Bug Critical Search Engine Optimisation bug

[digitalblahblah]

I have spotted a very serious bug in VBOptimise Pro.

For pages that don't exist e.g. threads that have been deleted when it is hit VBUlleting responds with a 404 header. However if you enable the guest caching it first (pre cache) responds with 404 but then any subsequent requests it responds with header 200.

This is very serious for Search Engine Optimisation as Google thinks we have thousands and thousands of broken links / duplicate content. It shoul awlays respond with 404 cached or not.

 

[Fillip H.]

This might take some doing, as I don't believe the cached page includes HTTP status.

I agree that it should be fixed, I'll post back when it's been resolved.

 

[digitalblahblah]

Thanks for the quick response, much appreciated

 

[Fillip H.]

Are you using a custom 404 handler for threads that are deleted?

By default, vB returns a 200 OK for the "No Thread specified" message.

 

[digitalblahblah]

We are using VBSEO

"File Not Found" requests handling?
Select how 'File Not found' requests will be handled:
- Redirect to homepage
- Send 404 HTTP code and show a 'Page not found' message
- Include custom error page. NOTE: The filename should include the absolute path. (example: /home/user/public_html/error.php)

We use

- Send 404 HTTP code and show a 'Page not found' message

 

[Fillip H.]

I'm unable to replicate this issue with vBSEO and that setting enabled. vBSEO prints the 404 message and stops page execution before vB Optimise has the ability to cache or fetch from cache.

Please provide step-by-step instructions to replicate this issue.