Technical SEO, Redirects & Migrations

Domain moves, URL structure changes, and database migrations always look clean, until Google starts indexing 404s and soft-404s. Here you'll find a redirect-chain audit spanning four mechanisms, the search-replace trap that misses Gutenberg blocks, and a Next.js sitemap that never becomes a sitemapindex. For anyone responsible for keeping old URLs alive through big changes.

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Start here Jun 25, 2026 4 min read

Auditing a 3-Hop 301 Redirect Chain That Was Hiding Across Four Mechanisms
Oct 6, 2026 12 min read

Canonical and <title> Landing in <body> on Next.js 16? Googlebot Is Not on the htmlLimitedBots List
Sep 30, 2026 11 min read

Your vercel.app Alias Serves the Whole Site with index,follow? Standard Protection Skips Production Domains
Sep 29, 2026 7 min read

Rank Math JSON-LD author Showing an Email Address? Only Custom Post Types Leaked It, Because Pages Got WebPage
Sep 21, 2026 9 min read

Rank Math Title Shows Only the Site Name and No Canonical on add_rewrite_rule Pages: There Is No Queried Object
Sep 9, 2026 5 min read

Old URLs 301 to a 404 Even Though the Middleware Redirect Table Is Correct? redirects() in next.config.ts Runs First
Aug 27, 2026 6 min read

Tabbed FAQ Invisible to AI Crawlers? Server-Render All Hundred Q&A into Static HTML
Aug 22, 2026 5 min read

RSS alternate Link Missing on Every Page With Its Own Metadata? Next.js Replaces alternates, It Does Not Merge
Aug 21, 2026 7 min read

Five Child Pages Return 404 and One Returns 200 With the Wrong Content: a CPT Rewrite Slug Swallowing an Entire Prefix
Aug 17, 2026 7 min read

18,000 ?range= URLs Still Getting Crawled With Correct Canonicals? Canonical Doesn't Save Crawl Budget
Jul 16, 2026 5 min read

Wildcard 301 Redirect Across Hosts Turns Every Old URL Into a 404? The Path Does Not Exist on the New Host
Jul 14, 2026 5 min read

Next.js generateSitemaps Returns an Empty <urlset> Instead of a <sitemapindex>? The Convention Can't Emit One
Jul 14, 2026 4 min read

Your Next.js not-found Page Returns HTTP 200? The Soft-404 That Won't Let Google Deindex
Jul 8, 2026 5 min read

WAF Blocks Your curl Scraper With 403s and JS Challenges? Move Extraction Into the Logged-In Browser With a JSON-LD Bookmarklet
Jul 7, 2026 4 min read

update_option Migration Succeeded but the Frontend Still Shows the Old Value? One Setting Stored Under Two Option Keys
Jul 5, 2026 4 min read

Site URL Migration With Better Search Replace Misses Gutenberg Blocks, You Need the Escaped \/ Form
Jun 29, 2026 5 min read

Renaming Slugs + Changing URL Structure in One Deploy: Why Your Redirect 404s Instead of 301s
Jun 23, 2026 8 min read

Importing 131 Redirects at Once: Five Automation Paths Failed, a Headerless CSV Worked

Technical SEO, Redirects & Migrations

Auditing a 3-Hop 301 Redirect Chain That Was Hiding Across Four Mechanisms

Canonical and `<title>` Landing in `<body>` on Next.js 16? Googlebot Is Not on the `htmlLimitedBots` List

Your `vercel.app` Alias Serves the Whole Site with `index,follow`? Standard Protection Skips Production Domains

Rank Math JSON-LD `author` Showing an Email Address? Only Custom Post Types Leaked It, Because Pages Got WebPage

Rank Math Title Shows Only the Site Name and No Canonical on `add_rewrite_rule` Pages: There Is No Queried Object

Old URLs 301 to a 404 Even Though the Middleware Redirect Table Is Correct? `redirects()` in `next.config.ts` Runs First

Tabbed FAQ Invisible to AI Crawlers? Server-Render All Hundred Q&A into Static HTML

RSS `alternate` Link Missing on Every Page With Its Own Metadata? Next.js Replaces `alternates`, It Does Not Merge

Five Child Pages Return 404 and One Returns 200 With the Wrong Content: a CPT Rewrite Slug Swallowing an Entire Prefix

18,000 `?range=` URLs Still Getting Crawled With Correct Canonicals? Canonical Doesn't Save Crawl Budget

Wildcard 301 Redirect Across Hosts Turns Every Old URL Into a `404`? The Path Does Not Exist on the New Host

Next.js `generateSitemaps` Returns an Empty `<urlset>` Instead of a `<sitemapindex>`? The Convention Can't Emit One

Your Next.js `not-found` Page Returns HTTP 200? The Soft-404 That Won't Let Google Deindex

WAF Blocks Your `curl` Scraper With 403s and JS Challenges? Move Extraction Into the Logged-In Browser With a JSON-LD Bookmarklet

`update_option` Migration Succeeded but the Frontend Still Shows the Old Value? One Setting Stored Under Two Option Keys

Site URL Migration With Better Search Replace Misses Gutenberg Blocks, You Need the Escaped `\/` Form

Renaming Slugs + Changing URL Structure in One Deploy: Why Your Redirect 404s Instead of 301s

Importing 131 Redirects at Once: Five Automation Paths Failed, a Headerless CSV Worked