Yoast SEO. After set up 404 error pages
-
Hello all,
Something strange happened with my blog site.
I recently signed to MOZ tools.
Initially everything was fine, but during my last crawl I got loads of 404
pages.Few days ago I was tweaking some settings in SEO plugin according to this post https://mza.bundledseo.com/blog/setup-wordpress-for-seo-success
What I noticed was that 404 pages were coming from my blog posts, but for
some reason category was missing in those posts.For example this link is 404
https://a-fotografy.co.uk/inchcolm-island-wedding-photography-bailieThe one with category is
https://a-fotografy.co.uk/wedding-pictures/inchcolm-island-wedding-photography-bailie/
So basically for some reason category was missing.
Please let me know how can I fix this instead of doing hundreds of
redirects now.Thank you,
Regards,
Armands -
Hi,
Thanks for response. So I went back and unchecked Strip the category base (usually
/category/
) from the category URL option and alsoRedirect attachment URLs to parent post URL. option.
Hope this will solve the problem.
Thanks,
Regards,
Armands
-
From your description, it appears that when you were tweaking your Yoast SEO settings, you changed the permalink structure in the WP Dashboard's Settings > Permalinks section from www.domain.com/�tegory%/%postname%/ to just www.domain.com/%postname%/
Doing this causes all the URLS for all posts on your site to change, which means all the original URLs are no longer correct and result in 404s.
Your two options are:
- reset your permalinks back to their original structure, and redirect whatever new posts were created since the initial change back to the /category/postname URLs
- leave the new permalink structure in place and add a blanket rewrite rule in the htaccess file to redirect all the old post URLs to the new structure without the category. (Done properly, only one redirect is needed to handle all the post URLs.)
Personally, for improved site architecture and to keep from having all your existing posts run through redirects, I'd opt for the first option above.
Hope that all makes sense?
Paul
P.S. Make certain you have a current backup of the site before making any further changes, just in case.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
New site: More pages for usability, or fewer more detailed pages for greater domain authority flow?
Ladies and gents! We're building a new site. We have a list of 28 professions, and we're wondering whether or not to include them all on one long and detailed page, or to keep them on their own separate pages. Thinking about the flow of domain authority - I could see 28 pages diluting it quite heavily - but at the same time, I think having the separate pages would be better for the user. What do you think?
Technical SEO | | Muhammad-Isap1 -
SEO impact of adding a lead gen form to a #1 ranked page
We have a page that ranks really well and gets a lot of traffic. We're wondering what would be the SEO impact of putting a lead gen form before visitors can download what they want. Currently, entrepreneurs can download a free business plan template kit. It's a zip file that include 6 files like a blank template, an blank Excel for the financials, examples files and links to related articles. The page is : http://www.bdc.ca/en/advice_centre/tools/business_plan/Pages/default.aspx Do you think that adding a form before downloading the zip file would cost us rankings? Thanks,
Technical SEO | | jfmonfette0 -
Yoast and Standard theme: Fatal error
Hi all- A client has tried installing Yoast on her site and received at fatal error (below). She's been able to restore her site and get it functioning again, but I'm wondering if there's a work around so we can use the plugin. It's a Wordpress site using the Standard Theme. I've searched the forums (and here!) and haven't found anything helpful yet. Do you have any suggestions? Thanks! "Fatal error: Cannot redeclare yoast_breadcrumb() (previously declared in /vservers/nwconstructi/htdocs/NWCL/wp-content/plugins/wordpress-seo/inc/wpseo-functions.php:108) in /vservers/nwconstructi/htdocs/NWCL/wp-content/themes/StandardTheme_272/lib/standard_yoast_breadcrumbs.php on line 280"
Technical SEO | | DonnaDuncan0 -
Language Selection Splash Page- Impact on SEO
Hi, Our site has a page for new visitors to select their language to view our website So if you type our brand adress (http://www.bdc.ca) you should be redirected to this "splash" page (http://www.bdc.ca/pages/splashpage.aspx). What is the SEO impact of doing this and is there a better way for users to choose their languages, SEO-wise (and UX wise) ? You'll also see that after the visitor select its language, he's redirected to the actual home page using a two 302 redirects ( one to bdc.ca/en/ and then another one to the actual home page). I am aware of this and I know this is really bad. Please share what you think would be the best way to manage this language selection in respect to SEO, but with respect to UX too. Thanks ! Jean-François Monfette
Technical SEO | | jfmonfette0 -
Help with strange 404 Errors.
For the most part I have never had trouble tracking down 404's. Usually it's simply a broken link, but lately I have been getting these strange errors http://gridironexperts.com/http%3A/www.nfl.com/gamecenter?game_id=29528&season=2008&displayPage=tab_gamecenter/ What does; %C2%94 repersent? The error always points to NFL.com, but we don't link to them...like ever? Can I just 404: http://gridironexperts.com// to fix the problem, as all 404's start with this weird %C2%94 error. Is this error even on my site? Is in the backend...virus? thanks -Mike
Technical SEO | | MikePatch0 -
Duplicate page error
SEO Moz gives me an duplicate page error as my homepage www.monteverdetours.com is the same as www.monteverdetours.com/index is this actually en error? And is google penalizing me for this?
Technical SEO | | Llanero0 -
Will frequently adding and frequently removing pages from my site hinder any SEO?
Hi Guys, Just looking through our crawl diagnositcs and we have a ton errors, well over 5000 actually, on 404 pages that cannot be accessed. Our website runs a lot of "Hot Offers" that are time bound, so they expire at the end of each month and we remove the page via our CMS. It's making the crawl diagnositcs loook bad, but will this be hindering our seo and Google 'stuff' because they are finding thousands of 404 errors? Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Website: www.vospers.com Lee Greenhill
Technical SEO | | lee_greenhill0 -
How do you add a description to the Meta Description area to Tag Pages in Wordpress? This way I do not get the errors: "Missing Meta Description Tag" from SEOMoz Bot? Thanks!
I tried to add descriptions to my tags in Wordpress (well actually one to test), but I still keep getting the "Missing Meta Description Tag" error. Any suggestions on how to fix this in Wordpress? Thanks!
Technical SEO | | jhblogger0