Spurious URLs being generated, creating "Not Found" Google Crawl Errors

[Gregg]

The Calendar Pro is generating many spurious URLs that are showing in Google’s Search Console as not found.

It’s taking an existing URL and appending /feed to the URL, which is causing the error. This started occurring after I installed your last update, which I downloaded on the day it was posted. It’s been time consuming to create redirects for these URLs.

There’s no pattern I can detect. Some URLs are for upcoming events, while others are for past events.

Examples:
http://ptownevents.com/event/parade-provincetown-portuguese-festival/feed/
http://ptownevents.com/event/gallery-stroll-friday-61716/feed/
http://ptownevents.com/event/halloween-greet-n-treat/feed/

Please note – This issue IS NOT the same issue I wrote about in my last post about all the Soft 404 spurious URLs the plug-in is generating. That list has grown to over 100 URLs in both smartphone and desktop, and the URLs are often different.

Thank you

Gregg

[Cliff]

Hi, Gregg.

Sorry you’re experiencing this. You’re not the first to report this.

Please see the code snippet at https://theeventscalendar.com/support/forums/topic/disable-single-events-rss-feed-from-header/#post-1223092 and let me know if that solves it for you in the meantime of us releasing a full bug fix.

I’ll mark this ticket as Pending Fix, which means this thread should receive a reply once the applicable fix has been released. I cannot guarantee when it will be fixed as it’s in the development team’s hands now. They need to assign it, code it, test it, and schedule it for release.

I apologize for this issue and appreciate your understanding and patience.

[Gregg]

The solution you linked to doesn’t include instructions about where to post the code snippet.

Please advise what file I should include this code in.

Thank you
Gregg

[Cliff]

Best practice for adding custom code (like to implement a PHP snippet to modify The Events Calendar) is to create a functionality plugin, unless it’s something specific to your theme, in which case best practice is to make sure you’re using a child theme, then add the customization to your child theme’s functions.php file.

I hope this information helps!

[Gregg]

Thanks for the quick reply but it would have been helpful to know this information in the 1st reply. I guess there’s an assumption on Support’s part that their customer code.

I don’t code, hence the use of plug-ins.

You mentioned in a reply in late January from another user who is experiencing this problem that the team is working to fix it in the next release. Is there any update on when this can be expected?

It is generating lots of NOT FOUND crawl errors which do impact search rankings, and are time consuming to fix.

An update about when this issue will be resolved – or better a patch plug-in generated by your team to hold me over – would be appreciated.

Thanks

[Gregg]

Hi –

Now I’m getting additional spurious “non-feed” ‘Not Found URLs’ under my Google Crawl Errors.

Here’s an example: ptownevents.com/events/category/theme-week/page/5.

These aren’t appearing as Soft 404s. They just started yesterday.

[Cliff]

1) Gregg, the code snippet I shared should be the patch you’re asking for. It’s not a fully-installable plugin that you can install as a plugin, but you can add the code to your active theme’s functions.php file (just do not include the leading <?php from that code snippet). If you still cannot get it sorted out, let me know and I’ll help further.

2) Referencing https://yoast.com/rel-canonical/#faulty-canonicals

Don’t canonicalize a paginated archive to page 1. The rel=canonical on page 2 should point to page 2. If you point it to page 1, search engines will actually not index the links on those deeper archive pages…

Please let me know if this makes sense to you or if maybe I’m misunderstanding your second issue.

[Gregg]

Hi Cliff,

Feed Issue: Providing this specificity “but you can add the code to your active theme’s functions.php file” is helpful. That’s easy to do. Thank you.

Page X Crawl Issues: I am not canonicalize pages, so the solution provided isn’t applicable to these errors. Please advise next steps.

Thank you

[Cliff]

I’m glad you got that snippet installed and working. What then are the remaining/outstanding issues to still be addressed?

[Gregg]

I’d like to keep the thread open for the 2 reasons below.

1. It generally takes several days before google starts posting errors.
2. Yes, you’re misunderstanding my second issue. As I mentioned in my last response, I’m not using canonical URLs, so the solution you provided isn’t applicable. The example I provided (townevents.com/events/category/theme-week/page/5.) is something new that started. I haven’t changed any of my publishing practices since I started using the Calendar Pro plug-in, but after the last update, these spurious errors and bogus URLs started appearing in my Not Found List.

[Cliff]

1. Sure thing. (This thread actually won’t be auto-closed as long as it remains in Pending Fix status.)

2. I’m unable to even generate a URL in that format. If I have List View as my default view, visit a category page, click Next Events in the bottom right, I get a URL like this:

/events/list/?tribe_paged=2&tribe_event_display=list&tribe_eventcategory%5B%5D=35

Where is that URL to your Page 5 coming from?

[Gregg]

Hi Cliff,

Now these errors similar to the one below are appearing as Crawl Errors in Google Search Console:

event/tennessee-williams-theater-festival-provincetown/all/?tribe_event_display=past&tribe_paged=2

Here’s the valid URL:
http://ptownevents.com/event/tennessee-williams-theater-festival-provincetown/all/

What is causing the program to generate URLs and append “?tribe_event_display=past&tribe_paged=2” to a valid URL?

Thank you
Gregg

[Gregg]

Hi Cliff,

The URL I pasted is incomplete. It should have been:

ptownevents.com/events/category/theme-week/page/5.

I had already redirected, but I removed so you could see what’s happening.

Additionally, I’m not receiving Crawl Errors with this code appended to valid URLs:

http://ptownevents.com/event/tennessee-williams-theater-festival-provincetown/all/?tribe_event_display=past&tribe_paged=2

These events were created over 4 months ago, but are just now appearing. Here’s the valid URL that lists the 5 events for this festival.
http://ptownevents.com/event/tennessee-williams-theater-festival-provincetown/all/

Thank you
Gregg

[Gregg]

The redirect appears to still be in effect. If you paste http://ptownevents.com/events/category/theme-week/page/5

then this page appears, which is the page i redirected it to: http://ptownevents.com/provincetown-theme-weeks/

Very odd since this is a single page with no pagination. Is there a pagination setting in the Calendar Pro Settings that I’m unaware of?

Thanks

[Cliff]

Thanks for all the details, Gregg.

Yes, our templates support pagination. There is a setting at wp-admin > Events > Settings > General tab > “Number of events to show per page”

Please correct me if I’m wrong, but might this be the issue?

1. Create many events in the future (enough to have 5+ pages worth)
2. As events expire, do not create many new future events (so there might be 2 pages of past events but only 3 pages of future events)
3. Then Google previously found results at pages 4 and 5 but now those “pages” do not exist and instead there are more pages available in the Past Events instead of the Upcoming Events pagination.

If you have a fairly steady rate of creating new future events as events expire, I’d guess what I outlined above wouldn’t be applicable.

Let me know your thoughts.

[Author]

Posts