with the other. Hence you can unpublish the brizy.site website and eventually it will go out of the Google Index
- Host your website on Brizy Cloud using the Custom Domain option so that you don't have two websites with the same content. To make this option work, you will need to buy a new Brizy Cloud subscription.
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With all due respect, this is NOT the issue. I've used server Sync for a long time. I've ranked sites on the first page of Google with server Sync. That was the old server Sync in which the subdomain did not show up when the site was launched with server Sync. I've got plenty of sites using the old server Sync that I can prove this with. The subdomain site does not show up in search. Or if it does, it is so far hidden in search results it's presence is negligible. With the new server Sync sites, the subdomain site is showing up equally or above the main site. This is unique to this new server Sync format you've launched. Your team needs to get on this. If you don't believe me, relaunch your Brizy corporate site with server Sync and see what happens. I know SEO and something you guys have done differently is affecting things. You offer server Sync, so server Sync is what I will use as I have for so long.
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Hi David,
We are happy to note that you could rank sites on the first page of Google SERP with the Server Sync publishing option.
We have not revised the Server Sync software for a few years even though we want to. Hence there isn't an old and new Server Sync software. Every time you publish a website using Server Sync option, your project generates two websites
- Subdomain: A website with the brizy.site subdomain hosted on Brizy Cloud. Every update you make to your website is initially published on this website
- Custom Domain: Another website with your custom domain hosted on your hosting server: The updates made to the subdomain website are synchronized with the custom domain website.
For example, here are the subdomains and its respective custom domains of a few websites you have published using Server Sync. (We will delete this list of URLs from the community post, once you have seen it.)
.................
I understand that the subdomain sites did not show up in Google search in the past or if it did, so far it was hidden in search results or it's presence was negligible. I also understand that in case of the website in question, the subdomain site ranks just below/above the custom domain website. This unfavorable outcome is incidental and has nothing to do with any changes we have made. We are sorry for this outcome, but unfortunately, fixing it is beyond our control.
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Good morning George.
Thank you for the response.
On the contrary, the server sync functionality has just received an overhaul. The file structure is completely different now than what it used to be. If you take a look at the file package from a month ago and then download one today you'll see they are 100% different. I don't know what has been done differently with this update, but it is indeed being done differently. I can confirm this also because when an update takes place on the site, the update is now reflected live. Sync was not working properly before and required clearing cache and var. This is confirmed through the 100 or so support requests since Brizy cloud inception. I've had to deal with that for all the sites I have launched with sync. Then I got verification from the top at Brizy that a new version of Sync was getting launched. I didn't know it had been launched until I saw the completely different file structure when I uploaded mallornfinancial to the server. I noticed that the handling of auto updates (sync) was remarkably improved. Then I noticed that once I started doing Google searches, the subdomain was showing up and mallornfinancial.com was not showing up.
About the same time I relaunched nolimitsdental.com with the new sync files. I monitor my client's sites rankings because that is what keeps me paid. I noticed that mallorn and no limits looked like they had taken off from an airport and were about to land, which isn't typical for any site I launch, especially when I can confirm No Limits was already leveling off after launch. I usually go in after and create an SEO strategy after the site, as is, ranks organically without any additional work. This becomes the baseline I work from when working strictly on SEO. Well... It started dropping on the 26th and has been ever since. I launched the new files on the 25th.
The only thing I can think to do at this point is to create a robots.txt specifically for the launched site and discourage indexing on brizy to try to bypass whatever sync is doing. That may work to get rid of the subdomain. This could be a final solution for you guys too if you would have a robots.txt file created as part of the sync package. HOWEVER... I don't know the relationship between the files on the server and Brizy in terms of what is being passed to display. So my fear in this move is that meta info for the pages will be dropped or something like that.I will give it a try with mallorn and see what happens and report back, but I do highly recommend taking a look at the difference between the two file packages of sync a month ago and today. This is going to require a deeper look from your technical team.
