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1. billbennett
   Member
   Posted 2 years ago #
   

   Google webmasters tools tells me I have a number of redirect errors on my site in the format:

   http://billbennett.co.nz/7963/

   My site uses a custom permalink structure which is simply:

   /%postname%/

   If I visit one of the error pages, I get a message telling me the page has a redirect loop.

   The numbers are NOT numbers for posts currently on my site - in fact the database item 7963 is an email address.

   Can anyone explain what is going on here and whether I should worry about it or just let it go?

2. kgagne
   Member
   Posted 2 years ago #
   

   Is the URL you posted supposed to be a valid page? Is it linked to from elsewhere?

   According to

   http://codex.wordpress.org/Using_Permalinks

   Starting Permalinks with %postname% is strongly not recommended for performance reasons.

   Your issues may be related to that.

3. Samuel B
   moderator
   Posted 2 years ago #
   

   Starting Permalinks with %postname% is strongly not recommended for performance reasons.

   this has been debated 100's of times
   it works fine unless your site has an extreme amount of Pages only -definitely wouldn't have anything to do with redirect errors

4. kgagne
   Member
   Posted 2 years ago #
   

   Thanks, Samuel. I wasn't aware of the debate and have no experience with that permalink structure myself so was only quoting the docs. I hope I didn't lead Bill astray.

5. billbennett
   Member
   Posted 2 years ago #
   

   Is the URL you posted supposed to be a valid page? Is it linked to from elsewhere?

   No, it's not a valid page, the database entry with that number (I assume that's what the URL is supposed to point at) is just the email address I use for my WP account.

6. kgagne
   Member
   Posted 2 years ago #
   

   WordPress doesn't automatically assume a number after the domain is a database query. You should be getting a 404 on that page, like you do with 7962 or 7964. Do you have a redirection plugin installed, or any unusual rules in your .htaccess file?

   I noticed that you have an XML sitemap that does not include the number "7963". If that's the sitemap that's been submitted to Google Webmaster Tools, then I'm still unsure how Google even found this URL. Does Google Webmaster Tools provide any indication of what is linking to this page, if anything?

7. billbennett
   Member
   Posted 2 years ago #
   

   There are no unusual htaccess rules.

   I'm using the Redirection plug-in, but there are no redirects from these numbered URLs - I've actually got six mysterious ones to worry about.

   There's no indication from Webmasters tools where they come from.

   I get them in sitemap errors - even though they are not in the sitemap. The most recent sitemap error has a November date - which made me think it could be some hangover from the past.

   However they also show in the Not Followed section and the most recent date there is only three days ago - so whatever causes them is still on my site - somewhere.

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