Title and Meta description not updating

How does this solve this issue exactly? The problem isn’t data syncing between the two environments. The problem is that the new version of Yoast SEO is not working on staging environments. The issue isn’t with syncing, it is with titles and metas not updating when saving in the post/page editor on staging sites across the board.

That still doesn’t answer the question as to why this is happening with the new version of the plugin, when all prior versions did not have this issue.

Something changed with the new plugin that doesn’t properly update the database.

How exactly does this solve the issue though? The issue is not syncing between the two environments. Implementing this will just mess up our staging sites. The issue is titles and metas not updating on staging sites with the latest version of the plugin.

It also doesn’t answer the question as to why this issue just cropped up with the latest version of the plugin, and everything was working fine on prior versions. Something in the recent update is not updating the database correctly on staging environments.

We shouldn’t have to alter settings on our hosting environment or on each individual staging site on 300+ websites to solve this issue that is an issue with the new version of your plugin.

Hi @alexdx

In version 23.0, we fixed a bug that caused unnecessary data to be written in the Yoast indexable database on non-production sites (where the environment is not set as non-production) or when the Yoast\WP\SEO\should_index_indexables filter was used to disable the indexable. Please take a look at the PR here for your reference. This bug fix was to fully prevent the creation of indexable data on the staging site. Otherwise, when migrating the site from staging to live, the indexable must be reset manually, else the Yoast indexable database will contain the staging site URLs, and it may get outputted on the source code.

Regarding the issue you pointed out, we followed the steps you mentioned on the staging site and noticed that the values you added to the Yoast metabox are saved in the database. However, the overview screen outputs the recently created SEO title and meta description values on the column for all the posts. So we created a new bug report for it here: #21460.

We tried to replicate the other issue you pointed out i.e with the page source code not getting outputted with the SEO title and meta description you added to the metabox. Upon testing from our lab sites, we noticed that the SEO title and meta description with the values added to the Yoast metabox are outputting correctly on the source code without any actions.

So, to narrow down the issue further, can you please check whether you have added any filters for the indexable or set the environment as staging other than the WP_ENVIRONMENT_TYPE?

Also, please make sure to reset the indexable again on the staging site to check whether the issue continues with version 23.0. After resetting the indexable, can you please check the database to see whether the table yoast_indexable contains any values?

We look forward to hearing from you and are happy to help you.

So, to narrow down the issue further, can you please check whether you have added any filters for the indexable or set the environment as staging other than the WP_ENVIRONMENT_TYPE

I have not changed ANYTHING. We have not added any filters for the indexable, or set the environment as staging outside of the normal staging site process from our host Kinsta. There are these lines at the top of wp-config.php:

<?php /* BEGIN KINSTA DEVELOPMENT ENVIRONMENT - DO NOT MODIFY THIS CODE BLOCK */ ?>
<?php if ( !defined('KINSTA_DEV_ENV') ) { define('KINSTA_DEV_ENV', true); /* Kinsta development - don't remove this line */ } ?>
<?php if ( !defined('JETPACK_STAGING_MODE') ) { define('JETPACK_STAGING_MODE', true); /* Kinsta development - don't remove this li>
<?php /* END KINSTA DEVELOPMENT ENVIRONMENT - DO NOT MODIFY THIS CODE BLOCK */ ?>

I just want to be clear that we changed nothing, but this issue happens on ALL staging sites once updated to Yoast 23.0. This issue did not occur at all prior to version 23.0.

I would like clarification on this:

will we now need to go through ALL of our staging sites and add this line to wp-config.php:

define( ‘WP_ENVIRONMENT_TYPE’, ‘production’ );

Then follow this guide to reset indexables: https://yoast.com/help/how-to-reset-yoast-indexables/ to get the new version of Yoast to work properly in staging environments, correct?

What needs to be done when we are ready to push staging to live? I’m guessing we should first remove:

define( ‘WP_ENVIRONMENT_TYPE’, ‘production’ );

Its just a huge pain that we have to do a ridiculous workaround on hundreds of staging sites just to get this plugin to work as expected on non-production/staging environments. It just boggles my mind that this is pushed back on the user to solve this issue.

• This reply was modified 8 months, 3 weeks ago by alexDx.
• This reply was modified 8 months, 3 weeks ago by alexDx.
• This reply was modified 8 months, 3 weeks ago by alexDx.

Hi @alexdx

I am sorry for the confusion you are facing.

If you wish to view?the SEO title and meta description within the overview page for the staging site, then you only need to add the WP_ENVIRONMENT_TYPE as “production” in the wp-config.php file for your staging site.

However, we don’t recommend adding it to the staging site, as you need to manually reset the indexable on the live site once you move the database to the live site.

Just to be clear, your team does not consider this an issue and there is no plans to fix this in an update, correct? Just want to understand completely so I can look for another solution for my SEO.

Hi @alexdx

We have created this bug report. So it is under review by our product team.

What’s next?
Our product team will assess the severity of the issue and assign a priority level to the report. Our developers work on the highest priority issues first. We cannot give you an estimate of when they’ll start working on the issue.

Feel free to let us know if you are referring to any other issue or bug.

Just an update here that this is still an issue. We have to run through this: https://yoast.com/help/how-to-reset-yoast-indexables/ on every single staging site where we update any SEO. Its a HUGE pain to do this.

Have the same issue with staging site. @alexdx how do go via “SEO data optimization is disabled for non-production environments.”?
I need to update it! But before do that on production, I want to try it first on staging

over 6 moths later and this is still an issue…

8 months later, issue is still happening. Come on guys … this is ridiculous.

This issue still continues to affect others: https://github.com/Yoast/wordpress-seo/issues/22030

They closed the above ticket incorrectly thinking their solution is flawless. Quite the opposite, it’s highly opinionated and assumes much out of the scope of what this SEO plugin is supposed to be doing.