Hello,
We apologize for the issue you are facing with invalid URLs on your WordPress site. To address the invalid URLs reported by Google Search Console, you can take the following steps:
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Redirect Removed Pages: If the pages have moved, create a 301 redirect from the old URL to the new one. This helps preserve any link equity from the old URL. You can refer to our guide on how to do this here.
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Fix Broken Links: Check internal and external links pointing to the missing pages and update them accordingly. If possible, reach out to the sites linking to your deleted pages and request an update to the correct URL.
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Create a Custom 404 Page: Design a user-friendly 404 page that guides visitors to helpful content on your site. Include links to popular posts or a search bar to help users find what they want.
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Check .htaccess File: Ensure there are no incorrect redirects in your .htaccess file. You can check this in your WordPress dashboard under Rank Math SEO → General Settings → Edit .htaccess. If you find any unwanted rules, you can delete them.
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Use Rank Math’s Tools: You can also use Rank Math’s tools to analyze and fix issues related to indexing and URLs.
If you need specific instructions on resetting the wp_rank_math_ files or further assistance, please reply to this ticket, and a human agent from the Rank Math Support team will assist you further.
Thank you for raising this concern!
Sources:
How to Fix Indexing Issues in Google Search Console » Rank Math
Hi,
I don’t believe any of these approaches are applicable, because there are too many URL’s that would need to be submitted. A custom 404 page whould help direct customers, but do nothing for Google errors. Over the last 6-12 months, I have been fixing these by creating lots of redirects. The issue is that many of these URL’s never were valid. For example, Google search is now reporting an invalid URL of https://healthalways.com/us-biotek/ but that URL never existed. There however is a URL similar to it of https://healthalways.com/store/us-biotek/
I have used WP Search and Replace plug-in to find these invalid URL’s and they have been found in the WP_rank_math_ tables. I have been attempting to replace those entries with the correct URL’s.
A Second question I have is: I have been using Yoast before switching to Rank-Math. I have disabled Yoast, but should I also be deleting all the files such as WP_Yoast_…. There are six files like that.
Also FYI, I did install and use Rank Math on this same site (free version), I believe it was a year ago, but disabled it when I started using Yoast. Could there be old tables/files left over from that install that need to be cleaned up?
Thanks,
Ray
Hello,
Thank you for your query and we are so sorry about the trouble this must have caused.
Since you have fixed and removed all the non-existing URLs from your website, we need to check how Google has always discovered said URLs. Please submit the URL/s to your Google Search Console’s URL Inspection tool and share a full screenshot of the report. We need to see the referring URLs.
As for your question about removing the Yoast files, if you are not planning on going back to Yoast, you can completely remove all their data by following this guide: https://yoast.com/help/how-can-i-uninstall-my-plugin/#database
Please do take a complete backup of your website first before doing such actions.
Looking forward to helping you.
Thanks Jeremy,
Before I switch over and delete all my Yoast files I do have a question:
I am using WP EasyCart for my shopping cart package. Yoast seems to have tools to perform SEO on the shopping cart pages, which I have gotten to work, but are awkward to use, and have bugs that they don’t seem to be able to fix. That is why I am considering Rank Math. Does Rank Math have any tools to help with SEO for the WP EasyCart shopping cart pages? I tried searching on Rank Math and Google, but could not find information on that.
Ray
Hi Jeremy,
Did you see my last entry? Any updates?
Thanks
Ray
I just saw a message in my Word Press:
“Rank Math has detected a new post type: ec_store”
That is the WP EasyCart store. Do I have to enable anything to get Rank Math to work with EasyCart store pages?
So just to summarize, I still have two issues:
1. To do a clean refresh, can I delete all the old Rank Math tables and files and will RankMath rebuild them?
2. What can I do to enable RankMath to work with my store pages?
Thanks,
Ray
One more thing. I tried to upgrade to PRO yesterday at $4.99/mo billed annually, but got locked up. Today I see it is coming up at $6.99. Can I still get it at yesterday’s price?
Hello,
Sorry for the delay in response.
We haven’t fully tested EasyCart so we can’t guarantee our plugin will be able to treat those pages correctly like we do for Woocommerce’s. You may proceed with testing it with our plugin and we are here to help you resolve what issue you may find.
