Solved: Re: deleted items are showing up for sale

phantomhill · ‎09-05-2022

When I Google my business name, random store items that I haven't had for years show up in the search results, and people are able to order them. I have deleted them from the "site items" section of Weebly. I can't even find the items on my end anywhere in weebly or square. What am I doing wrong?

TheRealChipA · ‎09-06-2022

Thanks for that. So, when I followed those links, I noticed that the asparagus shows out of stock. I noticed that the cabbage does not. Do you not have an active item in your item list called “Napa Cabbage” then?

Clicking around on “more results…..” shows lots of items that are out of stock, which I assume are your deleted items, and since they are out of stock, as long as your store settings forbid pre-ordering out of stock items customers can see but not order them. I noticed that I could not add out of stock items to my cart, so your settings seem perfect to me!

Unfortunately, what you are running into is a very old internet/web issue. Once Google has indexed a web page it stays there forever, unless you submit requests to Google to delete that page. Most retailers I know have a person who does that regularly to keep their Google results clean. I have versions of old pages for my site from 10 years ago that are still there. Since there are no links to them anymore (other than search), they don’t cause problems and I don’t care about them.

Unfortunately, this is not something that you want Square taking care of for you, nor is it something they can take care of since they don’t own your URL. That’s a downside of the internet — it never forgets unless we request that it does so, and often it won’t forget anyway since Google is not the only search engine that indexes pages — there is Bing, Duck Duck Go, Yahoo and on and on and on.

Let me know if I can help you further.

Chip A.
Square Expert & Innovator and member of the Square Champions group. (But NOT a Square employee, just a seller like you)

Was my post helpful? Take a moment to mark it as a solution. Marked solutions help other sellers find possible resolutions to similar problems. Also, if you find your solution elsewhere (say, through Support), it is helpful to come back to your post and tell us about it, then mark that as a Solution. Solutions are what this Community is all about!

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TheRealChipA · ‎09-06-2022

@phantomhill Sorry for all the posts. I am pretty sure I know the answer to my question already, just by re-reading your other posts. You’re ARE using the older Weebly editor, either on the web or using the app. So, first a little explanation, which will make my suggestion not sound so crazy.

In the newer Square Online editor, whenever we delete an item from our item library, that item’s product page also automatically gets deleted from our web site. So anyone who goes to it would see a “page not found” error after we publish the site again.

HOWEVER, in the old Weebly editor, I do not believe that deleting an item from Square’s item library will delete the product page. I believe — and you can verify this quickly — that if you go to Pages from the Weebly menu, you will see all of your old product pages that must be deleted manually. Just click on an old product’s page and then click the delete button. Then re-publish your site.

This is one of the many reasons why migrating your web site to the newer Square editor will be beneficial. It is fully integrated with your other Square products.

Of course, I may be barking up the wrong tree here, but I thought it was worth a try just in case!

Chip A.
Square Expert & Innovator and member of the Square Champions group. (But NOT a Square employee, just a seller like you)

Was my post helpful? Take a moment to mark it as a solution. Marked solutions help other sellers find possible resolutions to similar problems. Also, if you find your solution elsewhere (say, through Support), it is helpful to come back to your post and tell us about it, then mark that as a Solution. Solutions are what this Community is all about!

View Solution >

TheRealChipA · ‎09-06-2022

@phantomhill Can you send the search terms you are using, and maybe even a link or two of the link to the item from the search results? I want to check out a suspicion that I have, that I’m not sure yet how to explain. I’ll keep an eye out during the day today.

Chip A.
Square Expert & Innovator and member of the Square Champions group. (But NOT a Square employee, just a seller like you)

Was my post helpful? Take a moment to mark it as a solution. Marked solutions help other sellers find possible resolutions to similar problems. Also, if you find your solution elsewhere (say, through Support), it is helpful to come back to your post and tell us about it, then mark that as a Solution. Solutions are what this Community is all about!

phantomhill · ‎09-06-2022

I search "phantom hill farm" and click "more results from phantomhillfarm.com"

here are a couple of links:

https://www.phantomhillfarm.com/product/napa-cabbage/187

https://www.phantomhillfarm.com/product/asparagus/127

TheRealChipA · ‎09-06-2022

Thanks for that. So, when I followed those links, I noticed that the asparagus shows out of stock. I noticed that the cabbage does not. Do you not have an active item in your item list called “Napa Cabbage” then?

Clicking around on “more results…..” shows lots of items that are out of stock, which I assume are your deleted items, and since they are out of stock, as long as your store settings forbid pre-ordering out of stock items customers can see but not order them. I noticed that I could not add out of stock items to my cart, so your settings seem perfect to me!

Unfortunately, what you are running into is a very old internet/web issue. Once Google has indexed a web page it stays there forever, unless you submit requests to Google to delete that page. Most retailers I know have a person who does that regularly to keep their Google results clean. I have versions of old pages for my site from 10 years ago that are still there. Since there are no links to them anymore (other than search), they don’t cause problems and I don’t care about them.

