WordPress URL Issue: Alphanumeric Appendage Causing 404s

Chris Marshall

Dec 12, 2024, 9:36 AM

Hi everyone! (first post, sorry if this is the wrong channel)

A website I'm working on (wordpress) is somehow adding an alphanumeric appendage to every URL and I'm getting thousands of 404s. I'm thinking that this is a permalinks issue? Any help or insight is appreciated. Thank you in advance.

Forwarded thread from another channel:

Kyle Faber

Dec 12, 2024, 9:37 AM

Likely not a permalinks issue given the fact it’s on feed URLs.

What is the “first found at” or “referring URLs” for those?

Joe Pawlikowski

Dec 12, 2024, 9:39 AM

perhaps a relative link issue? if it's not set up properly it can append characters inappropriately

Chris Marshall

Dec 12, 2024, 9:40 AM

Yeah, AHrefs isn't giving me any information in the First Found column.

Kyle Faber

Dec 12, 2024, 9:41 AM

@joepawls idea is a good one to look into

Joe Pawlikowski

Dec 12, 2024, 9:41 AM

was the big issue I found on my very first SEO audit

Michael Kupfer

Dec 12, 2024, 9:50 AM

How do you know it's the website/wordpress adding the strings and not just a bad link coming from somewhere else? Are you seeing these URLs in wordpress or on a sitemap or in internal links?

Chris Marshall

Dec 12, 2024, 9:53 AM

@mkupfer112 These "bad" URLs are present in the XML sitemap.

Kyle Faber

Dec 12, 2024, 9:55 AM

It looks like the post sitemap these are in is not from Yoast, whereas the other ones are.

Mika Lepistö

Dec 12, 2024, 9:55 AM

What are you using for the sitemap generation?

That makes me think this could be:

• exploit

• Plugin conflict

Kyle Faber

Dec 12, 2024, 9:56 AM

@mika they’re using Yoast.

Kyle Faber

Dec 12, 2024, 9:56 AM

All sitemaps are served by Yoast, except for the post-sitemap.xml sitemap.

Mika Lepistö

Dec 12, 2024, 9:57 AM

Posted simultaneously. Saw yours right after send. Seems isolated to the one creating the post sitemap per your previous - what's creating that one?

Kyle Faber

Dec 12, 2024, 9:58 AM

So @christopherjohnmarsha is suggest following what @mika was alluding to, in backwards order, and add custom code review (typically functions.php) to your investigation.

Plugins

Custom code

Exploit

Chris Marshall

Dec 12, 2024, 9:58 AM

yep Yoast. I'll poke around the plugins . I bet that's the issue.

Richard Gargan

Dec 12, 2024, 9:58 AM

When you add a new page does the page get the string added to it?

Could also be the <https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-fastest-cache/> you’re using, does clearing it work

Kyle Faber

Dec 12, 2024, 10:00 AM

I haven’t found the strings in any files or code, just the sitemap as Chris said.

Chris Marshall

Dec 12, 2024, 10:03 AM

@richard yes the site is using Fastest Cache.

Richard Gargan

Dec 12, 2024, 10:04 AM

Thinking its not a cache thing now because they’re in the sitemap, and more likely a Yoast sitemap issue as Kyle and Mika have said

Chris Marshall

Dec 12, 2024, 10:07 AM

There's over 40 plugins and just about all of them need to be either updated or tossed out if not in use.

I just got on this client so I'm seeing it for the first time today.

Mika Lepistö

Dec 12, 2024, 10:08 AM

Is there a staging site you can start disabling things on?

Chris Marshall

Dec 12, 2024, 10:09 AM

No I don't think so. But I'll check.

This agency I work at recommends All-In-One over Yoast. I'm wondering if I should make that switch for this particular client.

Kyle Faber

Dec 12, 2024, 10:09 AM

Before that even, are any of the plugins in possible feature conflict with Yoast (eg other sitemap plugins)

Kyle Faber

Dec 12, 2024, 10:10 AM

Not a fan of all in one. But everyone has their flavor of what they prefer and why!

Chris Marshall

Dec 12, 2024, 10:15 AM

Yeah I'll look into all the plugins. Thanks for all the help. I'll post an update when I get a resolution. What a great community! Have a wonderful day/night!

Mika Lepistö

Dec 12, 2024, 10:22 AM

Work the problem before introducing another variable.

I'd get a copy of the site somewhere and debug this or tell their dev team to.

Channels

agency (3)

ai-for-seo (11)

ai-llms (24)

analytics (13)

biz-of-seo (4)

career (4)

content (15)

cro (4)

data-viz-reporting (4)

datascience (2)

ecommerce (3)

events (1)

freelance (2)

general-seo (21)

in-house (2)

local-seo (12)

local-seo,biz-of-seo (1)

lounge (1)

reading-list-resources (3)

search-console (11)

shameless-plug (1)

technical-seo (37)

tools (1)

Join The Community

The SEO Community is a free organization, with private Slack group and events, for those interested in search and AI optimization to learn, discuss, and meet others in the industry.

WordPress URL Issue: Alphanumeric Appendage Causing 404s

Channels

Join The Community

Resources

The SEO Community © 2026

WordPress URL Issue: Alphanumeric Appendage Causing 404s

Channels

Sign up to get the newsletter

Join The Community

Resources

The SEO Community © 2026