WordPress Creating Duplicate Content

Have you tried:

– deactivating all plugins to see if this resolves the problem. If this works, re-activate the plugins one by one until you find the problematic plugin(s).

– switching to the Twenty Eleven theme to rule out any theme-specific problems.

– resetting the plugins folder by FTP or PhpMyAdmin. Sometimes, an apparently inactive plugin can still cause problems.

Is there a way to make WordPress stop displaying any URL that begins with https://www.example.com/?xxxxxx, i.e. perhaps forward any URL’s begining with a ? to a 404 page or similar?

Not easily, no. Did you try any of the above steps?

I tried the above but there was so much damage done in the search engines because of it, i disabled the entire installation and flipped it to a static site.

I’m just trying to avoid the same issue on any other websites that I have running.

Thanks for the help regardless!

Welcome to WordPress Troubleshooting 101 – a process of elimination deliberately designed to locate the root cause as quickly as possible by first removing the most obvious and common culprits. These are not permanent steps but the first part of a longer troubleshooting process. However, unless you are willing to take those first steps, there isn’t a lot we can do to help you.