Rank Math has detected a new post type: ec_store”
That is the WP EasyCart store. Do I have to enable anything to get Rank Math to work with EasyCart store pages?
The notice is simply a reminder for you to configure your SEO settings for these post types. If you forget to configure them, you might end up indexing a page on the search engine that shouldn’t be or end up with an irrelevant SEO title and meta description — which can most probably affect your search rankings.
Here’s our guide you can follow for that:
https://rankmath.com/kb/new-post-type-detected/
As for your additional questions:
1. We wouldn’t recommend manually deleting tables created by our plugin as that may potentially crash your website. To properly do this, you may perform the steps from this guide: https://rankmath.com/kb/uninstall/
After that, you may re-install our plugin again so you can start anew.
2. If you’re referring to pages created by EasyCart, as we have mentioned above, we haven’t tested this plugin yet but if they are using standard CPTs, then the default and basic optimization will be applied. Mostly likely the product schema will not be automatically applied to your product pages so you’ll have to follow this guide: https://rankmath.com/kb/product-schema/
3. I see you have purchased the PRO subscription already using the promo price. Let us know if you still need assistance with regard to your recent purchase.
Looking forward to helping you.
Hello,
I am still getting these validation errors in Google Search Console. For example, the URL:
https://healthalways.com/manganese-plus/
is being reported as invalid. I never have created that URL on my site! There is a valid URL which is similar:
https://healthalways.com/store/manganese-plus/
It seems like Rank Math is truncating the sub-directory /store from the URL.
This is not the only URL which is happening to, there are many more. I will try to put a current screen copy from Google Search Console at the end of this entry.
I have been told by support in the past to create redirects for all these invalid URL’s, which I have for many of them, but is time consuming, and I’m not sure that is the fix, because, as I create more files in the /store sub-folder, it causes more redirect errors. Also, the searches keep overloading my Query tables, and shuts down my site until I contact my hosting company. A big hassle.
I would like to know where Google is finding these invalid URL’s. Seems like it is coming from Rank-Math because I can find the invalid URL’s in my database in the Rank-Math tables using the plug-in Search and Replace.
Regards,
Ray
Hello,
We can see that the URL now redirects to the homepage:
You can use the URL Inspection tool of your GSC account on those URLs to check the referring page and figure out from where Google is discovering those URLs:
https://search.google.com/search-console/welcome?action=inspect
Looking forward to helping you.
Thanks.
Hello Ike,
Sorry, but that does not address the issue as to why Rank Math is dropping the /store sub-directory from my URL’s and creating invalid URL’s.
Ray
Hello,
Apologies for the inconvenience.
In your Google Search Console, you should use the URL inspection tool of your GSC account to inspect those URLs and check the referring page where they are coming from.
Once you know their referring page, you can remove or update them so Google won’t discover those kinds of URLs.
Looking forward to helping you.
Hi Reinelle,
Would you take a look at the following issue:
I have a redirect set up with Rank Math for the following:
From:
https://healthalways.com/manganese-plus/
To:
https://healthalways.com/store/manganese-plus/
But when I enter the URL https://healthalways.com/manganese-plus/
it ends up on the default page, https:healthalways.com
Can you tell mee why this is happening?
Regards,
Ray
screen copy of redirect attached
Hi,
I would like to go back to the original problem from a couple weeks ago which is still unresolved:
Validation errors in Google Search Console. For example, the URL:
https://healthalways.com/hormone-tests/
is being reported as invalid redirect. I never have created that URL on my site! There is a valid URL which is similar:
https://healthalways.com/store/hormone-tests/
The only place I can find these invalid URL’s is in the Rank Math Database redirect Tables. If I do a Search in Word Press of the database, it is finding these invalid URL’s in the Rank Math tables. Is Google finding them in Rank Math tables, and reporting them as invalid redirects?
Regards,
Ray
Hello,
Since we did not hear back from you for 15 days, we are assuming that you found the solution. We are closing this support ticket.
If you still need assistance or any other help, please feel free to open a new support ticket, and we will be more than happy to assist.
Thank you.
