We are sorry to hear that you’re having trouble using Yoast SEO. If you have recently migrated from staging to production and clicking on the SEO data optimization takes you to the staging site rather than performing the SEO data optimization, we’d like you to please reset the Yoast SEO Indexables tables and migrations by following the steps given below:
- Install and activate Yoast Test Helper plugin;
- Go to Tools → Yoast Test → Yoast SEO → Reset indexables tables & migrations options to reset it;
- Run SEO data optimization from the SEO → Tools page.
Let us know whether the issue persists after performing the above steps.
Thread Starter
dnitzz
(@dnitzz)
That worked, thank you!
Is it best practice/ideal to do this step every time you move sites from different environments (development, staging, production) – or only if a conflict arises in the plugin?
(I’m using WP Engine as a server for reference)
Thread Starter
dnitzz
(@dnitzz)
Actually a note of reference to the above, the Yoast Helper Plugin caused a conflict with another plugin – Hummingbird Pro (by WPMUDev), were the following errors occurred. As a note, I did delete the Yoast Helper Plugin after I did the above steps.
The following was provided by the WP Engine support team, and I’ve replaced any instance of my actual URL as “URL”:
/var/log/apache2/URL.error.log:[Thu May 20 16:21:58.253348 2021] [php7:notice] [pid 22866] [client 148.77.11.130:17358] WordPress database error Table 'wp_URL.wp_yoast_prominent_words' doesn't exist for query TRUNCATE TABLE wp_yoast_prominent_words /* From [www.URL.com/wp-admin/admin-post.php] in [/nas/content/live/URL/wp-content/plugins/yoast-test-helper/src/wordpress-plugins/yoast-seo.
php:155] */ made by do_action('admin_post_wordpress-seo-feature-reset'), WP_Hook->do_action, WP_Hook->apply_filters, Yoast\\WP\\Test_Helper\\WordPress_Plugin_Features->handle_reset_feature, Yoast\\WP\\Test_Helper\\WordPress_Plugin_Features->reset_feature, Yoast\\WP\\Test_Helper\\WordPress_Plugins\\Yoast_SEO->reset_feature, Yoast\\WP\\Test_Helper\\WordPress_Plugins\\Yoast_SEO->reset_indexables, Yoast\\WP\\Test_Helper\\WordPress_Plugins\\Yoast_SEO->reset_prominent_words_calculation, referer: https://www.URL.com/wp-admin/tools.php?page=yoast-test-helper
Essentially I cannot properly active Hummingbird Pro on the WP-ADMIN side or see anything to do with this plugin, even though according to my support it is in fact activated.
I’ll be additionally reaching out to WPMU Dev support – but if you can resolve the above issue it would be greatly appreciated, thanks.
Hi @dnitzz
Yes, it would be the best practice if you are moving from a development site to a live site, to re-run the SEO data optimization process so that it resets the indexables. This is because if you’ve run the SEO data optimization process on a staging site, it’ll store the URL of the staging site for the indexables, so you’ll have to re-run it once you are on the live site.
However, as far as we are aware, since v15.1 of the Yoast SEO plugin, for non-production sites, the indexables/seo data optimization process should be prevented by default, unless bypassed.
As for your other concern, we understand that there was a conflict and error between the Yoast Test Helper plugin and Hummingbird Pro. Upon checking the specific error message, it seems to reference the wp_yoast_prominent_words table, which would make sense, as that is a feature that is only found in the premium version of Yoast SEO for WordPress. In any case, you aren’t expected to keep the Yoast Test Helper plugin activated in order for Yoast SEO to work, only when you need to reset the indexables or when you need to make some other changes to the plugin.
Thread Starter
dnitzz
(@dnitzz)
Thanks for the clarification – it’s good to know that information going forward.
With the plugin conflict issue – originally it happened when the Yoast Test Helper plugin was deactivated and deleted from the website. The issue appears to have self-resolved it self over time however.
Appreacite all the help with this!
