Twelve pages tell Google their real address is one that no longer exists
Why it matters
Every page has a setting called Canonical URL, and it has one job: to tell Google “this page is a duplicate, index that other address instead of this one.” Left empty, the site fills in the page’s own address, which is correct almost every time.
Several of your most important pages have moved to shorter addresses since August, for example from /exhibit/exhibitor-enquiry/ to /exhibitor-enquiry/. On these twelve pages the Canonical URL field still holds the old address. Nine of those old addresses now lead to page-not-found, and three forward straight back to the page that names them. Google can stop listing a page that says its real home is somewhere that does not exist.
The Exhibitor Enquiry page is one of the twelve. It is your main conversion page and the destination of the “Exhibit” button in the header on every page, so do that one first.
Where to change it
Strapi → the page or article named → SEO → Canonical URL — clear the field
| Page | Canonical URL field says today | What that address is |
|---|---|---|
| /exhibitor-enquiry/ | No longer exists | |
| /why-exhibit/ | No longer exists | |
| /why-visit/ | No longer exists | |
| /plan-your-travel/ | No longer exists | |
| /download-event-brochure/ | No longer exists | |
| /download-post-show-report/ | No longer exists | |
| /about-rosupack/ | No longer exists | |
| /sectors/ | Forwards straight back to /sectors/ | |
| /sectors/post-press-solutions/ | No longer exists | |
| /sectors/ready-packaging-and-disposable-cutlery/ | Forwards straight back to this same page | |
| Article: RosUpack 2027: 5 Reasons to Visit the Packaging Industry’s Premier Trade Fair | No longer exists | |
| Article: What RosUpack Visitors Look For: How Product Interest Drives Exhibitor Value | Forwards straight back to this article |
There is nothing to type in. The fix is to empty the box on each page and publish. The site then uses the page’s own address, which is correct.
The two sector pages are not new. Post-press solutions and Ready packaging and disposable cutlery were already in the 21 August report and are unchanged. Both are pages a buyer searching for those products would land on.
A habit worth adopting. Leave Canonical URL empty unless you deliberately want one page to point at a different page. Each of these was typed in by hand, was right on the day, and went wrong silently when the page moved. A Google spreadsheet address that was in this field on the Hangzhou Ruixue article in August no longer reaches Google, so that one is handled.