Uninstalled WordPress, now getting 200 errors of 500 response code

[lulu71]

Hello there,

A little while ago I installed WordPress on the server I use with Bluehost to try out a theme. My business domain name is also the primary account on this server. WordPress was causing some serious issues on the server so I uninstalled it, and now I have over 200 "500 response code" errors according to WebMaster tools. I've included a screenshot of some of them.

Could anyone advise me on what to do about this?

Thanks so much!

MYbW6

[MikeGracia]

If you've uninstalled Wordpress, then all URLs in /myblog (assuming this was your WP install dir, looking at the screenshot) will return 404s.

It's odd that they are returning a 500 (server error) response, though, I'd expect 404 errors. Have you

Have you done-away with your blog entirely? The only thing I can think of is the uninstall of Wordpress didn't go quite right and some files remain. All of the files in the screenie were for the Jetpack plugin, are there other 500 URLs?

• How did you uninstall? Manually?
• Is the directory /myblog still there?
• Is the MySQL database for WP still there? (this wouldn't cause the 500 issue, that'll be file related, still a valid question in case you need to salvage your WP install for a later date!).

301 Redirects

If you have removed the Wordpress site, it's going to be important to 301 redirect (permanently moved) the /myblog (in .htaccess assuming you're using Linus). Otherwise:

• You'll lose any link juice to the blog posts
• Visitors will hit 500 errors (at present) or 404 not found errors (if you fix the 500 error, which I suspect is due to a problematic uninstall)

Recommended Actions (if you don't want a blog):

• Check to see if WP was uninstalled correctly, any remaining files in /myblog
• Check if the MySQL database is still there - if it is, WAIT! Do you have any old WP posts that you want to keep?
• 301 Redirect any decent posts to a relevant new page on your website
• Add a blanket 301 Redirect for all other pages under /myblog (redirect rules can do this, no need for lots of individual 301s!)

Don't You Want a Blog?

A final question Don't you want a blog? Were you using it to publish decent content etc? If so, no reason to ditch Wordpress. If WP is causing issues, must be a problem somewhere (likely a in a theme or plugin file, or a conflict). Wordpress can be a great CMS but the downside is the number of plugins. It's too easy to install lots of theme and run into problems. Same with some cheap or free WP themes too.

If you do want a blog still, perhaps post here with what the problems were? Maybe the community can help get you back on-track with a blog?

[lulu71]

Hi Mike,

Thank you for your very helpful response.

I already have a website against my primary domain, and it is not a WordPress site. I only installed WordPress (against a sub-domain on Bluehost) to play with. I used the Mojo WordPress install and uninstall.

There are over 200 "500 response codes" coming up in Webmaster tools so to redirect each one of them individually would be a nightmare.

I just used the "Wild card" redirect in Bluehost in the hopes of redirecting ALL 200 urls at once. Hopefully that's the right way to go about it.

Thank you!

[MikeGracia]

Personally, if you're 100% that you don't want the Wordpress install, I'd:

• Delete all files in the myblog subfolder, except the .htaccess file
• Edit the .htaccess file (or create a new one if you deleted it)
• 301 Redirect any good posts (had rankings, traffic or links) to a specific, related page on your main site
• Add a redirect rule to 301 all remaining pages to / (main site's homepage)

This may sound odd, but I'd then submit a sitemap with the pages that caused the 500 and 404 errors, aiming to get Google to recrawl the error pages & find the new 301 rules.

If you need a hand with this, I'm busy today but I can make the .htaccess entry for you tomorrow morning *UK time) and ping over to you.

EDIT: I'll be out for the next few hrs, but will keep an eye for a response when I can. If you want to drop me an email, check my Moz profile page, look under 'Mike Gracia's Blog:' and email me at that domain (my email is mike@).

[lulu71]

Wow Mike, that's very generous of you and I would really love your help. htaccess scares me. I downloaded all the 500 codes into a spreadsheet and was going to try to figure out how to add *disallow to each entry, then try pasting into Webmaster tools htaccess thingy, but I might do more harm than good.

Unfortunately I did a bunch of silly things with sub-domains before I knew about SEO and indexing. I know better now but fixing the error of my ways is a different story. 301 redirects I can do, but 200 of them, one by one, would be painful!

The blog doesn't have any entries at all, I was just playing around with WordPress (I'm a web designer, but not developer).

I'm actually at Gatwick airport right now flying back to Boston!

Let me know if there's anything you need from me, and I hope that I can somehow return the favor one day.

Warmly,

Sarah

[MikeGracia]

Ah! Okay cool. I'm based just outside Bristol - Been to Gatwick a few times... hope it wasn't too stressful!

I'll sort a htaccess file out for you tomorrow, no problems. Might be good to exchange Skype or Twitter details though, in case you run into any issues when adding it, though I'll put a bit of advice into the email I send the htaccess file with, so you should be fine Also, let me know when you've implemented the htaccess and I'll run a quick screaming frog crawl over both your site and the list of error pages, just to make sure all is as it should be

No worries re: returning the favour, just help the next person in line who needs a bit of help that you're able to provide, that's enough

[MikeGracia]

Just to say I'll be sorting the htaccess for you later this afternoon

I'll ping you a private message on Moz when done and will include my contact details in case you need a hand or run into any problems.

[MikeGracia]

Sending you a PM with the file now

[MikeGracia]

PM sent with the code (in case you're okay making your own .htaccess file) or a link to a zip file that has a ready-made .htaccess file if you prefer.

Note: This will only work if you use Apache and have htaccess & mod_rewrite enabled... If you're on a linux host, chances this is okay but if in doubt, my contact details are in the PM.

Once done, feel free to email me the list of all error pages if you still have it, I'll paste into Screaming Frog in list mode and check that all the error pages now return 301s for you.