Unfortunately, this is not something that you want Square taking care of for you, nor is it something they can take care of since they don’t own your URL. That’s a downside of the internet — it never forgets unless we request that it does so, and often it won’t forget anyway since Google is not the only search engine that indexes pages — there is Bing, Duck Duck Go, Yahoo and on and on and on.

Let me know if I can help you further.

Chip A.
Square Expert & Innovator and member of the Square Champions group. (But NOT a Square employee, just a seller like you)

Was my post helpful? Take a moment to mark it as a solution. Marked solutions help other sellers find possible resolutions to similar problems. Also, if you find your solution elsewhere (say, through Support), it is helpful to come back to your post and tell us about it, then mark that as a Solution. Solutions are what this Community is all about!

phantomhill · ‎09-06-2022

Ahh wow, didn't know that was a thing.

I deleted the napa cabbage months ago. The item is nowhere in my Weebly "site items" section, so I don't know how to access the inventory option to at least make it unavailable/sold out. I'm guessing there is no way?

Thanks for taking the time to search and click through my page.

TheRealChipA · ‎09-06-2022

@phantomhill You’re welcome. And I wouldn’t worry about it. Most people do not know that is a thing! I only know because I am a tech geek who first went to college when the web was not yet a thing, either, and internet was only a thing that eggheads and geeks cared about! (Yes, I am THAT old. 🤣. I learned to program on punch cards, and there was no such thing as a personal computer, much less one with a hard drive, and if anyone had dared predict we’d one day carry a powerful computer around in our pockets, I would have laughed, and laughed, and laughed!)

Anyway, to your Napa Cabbage thing. That’s a tough one. Have you tried re-creating an item in Square with that EXACT spelling and seeing if you get an error that it already exists? Otherwise, if you are certain that it is not in your Weebly site items, and you’re certain it is not in your Square Item Library, then this is going to take a call to Square Customer Success to sort out over the phone.

Having said that, I’m not sure I would worry about this too much. I imagine that most people who search for you click straight on into your store to place orders. I can’t imagine there are that many who would save links to items to re-order them. That wouldn’t take too much effort! But, I’ve been known to be wrong before. This might, however, be a case of you wanting everything to be perfect and over-thinking it a little too much. I only say that because I do that constantly, usually for no good reason!

Chip A.
Square Expert & Innovator and member of the Square Champions group. (But NOT a Square employee, just a seller like you)

Was my post helpful? Take a moment to mark it as a solution. Marked solutions help other sellers find possible resolutions to similar problems. Also, if you find your solution elsewhere (say, through Support), it is helpful to come back to your post and tell us about it, then mark that as a Solution. Solutions are what this Community is all about!

TheRealChipA · ‎09-06-2022

@phantomhill One more thing I just thought of. But first, a question. Do you use the old Weebly editor for your web site, or the newer Square online editor? I think I might have an idea that would help you a little more.

Chip A.
Square Expert & Innovator and member of the Square Champions group. (But NOT a Square employee, just a seller like you)

Was my post helpful? Take a moment to mark it as a solution. Marked solutions help other sellers find possible resolutions to similar problems. Also, if you find your solution elsewhere (say, through Support), it is helpful to come back to your post and tell us about it, then mark that as a Solution. Solutions are what this Community is all about!

TheRealChipA · ‎09-06-2022

@phantomhill Sorry for all the posts. I am pretty sure I know the answer to my question already, just by re-reading your other posts. You’re ARE using the older Weebly editor, either on the web or using the app. So, first a little explanation, which will make my suggestion not sound so crazy.

In the newer Square Online editor, whenever we delete an item from our item library, that item’s product page also automatically gets deleted from our web site. So anyone who goes to it would see a “page not found” error after we publish the site again.

HOWEVER, in the old Weebly editor, I do not believe that deleting an item from Square’s item library will delete the product page. I believe — and you can verify this quickly — that if you go to Pages from the Weebly menu, you will see all of your old product pages that must be deleted manually. Just click on an old product’s page and then click the delete button. Then re-publish your site.

This is one of the many reasons why migrating your web site to the newer Square editor will be beneficial. It is fully integrated with your other Square products.

Of course, I may be barking up the wrong tree here, but I thought it was worth a try just in case!

Chip A.
Square Expert & Innovator and member of the Square Champions group. (But NOT a Square employee, just a seller like you)

Was my post helpful? Take a moment to mark it as a solution. Marked solutions help other sellers find possible resolutions to similar problems. Also, if you find your solution elsewhere (say, through Support), it is helpful to come back to your post and tell us about it, then mark that as a Solution. Solutions are what this Community is all about!

phantomhill · ‎09-06-2022

Ahh, ok I am looking into this now. Thank you for all the information! I wish I could just hand my computer over to you lol. (you don't happen to live in central va do you? 🤣).

I don't know how I missed that there was a newer editor. I think you're right, this looks like it may help.

Thank you so much for all your help!

TheRealChipA · ‎09-06-2022

Regarding the newer editor…. Don’t be in a hurry to jump to that. There are Weebly features and functions that don’t exist yet in square Online. And I’m retry sure you’d need to rebuild your site from scratch. I did that and it was worth the time and effort. You might not feel the same way.

