Site constantly Offline & SEO Optimization error message

Hi,

We would like some more information as this will help us rule out or in some possible culprits.

1. Can you confirm you are using WordPress 5.5.1? You can check by clicking on the W in the top left and selecting About. If you need to update, please check with your host provider.?Please know that if you are using an older version of WordPress Core you may experience unexpected behavior with Yoast.?This guide explains more:?https://yoast.com/why-we-dont-support-old-wordpress-versions/.

2. Are all your non-Yoast plugins and themes also updated?

3. How many posts and taxonomy pages do you have? A 100? 1000? Or are we talking about 10s of thousands of posts and taxonomy pages?

4. Can you confirm your server has all the right requirements? ?If you are not sure, speak to your host provider.?This guide explains more:?https://kb.yoast.com/kb/plugin-requirements/.

5. Those messages in the dev tools, did those appear when you ran the SEO data button? If not, please re-run the SEO Data button (you may need to use the Yoast Helper plugin to get the button to re-appear) and then check for any JavaScript errors. If you some, please describe what they are.

Hi @pcosta88

First of all, thanks!

Here’s some answers to your questions. Hopefully you can find possible culprits.

1. Yes. I’m using WordPress 5.5.1.
2. I was using only ONE plugin (Yoast WordPress SEO) and the Twenty Twenty theme. Both where updated.
3. I have 4000 posts, 15 pages, 90 categories and 2000 tags.
4. The server has all the right requirements. I’m on a VPS (nginx 1.17.2).
5. Those messages in the dev tools, did appear when I ran the SEO data button.

One more thing: even in my dev site, I have HUGE dificulties to enter my wp-admin. In localhost (wampp), I only have ONE plugin: Yoast WordPress SEO, and the Twenty Twenty theme.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 5 months ago by gotman.

Hi,

In looking at those errors

-https://localhost/mysite/wp-json/yoast/v1/indexation/prepare 404 (Not Found)
-POST https://www.mysite.com/wp-json/yoast/v1/indexation/terms 524

We do know that we tap into the WordPress API in order to run our indexables feature. If there is an issue with the API or something misconfigured in the server we’ve seen these kinds of errors appear before. We’d like to explore this area.

1. For the 404 error can you confirm you do not have any special coding or custom solutions on the site which may impact Yoast’s ability to tap into the WordPress API?

2. Can you also confirm the server is set-up correctly? There is nothing in there like a stray redirect or some kind of odd server rule which could impact that URL?

3. For the 524 error, that error seems to come from cloudflare. Can you confirm points #1 and #2 above on the live site AND also confirm that CloudFlare has been set-up right? There is no rule or setting in CloudFlare which could impact that URL?

OK! My hosting company response:

The URLs /wp-json/yoast/v1/indexation/terms and /wp-json/yoast/v1/indexation/prepare can give 404 or 524 errors due to timeout. In other words, their execution starts the process, the load triggers and this situation occurs.

We now open them in the browser and the load has skyrocketed from 2 to 9. When the load goes up, there is an error 404 or 524 for not being able to complete the request. 524 is the timeout code.

The server is configured with the normal rewrite rules of WordPress and we have nothing to block these URLs.

Also, there is no special coding on the theme

• This reply was modified 4 years, 5 months ago by gotman.
• This reply was modified 4 years, 5 months ago by gotman.

@gotman Thanks for your response and the additional information. During the indexation process, have you tried running it using the WP CLI command to do the indexation on the server instead? We typically recommend using this method for sites with over 10,000 posts, but if you are seeing a massive resource usage issue during the process we’d recommend to try using it and seeing if the issue still occurs. You can read more about this here:?https://yoa.st/wp-cli-index

My server did that (WP CLI command) but now my site is even slower and now I just can’t access to wp-admin.

Last minute update:

My hosting company says: Below, the queries that we continue to see, even after wp cli has been indexing.

