Permanent links

@julia77 We’re sorry to hear you are experiencing this issue on your site.

\We understand that you received this notification:

Because of a change in your permalink structure, some of your SEO data needs to be reprocessed.

From v15.1, the Yoast SEO plugin can now detect the home URL or permalink structure changes. And since it’s a significant change, Yoast SEO needs to run the SEO data optimization again. However, we understand that you haven’t changed anything related to the notice but you are seeing the notification and it’s confusing for you; we apologize for any inconvenience.

Can you please confirm whether you have performed the SEO data optimization in the WordPress > SEO > Tools page on your site’s dashboard? If not, can you please run the relevant analysis to see if that resolves the notice for you?

Furthermore, you can also choose to ignore the warning and wait for a week or so, until Yoast SEO automatically processes most of your content in the background.

Previously stored metadata is migrated to a new table, right?

@julia77 If you have previously performed the SEO data optimization process that is located under WordPress > SEO > Tools the metadata in the table would just be updated in the process.

@devnihil I have not previously performed the SEO data optimization. Anyway, documentation also says this optimization is done even if plugin users don′t actively performe the process. My question is: what happens to previously stored metadata? I want to confirm if this is about a migration, that is, transferring (not copying) old metadata from previous storage location to the new table created specifically for these data.

Hello Julia,

Since version 14.0, Yoast SEO stores metadata for all pages in a separate database table. This allows us to fetch all of a page’s metadata in one simple database request (rather than lots of individual requests), resulting in much faster page loads.

Before 14.0, we stored metadata like titles and meta descriptions in different places for different types of pages. For everything to work best, this data needs to be migrated to the new table. To do this, Yoast SEO will ask to index your site’s SEO data.

You can learn more at https://yoast.com/help/why-does-yoast-seo-ask-to-index-a-sites-seo-data/

@maybellyne That is a migration, not a copy, right?

We’re not sure what exactly do you mean by your last query. Can you please elaborate more on that?

Yes, you can read this thread:

My question is: what happens to previously stored metadata? I want to confirm if this is about a migration, that is, transferring (not copying) old metadata from previous storage location to the new table created specifically for these data.

Hi @julia77

If you’ve already updated to v14.0 and onwards, the data would have already been transferred to the new tables, which is what the indexables are.

When you re-run the SEO data optimization, it isn’t a migration, because the data in the indexables would have already been stored on those tables, is just cleared, and reprocessed with the updated information, and stored on the same database tables.

We recommend performing the SEO data optimization so that the updated and correct information is stored.

• This reply was modified 3 years, 4 months ago by Michael Ti?a.

Hi @mikes41720

In db, I see the same 6 tables as always:

– wp_yoast_indexable
– wp_yoast_indexable_hierarchy
– wp_yoast_migrations
– wp_yoast_primary_terms
– wp_yoast_seo_links
– wp_yoast_seo_meta

#1 Which is the new table since v14.0? I have updated the plugin then and after (not the last one), so data′s been already transferred. But where?

I return to my first question in this thread: #2 my permanent links had not been changed at all, so why Yoast suggestion? And now: if migration has already been made, #3 why re-running the optimization? This cannot be an update since data is automatically updated when we change phrases, titles, etc.

@julia77

#1 Which is the new table since v14.0?

Those are all newly introduced tables after v14.0. The respective post content information will be stored in a respective table for e.g. link counter, it should be stored in wp_yoast_seo_links. Yoast SEO v14.0+ versions begin storing data on separate tables from the previous approach of the wp_postmeta table.

#2 my permanent links had not been changed at all, so why Yoast suggestion?

The “permalink structure change” message you are seeing from Yoast in your website should only be triggered if there has actually been a change in the structure of your permalink.

#3 why re-running the optimization? This cannot be an update since data is automatically updated when we change phrases, titles, etc.

It’s important to note that this will not cause any indexing problems on your site. It is only a message that will appear if and when permalink structure changes are made.

You can ignore it as being a false positive warning if no changes been made. Or, perform a Conflict Check to see if that because of any other plugins or theme.

#3 why re-running the optimization? This cannot be an update since data is automatically updated when we change phrases, titles, etc.

When you edit, change or update the page or refresh page/post data is automatically updated in the indexable tables which is a lazy-load process.

However, running optimization once and completing it is a quick process of optimizing data into the respective database tables. Please note, you’d need to run it only once.

Hello @suascat_wp,

What happens to previously stored metadata in wp_postmeta? It′s been migrated, not copied, right?

There′re still in db:

In wp_postmeta these meta_key:

_yoast_wpseo_primary_category
_yoast_wpseo_focuskw
_yoast_wpseo_linkdex
_yoast_wpseo_focuskw
_yoast_wpseo_metadesc
_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex
_yoast_wpseo_opengraph-title
_yoast_wpseo_opengraph-description
_yoast_wpseo_opengraph-image
_yoast_wpseo_opengraph-image-id
_yoast_wpseo_twitter-title
_yoast_wpseo_twitter-description
_yoast_wpseo_twitter-image
_yoast_wpseo_twitter-image-id
_yoast_wpseo_schema_page_type

In wp_options these option_name:

wpseo
wpseo_titles
wpseo_social
wpseo_taxonomy_meta
wpseo-gsc-refresh_token
wpseo-gsc-access_token
wpseo-gsc
wpseo_gsc_issues_counts
wpseo_gsc_last_fetch
wpseo_ryte
yoast_migrations_free
+ transients …

Hi @julia77,

No data is removed from the Yoast options or the post metadata, so the SEO data was copied when the indexables tables were created. You can find more details in the Yoast developer documentation.

Just to go back to your original question, if you haven’t made any changes to your permalinks and you don’t see any other problems with Yoast SEO, the message you received seems to be a false positive and it doesn’t indicate that there’s a problem with your database or Yoast SEO data.

If you’d like us to troubleshoot why you’re seeing that notification, can you confirm that you’re using the latest version of Yoast SEO 16.6.1 and that Yoast SEO has completed the SEO data optimization under SEO > Tools?

Hello @priscillamc,

Yoast is confusing users like me by showing a wrong message, suggesting to actively run a process that is forced anyway (as it′s automatically started since v14.0) and informing an “optimization” that duplicates data in db tables (since is not a migration but a copy).

Finally, once this indexation is finished, is Yoast removing old data in wp_options and wp_postmeta? Or users will have to delete it?