Chip A.
Square Expert & Innovator and member of the Square Champions group. (But NOT a Square employee, just a seller like you)

Was my post helpful? Take a moment to mark it as a solution. Marked solutions help other sellers find possible resolutions to similar problems. Also, if you find your solution elsewhere (say, through Support), it is helpful to come back to your post and tell us about it, then mark that as a Solution. Solutions are what this Community is all about!

phantomhill · ‎09-06-2022

I was getting a little obsessed/overthinking it, but I just couldn't believe all those old results were still showing haha! I have had two customers order super old, deleted items, so I think they did have the items bookmarked...or they kept going back to google search results and clicking the individual links? 😅

roundriverbaker · ‎01-26-2023

@TheRealChipA I have this same problem, but have never added items in Weebly...just the square online site editor. I've cleared caches and used other browsers, but I have to items (oddly list in the category "Items") from Thanksgiving that I can't get off of my online site.

They are nowhere to be found in any items list, but still show on my online store:

https://round-river-baking.square.site/

Super frustrating

TheRealChipA · ‎01-26-2023

I’ll have some time this afternoon to look it over, @roundriverbaker. Can touch base then.

Chip A.
Square Expert & Innovator and member of the Square Champions group. (But NOT a Square employee, just a seller like you)

Was my post helpful? Take a moment to mark it as a solution. Marked solutions help other sellers find possible resolutions to similar problems. Also, if you find your solution elsewhere (say, through Support), it is helpful to come back to your post and tell us about it, then mark that as a Solution. Solutions are what this Community is all about!

roundriverbaker · ‎01-27-2023

Let me add that the two items shown in my online store cannot be found in the online page editor...and there are no extra sections or pages that are to be found there with items on them that I can find to delete in the editor.

I'll also add that when I click on the left-over items on the live online store order page as if I was ordering...it does not pull up anything, and the pop-up window never shows those items.

TheRealChipA · ‎01-27-2023

Hi @roundriverbaker. Sorry for the delay. I finally am getting back around to this.

So, before I start, let me say that this is a slightly different issue than the one posted by @phantomhill. The OP original post had to do with old, deleted item pages showing up in a Google search, which is more common that any of realize since the “interweb never forgets!” LOL

Anyway, when I pull up your web site, I see the two Items you mentioned. Thankfully, this is an easy one to fix. I’ve seen it before on my own store.

The reason they show up in the items section (which is a phantom section) is because you don’t have them in a specific section in your store. The online story editor is slightly confused because of incomplete information.

Most likely, the items “e-Gift Pack” and “e-Cranberrey Orange Scone” are still in your master item list. Not only that, they are still marked as available for sale online. All you need to do is delete the items completely (if you no longer need them) or uncheck the option to make them available for online sale.

That should fix your issue completely. Let me know if it doesn’t.

Chip A.
Square Expert & Innovator and member of the Square Champions group. (But NOT a Square employee, just a seller like you)

Was my post helpful? Take a moment to mark it as a solution. Marked solutions help other sellers find possible resolutions to similar problems. Also, if you find your solution elsewhere (say, through Support), it is helpful to come back to your post and tell us about it, then mark that as a Solution. Solutions are what this Community is all about!

roundriverbaker · ‎01-27-2023

Thanks a bunch...but I have searched for them in the Items list from my main dashboard, and online items list, on both my computer and in the Square POS using my ipad at my register. I've gone through the list, checked all the display options, used the search function...no signs of them around...

Any secret to finding them?

TheRealChipA · ‎01-27-2023

Weird… ok I have a couple of oddball thoughts. If they don’t work, you’ll need to get on the phone with Customer Success, because something strange is going on.

From each item list, make sure that you don’t have any filters — that you are looking at all categories, Online visibility, All Inventory, and no filters. Also, be sure that the “Search” box is empty. It’s possible what you are filtering out those two items somehow.

If that doesn’t work, get on the phone with Customer Success. I can’t think of any other possibility that would be available to us. There might be a secret to finding them, but Square hasn’t let me in on the secret handshake yet! Ha.

Good luck!

Chip A.
Square Expert & Innovator and member of the Square Champions group. (But NOT a Square employee, just a seller like you)

Was my post helpful? Take a moment to mark it as a solution. Marked solutions help other sellers find possible resolutions to similar problems. Also, if you find your solution elsewhere (say, through Support), it is helpful to come back to your post and tell us about it, then mark that as a Solution. Solutions are what this Community is all about!

roundriverbaker · ‎01-27-2023

To follow up...I had already followed all of your suggestions, so no progress.

Contacted Customer Success, and Alan logged into my dashboard and looked at my site (and perhaps took action on his end?...still not sure) and he said it was being re-indexed and I should check back tomorrow and if they are still there, contact CS again...

TheRealChipA · ‎01-27-2023

🤞

Chip A.
Square Expert & Innovator and member of the Square Champions group. (But NOT a Square employee, just a seller like you)

Was my post helpful? Take a moment to mark it as a solution. Marked solutions help other sellers find possible resolutions to similar problems. Also, if you find your solution elsewhere (say, through Support), it is helpful to come back to your post and tell us about it, then mark that as a Solution. Solutions are what this Community is all about!