Live Pages Getting Redirected Mistakenly By RankMath - Support

Resolved Chris Bocay
1 year, 9 months ago

Rank Math free

Hello,

I just experienced a redirection error on a page that I have NOT used as a *source* URL in any custom redirection (I have only used it as a *destination* URL).

That page was redirected to the home page, seemingly using the 404 fallback option that I have activated since before. (but there’s no 404!)

In one of my custom redirections I use “https://chrisbocay.com/review-biblical-view-self-esteem/” as a destination URL. My *source* URLs are these (using “exact” match), and their functionality has been, and still is, OK:

https://chrisbocay.com/2022/04/28/book-review-the-biblical-view-of-self-esteem-self-love-and-self-image-by-jay-e-adams/
https://chrisbocay.com/2022/04/28/book-review-the-biblical-view-of-self-esteem-self-love-and-self-image-by-jay-e-adams/amp/
https://chrisbocay.com/book-review-biblical-view-of-self-esteem-self-love-and-self-image/

I discovered this bug indirectly, while in Bing Webmaster Tools, where I suddenly got an error message that I could not index the “https://chrisbocay.com/review-biblical-view-self-esteem/” page in Bing because it was a redirect, leading to another page (namely to my home page).

So the question is, how could this, at all, happen? I mean, in order for your redirects functionality to be useful, all installed custom redirections must work (which they did). But redirections must *also* not be inserted on live pages that I am NOT redirecting.

So I am not sure what caused it. But going to your custom redirects pane and reentering the source URLs once more, exactly as the were before, and then hitting the update button, fixed the issue. At least I now STAY on my article page, if I go to that page, and I am not redirected to my home page anymore.

So I would like to know if you have some known bugs: what must I do, or avoid doing, to prevent these things from happening again? (I mean, if it happens again, I will probably have to decide to deinstall RankMath, and find myself a more robust redirection plugin; I cannot have my live article pages be redirected like that!)

Thanks,
Chris Bocay

Viewing 9 replies - 1 through 9 (of 9 total)

Chris Bocay
1 year, 9 months ago

Rank Math free

Hello,

Just a few minutes ago, it was possible to enter the URL and stay on that page and read the article.

However, this is no longer the case. RankMath is now redirecting it to the home page, once again.

This is a serious bug, I believe.

Chris

Reinelle
1 year, 9 months ago

Hello,

Thank you for contacting Rank Math and bringing your concern to our attention. I’m sorry for any inconvenience this issue may have caused you.

I’ve checked the page, but it is not getting redirected to your homepage.

You can also use this tool for checking: https://httpstatus.io

Please clear your website and browser’s cache for initial troubleshooting if it’s still getting redirected on your end.

Looking forward to helping you.

Thank you.

Chris Bocay
1 year, 9 months ago

Rank Math free

Hello,

Thanks for this info. It is great to have another redirection-check tool!

Yes, this new redirection seems to have been a result that I re-entered the same link in the very same Chrome tab where there previously was a redirection (so it was probably the browser’s cache).

So when I now used a new tab to enter the URL, it does not get redirected. And using other browsers do not invoke any redirection. So hopefully, that page will stay non-redirected now.

But the initial issue is still there. There was a redirection taking place, and Bing Webmaster Tools discovered it initially. It was only then that I manually tried to enter it into my browser’s URL input field, to test it. And it was then, as Bing said, immediately redirected to my home page.

So what must I do, or avoid doing, to prevent these things from happening again?

Best wishes!
Chris

Reinelle
1 year, 9 months ago

Hello,

In case the same page was reported for the same issue, you can use the tool and check if the redirection is done by Rank Math or any other plugins on your site or WordPress itself.

Other than Rank Math’s redirections, we also have a feature to redirect your attachment pages, which is a common reason why a URL is redirecting to your homepage:
https://rankmath.com/kb/should-you-redirect-attachments/#how-to-redirect-attachments-with-rank-math

If the redirection issue happens again, please check if you have attachments with the same slug. You can reupload the media with a different file name or at least change the attachment’s slug/permalinks.

