Bad URL does not return 404 error…

  • Hey all, rather than have me ramble, it’s probably best to cut to the chase and have you see for yourself:

    https://netvantagemarketing.com/?page_id=7/whateverwhatever

    Why is this nonsensical page not redirecting to a 404 error page? I added the proper code to the .htaccess. The homepage is working properly in all circumstances.

    Any help would be GREATLY appreciated. I’ve been looking at this for a week now.

    EDIT: If it helps, I ran the header through a validator, and while the home page returns a 404 error when it should, the incorrect URL’s in the subpages all return 200 (OK) status.

    ???

Viewing 13 replies - 1 through 13 (of 13 total)
  • Thread Starter jbibbs

    (@jbibbs)

    Anyone have any ideas on this? I’m really at a loss.

    Things I’ve tried:

    – Added ErrorDocument 404 /wordpress/index.php?error=404 to .htaccess

    – Made sure 404.php is in correct directory

    – Validated header (returning ok on bad pages, but I don’t know why)

    – Searched through all the other 404 topics on wordpress with no matching problem solution

    – Have “latest post” selected under settings–>reading in wp-admin

    – Am using a “post” as the homepage, with “pages” as all of the other pages on the site

    Thread Starter jbibbs

    (@jbibbs)

    Any help on this would be much appreciated, or if anyone knows of any documentation outside of WordPress that might relate to this error?

    Pages like https://netvantagemarketing.com/?page_id=7/nonsense/nonsense2/nonsense3/nonsense4 etc should not just continue to display the original page should they?

    Thread Starter jbibbs

    (@jbibbs)

    No one has seen or heard of something like this?

    Is the issue limited to the theme you’re using? Or does it happen to the default theme also?

    Thread Starter jbibbs

    (@jbibbs)

    Wow sorry this took so long to reply. I couldn’t find my post, and thought it got deleted by an admin for too many bumps.

    I am still having this issue though, and yes it happens using the default theme as well as the custom template. Every page except the home page (which is actually a post instead of a page) returns a good 200 code on the header.

    Thread Starter jbibbs

    (@jbibbs)

    Anyone have any clues on this?

    Thanks.

    Thread Starter jbibbs

    (@jbibbs)

    Is there some other form of support outside of these forums?

    Thread Starter jbibbs

    (@jbibbs)

    Has anyone ever even seen anything like this?

    Disgregard the /meta error messages as actually they are doing what they are supposed to. The problem is with why a nonsensical page isn’t calling the 404 error page….

    Thanks

    Thread Starter jbibbs

    (@jbibbs)

    Maybe I can segment this down a little. Does anyone know what file contains the actual code to call the 404 error page?

    Have you ever figured this out? Did anyone ever help you?

    I am having a similar problem. I’m trying to specify where to go for 404s in .htaccess but for some reason WordPress ignores it. It doesn’t ignore 403s, only 404s.

    Frustrating!

    I just happen to have a friend who has the same problem as described above. https://www.segelnthailand.de/type-whatever-you-like-here goes right to the homepage with a 200 OK response instead of a 404.

    • Version = WP 2.7.1.
    • Permalink structure = default
    • Theme = Kubrick default (or any other theme)
    • All plugins disabled! (or enabled for that matter)

    The site just lost 250 places at Google and i fear the punishment has to do with exactly that problem. https://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2008/08/farewell-to-soft-404s.html

    And to make things worst and the problem even harder to locate is the fact, that there are two more wp blogs installed, in the same account on the same server and both pages’ 404s are handled correctly!??!

    Searching Google for the problem returns somewhat of 11,5 million results. I’ve tried everything up to SERP 5 with no success so far!
    I hope i don’t have to go through all the 11 mill. ??

    Although WordPress is the worlds best and most popular blogging software, this forum seems to be more or less deserted. Help with a functioning solution would be highly appreciated.

    I just happen to have a friend who has the same problem as described above. https://www.segelnthailand.de/type-whatever-you-like-here goes right to the homepage with a 200 OK response instead of a 404.

    • Version = WP 2.7.1.
    • Permalink structure = default
    • Theme = Kubrick default (or any other theme)
    • All plugins disabled! (or enabled for that matter)

    The site just lost 250 places at Google and i fear the punishment has to do with exactly that problem. https://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2008/08/farewell-to-soft-404s.html

    And to make things worst and the problem even harder to locate is the fact, that there are two more wp blogs installed, in the same account on the same server and both pages’ 404s are handled correctly!??!

    Searching Google for the problem returns somewhat of 11,5 million results. I’ve tried everything up to SERP 5 with no success so far!
    I hope i don’t have to go through all the 11 mill. ??

    Although WordPress is the worlds best and most popular blogging software, this forum seems to be more or less deserted. Help with a functioning solution would be highly appreciated.

    I had the same problem. I solved it by simply changing the permalinks structure, from the default to month/name.

Viewing 13 replies - 1 through 13 (of 13 total)
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