Plugin throwing Soft 404 errors

Viewing 14 replies - 1 through 14 (of 14 total)
  • Plugin Contributor WD Support

    (@wdsupport)

    Hello, @hommealone!

    Thank you for posting about this problem!

    The reason this problem occurs is that Facebook changes the URLs of images periodically.

    Could you please check if your feed is set to be updated? Edit your feed and make sure the value of Update option is not set to No Updates.

    Also, make sure Feed autoupdate interval from Facebook Feed WD > Options is not set to a very large period. 30 minutes should be enough.

    Cheers!

    Thread Starter hommealone

    (@hommealone)

    Thanks!

    In my feed, the value of Update option was not set to No Updates.

    Feed autoupdate interval from Facebook Feed WD > Options was set to 1 hour 30 minutes.

    I’ve changed that to 20 minutes.

    I’ll check back in our Google Search Console next week and see if the “soft 404 errors” have stopped. I’ll post back here to let you (and anyone else with a similar problem) know.

    Question: we use W3 Total Cache to cache our site. Does that have any effect on this issue? Would that also be caching the stale image URLs? What is the relation of the Facebook Feed WD intervals, and W3 Total Cache?

    Plugin Contributor WD Support

    (@wdsupport)

    Hey, @hommealone!

    Please do check the results and keep us posted.

    W3 Total Cache can affect this, indeed. Since Facebook changes the URLs of the images from time to time, the old URLs can be cached on the website and cause the 404 soft errors.

    If I’m not mistaken, W3 Total Cache must have an option to add exception for plugins. Could you try to add Facebook Feed WD to the list?

    Thanks! Have a wonderful day!

    Thread Starter hommealone

    (@hommealone)

    Can’t find any options in W3 Total Cache for exceptions for plugins. I’m having a hard time figuring out how that would work; isn’t the markup of the Facebook Feed WD part of the markup generated for the page (rather than inserted by javascript)? If so, how could that be excepted from the cache?

    How often DOES Facebook change the image URLs? Multiple times/day?

    What image URLs are changed? Are they changed for the featured image of the posts?

    • This reply was modified 7 years, 6 months ago by hommealone.
    Thread Starter hommealone

    (@hommealone)

    W3 Total Cache has this setting:

    Never cache the following pages:

    and by default, it shows in the field:

    wp-.*\.php
    index\.php

    Perhaps I could add my exception there? Perhaps by including something like:

    wp-admin/admin-ajax\.php?action=PopupBox&current_view=0&fb_id=*

    What do you think? If that field is a possibility for adding an exceptions, what would be a good value to enter?

    Plugin Contributor WD Support

    (@wdsupport)

    Hello, @hommealone!

    Simply add the front-end link of the page, where your Facebook feed is published. This will be enough for W3 Total Cache to not keep any data from the feed.

    Please give this a try and let us know how it goes.
    Cheers!

    Thread Starter hommealone

    (@hommealone)

    That won’t work. That will keep W3TC from caching the entire page, wouldn’t it? The feed appears on our homepage and in the sidebar of every page on our website. That would result in totally switching off W3 Total Cache altogether, wouldn’t it.

    That’s why I was hoping to find a more specific URL such as the one that is called by admin-ajax.

    Plugin Contributor WD Support

    (@wdsupport)

    Hello, @hommealone!

    In that case, could you please try with this?
    https://www.councilofindustry.org/wp-admin/admin-ajax.php?action=PopupBox&current_view=0&fb_id=*

    The plugin might need the relative URLs, so in that case please use the following:
    /wp-admin/admin-ajax.php?action=PopupBox&current_view=0&fb_id=*

    Let me know if this works.
    Cheers!

    Thread Starter hommealone

    (@hommealone)

    I’ve added this (it seems to not want a leading slash):
    wp-admin/admin-ajax.php?action=PopupBox&current_view=0&fb_id=*
    I’ll give it a few days and let you know. Thanks!

    Plugin Contributor WD Support

    (@wdsupport)

    Hey, @hommealone!

    Please do monitor and test, and keep us posted on how it goes.
    Thanks! Have a wonderful day!

    Thread Starter hommealone

    (@hommealone)

    I think that the problem may be abating. It is a little hard to tell from within the Google Search Console “Crawl Errors” interface. I’ve marked all of the old “soft 404” error items as ‘fixed’ (“Mark as fixed”) in order to remove them from the list.

    If anyone knows a better way to monitor this, please let me know!

    After Google has crawled the site a couple of more times (that may take a while), I’ll see if the “soft 404” errors re-appear, and report back again at that time to let you know.

    Plugin Contributor WD Support

    (@wdsupport)

    Hello, @hommealone!

    The soft 404 errors will reappear, in case this problem remains. Please let us know in case you notice some.

    We hope the problem is fixed.
    Cheers!

    Thread Starter hommealone

    (@hommealone)

    ZERO new soft 404 errors so far. I think we’ve fixed it.

    Thanks so much for your help with this issue.

    Plugin Contributor WD Support

    (@wdsupport)

    Hey, @hommealone!

    That’s fantastic! We are happy to know the 404 soft errors have been fixed on your website.

    Please feel free to let us know in case you will need further assistance. If you enjoy using the plugin, we hope you can share your thoughts about it here:

    https://www.ads-software.com/support/plugin/wd-facebook-feed/reviews/

    Your kind contribution is highly important for our team!
    Thank you so much! Have a great day!

Viewing 14 replies - 1 through 14 (of 14 total)
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