I hope that helps.

Thank you.

Chris Bocay
1 year, 9 months ago

Rank Math free

Hello,

It is now happening again. It’s happening in Google Chrome, in Firefox, in Microsoft Edge, and in Avast Secure Browser.

And it also is detectable with the new tool you just provided me with, as in this image: https://imgur.com/7nX0agi

So you can clearly see that there is 301 from the article page to the home page.

2. OK, I do have Redirect Attachments on, as recommended by several of your other engineers at RankMath.

> check if you have attachments with the same slug.

Here are the three pictures and their URLs and Attachment Pages:

– page 1: 0101-titlepic-book-review-biblical-view-of-self-esteem-self-love-self-image-by-jay-adams-w1200
– img 1: 0101-titlepic-book-review-biblical-view-of-self-esteem-self-love-self-image-by-jay-adams-w1200.png

– page 2: 0101-photos-front-and-back-covers-of-biblical-view-of-self-esteem-self-love-self-image-by-jay-adams-w1200
– img 2: 0101-photos-front-and-back-covers-of-biblical-view-of-self-esteem-self-love-self-image-by-jay-adams-w1200.png

– page 3: 0101-photos-library-checkout-cards-biblical-view-of-self-esteem-self-love-self-image-by-jay-adams-w1200
– img 3: 0101-photos-library-checkout-cards-biblical-view-of-self-esteem-self-love-self-image-by-jay-adams-w1200.png

So could any of these 3 attachment pages really be confused with the article page itself? Could the fact that they all contain the exact same substring “book-review-biblical-view-of-self-esteem-self-love-self-image-by-jay-adams” make RankMath treat the article page as an attachment page, and therefore redirect it? Shouldn’t RankMath be smart enough to differentiate between, on the one hand, an attachment page and, on the other hand, a “post” or “page”?

Thanks,
Chris

Chris Bocay
1 year, 9 months ago

Rank Math free

Hello,

I made a small mistake. I said: the exact same substring “book-review-biblical-view-of-self-esteem-self-love-self-image-by-jay-adams”.

But the current URL of the article does not contain that many words. Its slug is nowadays only “review-biblical-view-self-esteem” (but its slug was once upon a time “book-review-biblical-view-of-self-esteem-self-love-and-self-image”, and is one of the custom redirects I am using, as mentioned in my first post in this thread).

In other words, there is no exact substring match between the article slug and any of the three URLs, or partial URLs, of any of the images and their attachment pages.

So I am not sure what is going on.

Thanks,
Chris

Jaideep Asrani
1 year, 9 months ago

Hello,

Please disable the Redirect Attachments option and see if the URL works fine after that. If it does, there is an attachment page and you will have to edit its slug to fix the issue. If you are not sure, please edit the first post on this ticket and include your WordPress logins in the designated Sensitive Data section so we can check this further.

Please do take a complete backup of your website before sharing the information with us.

It is completely secure and only our support staff has access to that section. If you want, you can use the below plugin to generate a temporary login URL to your website and share that with us instead:

https://wordpress.org/plugins/temporary-login-without-password/

You can use the above plugin in conjunction with the WP Security Audit Log to monitor what changes our staff might make on your website (if any):

https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-security-audit-log/

We really look forward to helping you.

Chris Bocay
1 year, 9 months ago

Rank Math free

Hello,

> If it does, there is an attachment page and you
> will have to edit its slug to fix the issue.

I see. OK, then, I will just have to end my RankMath adventure. If RankMath isn’t smart enough to distinguish an attachment page from a “post” or “page”, then it’s not smart enough for me.

Thanks for the experience, and for a great support team! You all have really tried your best to help!

Best wishes!
Chris Bocay

Miguel
1 year, 9 months ago

Hello,

We’re sorry that the features of Rank Math don’t work with the current workflow you have for this website.

If you decide to give Rank Math another chance in the future, our team is always here available to help you.

Thank you.

Viewing 9 replies - 1 through 9 (of 9 total)

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