Rank Math Changed Canonical URLs

#936555
  • Resolved Emily Payne

    4 months, 1 week ago

    Rank Math free

    Hi

    I think you need to be aware of a major bug in Rank Math that has the potential to affect up my Google rankings.

    My URL is designed to have the category in. I always set the primary category which is what should go in the URL.

    For some reason in the past week, Rank Math decided to ignore the primary category, and changed canonical URLs to a different one. This includes for some of my top ranking posts.

    I now have alerts from Google Search Console warning me that I have duplicate URLs being submitted, and AHREFs is warning me that the URL has been changed on over 80 posts.

    I’ve deleted secondary categories but it is very alarming that this has happened. Rank Math may have impacted my income if I lose rankings to this.

    Is there anything else I need to do to fix this? Please can you reply to confirm you have received this and are looking into it? I’m worried this could impact other blogs too. I only became aware of it due to a warning from Search Console.

Viewing 11 replies - 1 through 11 (of 11 total)
  • Emily Payne

    4 months, 1 week ago

    Rank Math free

    Hi

    Just to add, it is also listing “no-index” pages in the sitemap. I’ve tried re-indexing then removing again, but it still goes into the Sitemap.

    How can I fix this?

    Thanks

    Rakibuzzaman Siam

    4 months, 1 week ago

    Hello,

    Thank you for contacting us and sorry for any inconvenience that might have been caused due to that.

    Rank Math automatically includes the self-referencing canonical URL to your posts/pages. Can you please share some affected page URLs with us so that we can check the issue further for you?

    Regarding the sitemap, Rank Math should automatically remove the Noindexed pages from there. In this case, please try to follow the steps mentioned below to clear your sitemap cache:

    1. Flush the Sitemap cache by following this video screencast:
    https://i.rankmath.com/pipRDp

    2. Exclude the Sitemap files of the Rank Math plugin in your caching plugin. The cache could be via a plugin or from the server. For plugins or Cloudflare, please follow this article:
    https://rankmath.com/kb/exclude-sitemaps-from-caching/

    If the issue persists, please share some URLs that are set to Noindex but still showing on your sitemap.

    Let us know how it goes. Looking forward to helping you.

    Emily Payne

    4 months, 1 week ago

    Rank Math free

    Hi

    I’ve had to go through and remove secondary categories, as Rank Math changed the URL on any post with more than one category, despite what was set to “primary”.

    AHREFs flagged that non-canonical URLs were on the Sitemap, and that canonical URLs had changed.

    Some of my posts now have duplicate indexed URLs on Google, and these are my highest ranking posts which is very frustrating.

    How can I send you screenshots?

    One post I have yet to fix is this one. https://journeybybackpack.com/destinations/namibia/overlanding-africa-unmissable-highlights/

    The primary category is “overlanding-africa”, but Rank Math has changed the URL to another category (Namibia). It’s so frustrating and this could be detrimental to my business.

    Thanks
    Emily

    Reinelle

    4 months, 1 week ago

    Hello,

    You can upload screenshots using this tool and add the link here.

    In this case, we might need to take a closer look at the settings. Please edit the first post on this ticket and include your WordPress & FTP logins in the designated Sensitive Data section.

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

    Sensitive Data Section

    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.

    Robin Scott

    4 months ago

    Rank Math business
    Content AI Expert

    Just going to “me too” this and say that Primary Category did set the canonical, and now it is defaulting to what looks like either the first category alphabetically, or the first by ID.

    Robin Scott

    4 months ago

    Rank Math business
    Content AI Expert

    If you have category in your URL, the primary category should be used for this URL as well as the Canonical URL. THAT’S the problem here. I will try to find the resolution and post that for you all.

    Emily Payne

    4 months ago

    Rank Math free

    Thank you. I have had issues with GSC in recent days thanks to this issue.

    Robin Scott

    4 months ago

    Rank Math business
    Content AI Expert

    Okay – just to clarify, and confirm this bug is in the very most recent version (1.0.234.1) of RankMath.

    To see the bug, select a category as primary in the most recent version, then add a category which is earlier alphabetically to the post. THIS added category becomes the canonical NOT the “Primary Category” which is wrong.

    TO FIX:

    Right now – just revert down to RankMath version 1.0.233 and you’ll find your canonicals are ALL correctly set again. That’s an instant resolution.

    As for why this happened, perhaps it’s in the fix for v1.0.234.1 — I will have a look at the culprit. BUT this is a major issue as it will cause URLs to change.

    Robin Scott

    4 months ago

    Rank Math business
    Content AI Expert

    Also in case anyone wants to know how, go here: https://wordpress.org/plugins/seo-by-rank-math/advanced/ and at the bottom you can download the version 1.0.233 and manually install this to revert in the mean time.

    Emily Payne

    4 months ago

    Rank Math free

    Yep it changed over 80 of my URLs to change. Google ignored some but indexed others and I’ve lost rankings. So frustrating.

    Rakibuzzaman Siam

    4 months ago

    Hello,

    We deeply apologize for the inconvenience. We have already fixed the issue in the latest version of the Rank Math plugins: https://rankmath.com/changelog/free/

    After updating the plugin to the latest version, please try to clear your website cache including any server-level cache, and revalidate the issue on Google Search Console.

    Let us know how it goes. Looking forward to helping you.

    Thank you.

    RankBot

    3 months ago

    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.

Viewing 11 replies - 1 through 11 (of 11 total)

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