Got an JSON error on Yoast – Start SEO data optimization and POST 500 error

Thanks for following up, @mamandis

About the console error, ?https://balticmarket.lt/wp-json/yoast/v1/link-indexing/posts?500, the SEO data optimization feature uses the WordPress REST API to scan posts/pages for the right internal links to show. Your server returned a 500 error when accessing the REST API.

So we recommend contacting your web hosting provider to review your server setup to determine why the REST API returns the 500 error. A server setting or module may need to be adjusted, such as?mod_security. If you use security plugins, they can block access to /wp-json/yoast/ file pathway. You may need to contact them or your host provider and whitelist that URL. Once the server no longer returns the error, we would expect the SEO Data feature to load and work correctly.

In addition, if you are using caching on your site (varnish or otherwise) you may need to adjust cache settings to remove /wp-json/yoast from the caching. If you are not sure how to do that please contact your host provider and/or caching plugin authors.

Do let us know how it goes.

Thanks for answers, @maybellyne !

I use Litespeed cache plugin, tried to make exception (not to cache /wp-json/yoast/), after some time checked – same. Then tried turn off completely this plugin – same issue.

Contacted hostinger provider, asked to turn off mod_security, they did, tried yoast first time conf again after 15mins – same issue 8#

What could be the next steps?

Thanks for sharing what you’ve done so far, @mamandis. Please try the following:

1. Install & activate the Yoast Test Helper plugin
2. Go to Tools > Yoast Test
3. Locate the Yoast SEO section and click on the ‘Reset indexables tables & migrations‘, ‘Reset Prominent words calculation‘, and ‘Reset Internal link counter‘ buttons. After each click, the page will reload to confirm that the specific reset was successful.
4. Go to SEO > Tools, and under SEO data, click the “Start SEO data optimization” button to allow Yoast to rescan your content.

Please let us know if the reported issue remains after resetting the optimized data.

Done what you, @maybellyne, said, thank You,but got same message:

Oops, something has gone wrong and we couldn’t complete the optimization of your SEO data. Please click the button again to re-start the process.

Below are the technical details for the error. See this page for a more detailed explanation.

Error details
Error message
Error parsing the response to JSON.

P.S. for remembering – Litespeed cache plugin is still disabled, mod_security is not working.

What other steps could be? 8#

Hey @mamandis,

Thank you for following up and persisting in troubleshooting this.

Can you please check if running the SEO data optimization tool in a troubleshooting mode of the Health Check plugin does anything different? To try this, please do the following;

1. Install the Health Check & Troubleshooting plugin on your site and activated it.
2. Go to Tools > Site Health > Troubleshooting (tab)
3. Click on “Enable troubleshooting mode”
4. Go to Plugins and only activate Yoast SEO
5. Go to Yoast SEO > Tools and run the SEO data optimization and check if it can complete the process. If not, please also check the browser console to see on what part it fails. You can check the network tab to see what process runs and on what step it fails.

Hope this helps.

Thank you @jeroenrotty and @maybellyne ,

I done first time configuration with your help.. ??

So some of plugins was stopping first time’s configuration script, as I understand, am I right?

After this I enabled all my previous plugins and everything works as should.

Now I need to configure all settings of YOAST, but interface is new and it is very difficult to find what is where.. but somehow I will.

P.S. I think, in Settings -> General -> Site features are two few options (Writing – SEO analysis, Readability analysis, Inclusive language analysis and Insights).

Shouldn’t it be more options, for ex. Slack sharing, Open Graph data and etc. (in free version)?

Is it possible that after enabling all plugins, some (same plugin) stopping some features in configuration?

Thank you again ??

• This reply was modified 1 year, 9 months ago by mamandis.
• This reply was modified 1 year, 9 months ago by mamandis.
• This reply was modified 1 year, 9 months ago by mamandis.

Sorry for this:
“

P.S. I think, in Settings -> General -> Site features are two few options (Writing – SEO analysis, Readability analysis, Inclusive language analysis and Insights).

Shouldn’t it be more options, for ex. Slack sharing, Open Graph data and etc. (in free version)?

Is it possible that after enabling all plugins, some (same plugin) stopping some features in configuration?“

I didn’t click on the button to search for SEO errors or sth. (I don’t remember the exact name of the button, sorry), then the whole configuration appeared which I had missed.

Thanks you @jeroenrotty and @maybellyne ??

Hey @mamandis,

Thank you for your replies.

I can definitely understand that the new UI of our Settings page as of Yoast SEO 20.0 is different than you’re used to. The first time you open it it should show you a modal with some short videos and explanation where to find stuff. There is also a new search function on the page to quickly find specific functions. You can also have a look on our release post of 20.0, which includes a nice video about it: https://yoast.com/yoast-seo-january-24-2023/

Thank you for everybody for explanations! ??