+-----+----------------+-----------+----------------+---------+------+------------------------------+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+----------+
| Id | User | Host | db | Command | Time | State | Info | Progress |
+-----+----------------+-----------+----------------+---------+------+------------------------------+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+----------+
| 554 | mysite | localhost | mysite | Query | 128 | Sending data | SELECT COUNT(term_id)
FROM wp_term_taxonomy
WHERE term_id NOT IN (
SELECT object_id FROM wp_yoast_indexable WHERE link_count IS NOT NULL AND object_type = 'term'
) AND taxonomy IN ('category', 'post_tag', 'post_format') | 0.000 |
| 597 | mysite | localhost | mysite | Query | 93 | Sending data | SELECT COUNT(term_id)
FROM wp_term_taxonomy
WHERE term_id NOT IN (
SELECT object_id FROM wp_yoast_indexable WHERE link_count IS NOT NULL AND object_type = 'term'
) AND taxonomy IN ('category', 'post_tag', 'post_format') | 0.000 |
| 666 | mysite | localhost | mysite | Query | 49 | Waiting for table level lock | UPDATE wp_yoast_indexable SET permalink = 'https://www.mysite.com/tag/bucket/', permalink_hash = '46:c0a4ffa1bec561f0bcabfbc8a4addf53', updated_at = '2020-10-22 09:59:49' WHERE id = '5303' | 0.000 |
| 670 | mysite | localhost | mysite | Query | 46 | Waiting for table level lock | SELECT * FROM wp_yoast_indexable WHERE object_id = '28047' AND object_type = 'post' LIMIT 1 | 0.000 |
| 673 | mysite | localhost | mysite | Query | 40 | Waiting for table level lock | SELECT * FROM wp_yoast_indexable WHERE object_id = '25624' AND object_type = 'post' LIMIT 1 | 0.000 |
| 674 | mysite | localhost | mysite | Query | 40 | Waiting for table level lock | SELECT * FROM wp_yoast_indexable WHERE object_id = '9542' AND object_type = 'post' LIMIT 1 | 0.000 |
| 676 | mysite | localhost | mysite | Query | 34 | Waiting for table level lock | SELECT * FROM wp_yoast_indexable WHERE object_id = '1476' AND object_type = 'term' LIMIT 1 | 0.000 |
| 677 | mysite | localhost | mysite | Query | 28 | Waiting for table level lock | SELECT * FROM wp_yoast_indexable WHERE object_id = '25543' AND object_type = 'post' LIMIT 1 | 0.000 |
| 678 | mysite | localhost | mysite | Query | 19 | Waiting for table level lock | SELECT * FROM wp_yoast_indexable WHERE object_id = '3936' AND object_type = 'post' LIMIT 1 | 0.000 |
| 680 | mysite | localhost | mysite | Query | 16 | Waiting for table level lock | SELECT * FROM wp_yoast_indexable WHERE object_id = '29306' AND object_type = 'post' LIMIT 1 | 0.000 |
| 681 | mysite | localhost | mysite | Query | 16 | Waiting for table level lock | SELECT * FROM wp_yoast_indexable WHERE object_id = '5270' AND object_type = 'term' LIMIT 1 | 0.000 |
| 682 | mysite | localhost | mysite | Query | 15 | Waiting for table level lock | SELECT * FROM wp_yoast_indexable WHERE object_id = '16582' AND object_type = 'post' LIMIT 1 | 0.000 |
| 684 | mysite | localhost | mysite | Query | 8 | Waiting for table level lock | SELECT * FROM wp_yoast_indexable WHERE object_id = '1148' AND object_type = 'term' LIMIT 1 | 0.000 |
| 685 | mysite | localhost | mysite | Query | 5 | Waiting for table level lock | SELECT * FROM wp_yoast_indexable WHERE object_id = '16172' AND object_type = 'post' LIMIT 1 | 0.000 |
| 687 | mysite | localhost | mysite | Query | 4 | Waiting for table level lock | SELECT * FROM wp_yoast_indexable WHERE object_id = '25849' AND object_type = 'post' LIMIT 1 | 0.000 |
| 688 | mysite | localhost | mysite | Query | 3 | Waiting for table level lock | SELECT * FROM wp_yoast_indexable WHERE object_id = '16172' AND object_type = 'post' LIMIT 1 | 0.000 |
| 689 | root | localhost | NULL | Query | 0 | NULL | show full processlist | 0.000 |

HELP!!

