One of my page's slugs contain's -2 at the end of it.
I do not have any duplicate page slugs, I dont have any pages with the slug without the -2 in the trash either.
I asked my host (cloudways) to check all the files, they said "Ive found a duplicate link in the plugin SEO Press. You can try deactivating the plugin in order to verify the changes." And they sent me a picture showing the slug without the -2.
If I deactivate the plugin, I will loose all content for meta descriptions etc.
Im not sure how the URL got into SEO Press, it doesnt even make sense to me. And now when typing the URL without the -2, it lands me on my home page (it should land on a service page). I would like for it to land on the actual page its meant to land on (eyelash-tinting), and to remove the -2 from the service page slug.
Any help is greatly appreciated.
Might be a good idea to check media files for the same slug as well. I feel like I’ve had something similar happen in the past. I’m not familiar with SEO Press, so I can’t be of much help there. Check your sitemap.xml as well to see if it shows anything.
In my experience, when extra digit(s) get added, WP deals with a duplicate.
Example. Let’s say I would write a blog post with the title “hello”, publish it and a few days later, write another blog post with the title “hello”. The later one, would automatically get an extension to indicate a duplicate.
Deleting the first one does not automatically fix the problem. BUT, you should now be able to rename it. Both, at the title, as well as, the slug level. When done, empty the server cache, refresh (Shift + reload) and all should be well.
I haven’t done this in a long time but remember that deleting the original and then renaming the *.-2 version to what it should be, used to work.
Have you checked the trash folder? Maybe you deleted that post/page, but the first one created still is in the trash folder…
The thing to remember, most all things in WordPress is a “post” stored in the posts table. Best method as a programmer, check the database for the slugs there. Even though you may not see it a s “Post” or a “Page” there can be some other post type you are not thinking about that could be named. (and could be something custom where things get trashed, but don’t appear to be “trashed” in the admin.
This should be fairly easy to straighten out. Happy to look at it for you no charge if you want to PM me.
Isn’t this the url of the page? Is this the second attempt to make this page?
As mentioned, you have either a page, post or image with that same name or something in the trash bin with the same name.