Hi all
I've installed Google SEO for the first time and I get the below 2 warnings.
- Your database encoding is 'utf8', should be 'utf8mb4'. Please update your MyBB to use UTF-8 everywhere.
- Add to .htaccess:
# Google SEO workaround for search.php highlights:
# Make this rule the first rewrite rule in your .htaccess!
RewriteRule ^([^&]*)&(.*)$ https://kopikade.com.au/$1?$2 [L,QSA,R=301]
Can someone please help to see what I can do to clear these 2 warning messages? For item 2, I've added the code to the htaccess file but the warning is still there.
Thank you for your help
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for 1), change database encoding to utf8mb4 in inc/config.php, then in admin cp -> tools you can use charset conversion. do make a full backup first just in case anything goes wrong in the conversion step.
for 2), you probably didn't put it as the first rewrite rule in .htaccess - if there is a reason for other rewriterules to be first, you can simply ignore the warning.
Thanks for your reply. For step 2, I've added the code at the beginning and I get one more warning;
"# Some hosts require RewriteBase to make RewriteRules work.
RewriteBase /"
Is this ok to ignore?
For step 1, is this something I can ignore, or will this impact the website from functioning effectively?
Finally, the sitemap is not being picked up by the Google search console. I get HTTP Error: 403. What can i do to fix this?
There is a sample htaccess file included in the Google SEO package, there you can see the order of things.
RewriteBase comes before RewriteRule, and the first RewriteRule is a workaround for broken links that unfortunately happen when MyBB appends parameters while making assumptions on ? vs. & instead of checking for ? in the url directly. I wish this workaround wasn't necessary but it has to be changed in MyBB core code, so it's out of my hands
For the sitemap you have to make sure that rewrites work; alternatively you have to change sitemap settings (url scheme) so it uses the misc.php URL directly. The sitemap-x rewrite is optional, google doesn't care whether the sitemap has a nice filename.
There have been issues with sitemap in the past (missing parameters on rewrite), probably caused by cloudflare caching or other reverse proxy stuff. In the end it is up to the webmaster to provide a webserver where rewrites and parameters work as expected. I haven't found a way to fix this from the plugin side of things.
Thank you so much for your quick reply. The RewriteBase issue is now resolved.
For some reason, the sitemap is not recognised by Google. I'll give a few hours and test tomorrow to see if this gets picked up automatically from the search engine.
Again, thank you for your help, and really appreciate your patience and detailed response.
Hi
I've submitted the sitemap to Google but it's not indexing my site.
I've manually submitted the home page to URL inspection and requested to index this page.
It says crawl successfully but i have 3 errors;
- Too small to read
- Clickable elements too close to eachother
- Viewport not set
I assume the first 2 are due to the site being not fully responsive. But is it a must to have the website being indexed with Google? and the 3rd point, not sure if this is the reason that is causing the issue with Google? if so anyone know how to fix this?
Thank you
(2021-06-06, 01:13 PM)Waruna Wrote: [ -> ]Hi
I've submitted the sitemap to Google but it's not indexing my site.
I've manually submitted the home page to URL inspection and requested to index this page.
It says crawl successfully but i have 3 errors;
- Too small to read
- Clickable elements too close to eachother
- Viewport not set
I assume the first 2 are due to the site being not fully responsive. But is it a must to have the website being indexed with Google? and the 3rd point, not sure if this is the reason that is causing the issue with Google? if so anyone know how to fix this?
Thank you
You need to wait longer to see changes in Google's Index. All 3 those errors are related to MyBB not being responsive. The first error you can maybe do something about. The requirement for a good user experience nowadays is to have legible text. That would fall in the range of 15-16px.