Tested solutions in wampp:

• Replaced my theme to Twenty Twenty;
• Switch OFF all other plugins.

Result: site very slower and no access to wp-admin

• This reply was modified 4 years, 5 months ago by gotman.
• This reply was modified 4 years, 5 months ago by gotman.
• This reply was modified 4 years, 5 months ago by gotman.
• This reply was modified 4 years, 5 months ago by gotman.

We are sorry to hear you are having the slowness issue on your website when Yoast SEO is active. We totally understand how that could be frustrating for you. Let’s see what’s going on here.

The issue you are currently experiencing is a known bug specific to large websites that has thousands of pages. We apologies for any inconvenience about this.

Our development team is currently investigating the issue. In addition, a bug report is also opened in our development repository. You can find and follow the progress of the relevant bug report here https://github.com/Yoast/wordpress-seo/issues/15341.

I appreciate your apologies, but please understand that each attempt to access the back end throws the server load to limits that make my site go offline.

This bug needs an ASAP solution!

I need to access my backend regularly.

Hi @gotman,

We understand that this issue is having a negative effect on your WordPress admin’s performance, so we apologize that the plugin isn’t working as expected. This problem seems to be difficult to resolve because the problems aren’t widespread and they’re specific to each site.

To help you get your site working in the meantime, here are a few things that you can do that have worked for other people reporting similar problems:

Option 1. Rollback to a previous version of Yoast SEO that was working. If you’re not sure what version to download by looking at the changelog, you can try version 13.5, which was the last version before the indexables update. Please note that we cannot offer support for older versions of the plugin.

Option 2. Using the latest version of Yoast SEO, try to reindex the SEO data again using the WP-CLI command below:

wp yoast index --reindex --skip-plugins --skip-themes

If you’re using a multisite installation, add the –network parameter to target all sites in the network.

Hi @priscillamc

First of all, this is the second time that I have serious problems that seriously hurt my site by using your SEO plugin. I use o think you’re the best, but…

Secondly, I’m force to downgrade because I need my site working. That being said, I have some questions.

Questions:

– Will I loose anything from my hard work by downgrading you plugin?

Also:

– What current tables (example: indexables) I can delete without loosing my SEO efforts?

Hi @gotman,

We totally understand that this has been pretty frustrating and rolling back to a previous version is definitely not ideal, so we’re working to make sure that this won’t be necessary again.

If you choose to rollback or delete the tables manually, just as a precaution, we strongly recommend making a complete backup and testing this on a staging site before doing this on a production site.

If you’d like to manually remove the Yoast indexables tables before rolling back or reindexing the site, here are the tables you can remove: wp_yoast_indexable and wp_yoast_indexable_hierarchy.

Deleting the Yoast indexable tables doesn’t delete SEO data or settings from your site. Data like your titles and meta descriptions are still saved in the WordPress database tables. Please let us know if you have any other questions.

@priscillamc

My question for now, is: When do you predict a solution for this bug?

Hi @gotman

Our product team will assess the severity of this problem in relation to other open bug reports and new features. Based on their assessment, the bug report will be given a priority. Our developers work on the highest priority issues first. Unfortunately, this means we cannot give you an estimate when they’ll start working on your report or when a fix will come out.

If you have any further information that may affect the prioritization or help our development team solve this bug, please leave a comment or subscribe to the GitHub report to get updates on the issue.

Hi, @jerparx

…yeah, I have more information:

This not only affects the wp-admin dashboard. It affects the loading time on the intire site frontend. But I guess you already know that…

Hopefully you can tell this to your developers so they can take this as a serious issue and prioritize it.

Thanks!

Hi,

Thank you for working with us to help identify the bug. We know this is an issue. We ask that you please comment on the issue here https://github.com/Yoast/wordpress-seo/issues/15341, if you have not yet done so. That way you will be sent an email when there are updates to it. You may need to create an account. Additionally, if you have anything else to add to the issue we ask that you add it to the Github repository, as we will close this issue since the issue has been identified in order to keep the overview.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 4 months ago by Pcosta88.