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Additionally for your reference:
I've done Google searches to show a comparison of site results:Search - Lice Mamas NYC - Old sync file format - Result: https://nimb.ws/L8Glsxe (the last site launched right before switching. Launched a week or so before Mallorn)
Search - No Limits Dental NYC - New sync format - Result: https://nimb.ws/kjNsMtW
Search - Mallorn Financial Key West - New Sync format - Result: https://nimb.ws/1sdEtBZSearch - Mission Oaks Insurance - Old Sync format - Result: https://nimb.ws/z5uGaxU
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Hi David,
You are right; the Server Sync software has been revised. Our development team has confirmed that we have released a new version. Unfortunately the Support team did not have information about the new release. I apologize for misrepresenting facts in my earlier comment.
I have reported the issue about subdomain getting ranked in Google SERP along with the custom domain. A developer has been assigned to look into this. We will work towards fixing this.
Kindly consider these two strategies for the custom domain websites to have a significantly higher rank than the subdomain websites.
- Add new Search Console properties for the subdomain sites and request temporary removal of all URLs within the sub domain. This usually works for 6 months. The custom domain will rank significantly higher than the subdomain in the six months period.
- Change your subdomain to something other than nadia2 and mallorn. The two subdomain websites will cease to exist as a result. A nonexistent URL will shortly be removed from the Google Index. It will take a while for the new subdomain to obtain a respectable rank, even if it gets indexed
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George,
Thanks for looking into it.
To report back:
I selected to discourage search engines in the brizy settings and added a custom robots file on the server but it hasn't done anything so whatever is going on, it isn't being affected by the changes made on the brizy SEO settings area.
I will do what you recommended but please, get this hashed out quickly. paychecks depend on Brizy doing a good job and even with the best site and best SEO, if Brizy is the fail point, I can't use that as an excuse with a client.
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UPDATE:
I cannot verify the subdomain. When attempting to add <meta name="google-site-verification" content="V1TPPe6HMixsrdwWYK7jDYDlXE6lPbpiR82I1L-UwyI" /> and verify, it says that the server times out. I'm assuming this because there is a mixup in settings with me launching as sync and this being a subdomain. So I cannot get it added into console in order to remove it.
I will say though, Nadia2 ranked as soon as it was launched via sync. I'll change the name but I have a feeling that it will still update live within a day or two.
It rests on your dev team to get this issue squared away.
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Hi David,
Making the required changes to the Server Sync software and releasing it will take some time. You will need a solution in the interim.
The verification code you have provided above looks different from the one you have added to your website. You have added this code to mallorn.brizy.site
<meta name="google-site-verification" content="yYEAQCpQdfUK8Vnn_i6ww3FCl5RvajNE9euQzPtSUZM" />
Kindly confirm if you have added the right verification code to the above website. The verification process usually goes through smoothly for brizy.site URLs. Kindly follow the procedure at https://jmp.sh/Q9H71ve5
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Hi David,
Our developers have worked on a fix for this issue. In the revised version of the Server Sync software, webSite structured data og:url content of your brizy.site will be your custom domain. You can read more about website structured data here https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/site-names
Kindly update the two projects in Brizy Cloud and redeploy the Server Sync files on your server and check if the issue resolves.
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Hi. I have tried this now on another site and get a 500 error. The only thing I did was replace the old format sync with the new format. Nothing else. The site is https://whitelotuskc.com. When I look at the site on the workspace in my account, it still shows the OLD domain it used to be connected to - https://www.whitelotuswellness.care
In January I updated that domain to the new one listed above and launched via sync. All worked fine. Now that I've tried to relaunch with the new sync, I've noticed the old domain still showing and now the site just shows a 500 error.https://www.whitelotuswellness.care/
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Hi David,
The Custom Domain publishing option was also active in this project along with Server Sync. I have now removed the custom domain. Kindly redeploy the website using Server Sync and check if the website would be accessible at https://whitelotuskc.com
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Checking now.
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That seems to have fixed the issue. Thank you.
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UPDATE ON THE SEO ISSUE:
I am still experiencing the issue. As a matter of fact, Google has now associated all ranked pages for Nadia with the subdomain. Why isn't the subdomain automatically redirecting to the sync-launched domain? There should not be 2 instances of the same site once launched. This is something that needs to be fixed internally with Brizy. Please make this happen. Site rankings are dropping and my client is fed up.
ADDITIONAL:
I cant even verify the subdomain site with Google and redirect to the main domain via console because the files are all being synced to the proper domain. So anything added to the host files or at brizy get synced to the correct domain and it doesn't register at the subdomain.
PLEASE FIX THIS ISSUE ASAP.0 -
Upon further investigation:
Some of the pages are resulting in a "Project Not Configured" error message.
See video: https://nimb.ws/LKOBfp6
Guys, you have got to get this under control. If you have a feature like sync in existence, it has got to work. You have a fiduciary duty to do so. Sync has been an ongoing struggle for about a year and it is costing me money by having to do extra support work and then the potential of losing clients. There is a long trail of me firing off support tickets for sync for about a year now. It has always been on the back burner and not addressed. Then it was and it turned out to affect SEO in a negative way. Now I've got one site completely offline except for the homepage. One site is partially online and displaying the subdomain causing SEO issues, another site with SEO being cannibalized by the subdomain. I've got another website to launch but afraid to do so.0 -
Hi David,
We are looking into the possibility of redirecting the brizy.site subdomain to the Server Sync domain.
I have noticed that you have changed the subdomain of the above website to https://nolimits1.brizy.site/. Have you redeployed the server sync files after changing the subdomain? If you have not, this could be the reason for the Project Not Configured error. The Server Sync could be attempting to sync to the previous subdomain https://nadia2.brizy.site/
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Yes, I have relaunched the sync after the switch. The issue still persists. I will try launching again now.
In addition, here is an image to show you how this is affecting everything.
My client's main site is simply dropping like a stone. Even with an exact search, it no longer shows up first and is replaced by the subdomain site. This was NEVER an issue with the previous sync. While there were issues, this never happened.
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The pages seem to be showing up now. There was a 500 error at first and I had to reload once again. They all seem to be showing up now.
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I may have discovered the issue that is plaguing sync.
The subdomain needs to be disabled entirely if someone launches with sync. On the other support ticket where some of the pages were not working. And then No Limits Dental pages were not working, I had a subdomain entered because I was using that to show the client in a more professional way. Once I was ready to launch, I used sync. I don't think it causes issues all the time, but it causes the bugs. So when someone uses sync, whatever is entered into subdomain needs to be cleared automatically. I think this will drastically reduce the support issues with sync.
I'm testing to see if this eliminates the SEO issue as well. I'm going to give it a couple days and see what happens with that subdomain name.
Whatever was done with the new launch of sync doesn't cancel out or override subdomain... so instead, just add the function on your end to clear any entry (even default) out of subdomain automatically and this should do it.0 -
Hi David,
The URL https://nadia2.brizy.site/ now shows an error message; hence this URL will soon go out of Google index.
Kindly visit the URL https://nolimits1.brizy.site/ You will notice that it redirects to https://nolimitsdental.com/. When URL1 redirects to URL2, Google indexes only URL2. In a week or two, I would expect that the only URL that will show when searching for "No Limits Dental" would be https://nolimitsdental.com/
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Yes, that was because of the change I made.
I highly recommend getting this to your dev team so that
IF site is launched with Brizy Sync
THEN
Clear data in subdomain field.
I have a feeling this is causing a lot of different sync issues that are coming up and they can be resolved with this simple fix.
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Hi David,
What you are suggesting may not be technically feasible. The Brizy Cloud subdomain synchronizes with the external server. Because the websites are synchronized, if a page is removed from the original server, it will likewise be removed from the synced server. If all the pages of the original website are deleted, all pages in the the external server will also get deleted. Hence keeping both the websites active is important.
We are exploring the possibility of redirecting the subdomain to the Server Sync URL. If this works, you may have a solution to the problem.
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