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Why Yoast SEO Shows Duplicate or Incorrect Meta Data (And How to Fix It)

30 threads Sep 7, 2025 Plugin → Yoast seo

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If you've noticed your WordPress admin panel showing duplicate or incorrect meta titles and descriptions, or if search engines are displaying the wrong information, you're not alone. This is a common issue reported by users of the Yoast SEO plugin. This guide will explain the most frequent causes and provide step-by-step solutions to resolve them.

Common Symptoms

  • Duplicate meta tags appearing in your page's source code.
  • The Posts/Pages list in WordPress admin shows the same meta description for every entry, even though individual edits are correct.
  • After duplicating a page or post, the old meta data or Open Graph image persists and won't update.
  • Search results or social media shares display outdated information despite changes in Yoast SEO.

Why This Happens

Based on community reports, these issues typically stem from a few key areas:

  1. Theme or Plugin Conflicts: A very common cause is a theme that incorrectly outputs the <head> section twice, duplicating all meta tags, including those from Yoast SEO.
  2. Stale or Corrupted Indexable Data: The Yoast SEO plugin uses an internal database of "indexables" to efficiently manage SEO data. Sometimes this data can become outdated or corrupted, especially after migrating or duplicating a site.
  3. Caching: Heavy caching at the server, plugin, or CDN level can prevent new meta data from being visible to visitors and search engines.
  4. Environment Configuration: If a site is set to a "staging" or "development" environment, the Yoast SEO plugin may disable certain data optimization processes, leading to incorrect data in the admin list views.

How to Fix It: Step-by-Step Troubleshooting

1. Check for Theme Conflicts

The most frequent cause of duplicate meta tags is a theme conflict. To test this:

  1. Install and activate the Health Check & Troubleshooting plugin.
  2. Enable its Troubleshooting Mode. This will deactivate plugins and switch to a default theme only for you, not your visitors.
  3. While in troubleshooting mode, switch your theme to a standard WordPress theme like Twenty Twenty-Two.
  4. Visit your site's front end and view the page source (Right-click > View Page Source). Search for "<head>" and "</head>". If you only see one of each, the problem is likely your original theme. You should contact your theme's support team for assistance.

2. Reset Yoast SEO's Indexable Data

If your admin lists show wrong data or information from a duplicated post won't update, resetting the SEO data often helps.

  1. Install and activate the Yoast Test Helper plugin.
  2. Go to Tools > Yoast Test.
  3. In the Yoast SEO section, click the "Reset indexables tables & migrations" button. The page will reload.
  4. Next, go to SEO > Tools.
  5. Under "SEO data", click the "Start SEO data optimization" button. Let the process complete.

3. Clear All Caches

If the correct data appears in your page source but not on social media or search engines, caching is the probable culprit.

  • Clear your WordPress caching plugin's cache (if you use one).
  • Clear your server-level cache or CDN cache (e.g., Cloudflare).
  • Ask your web host to clear the server cache if you are unsure how.

4. Force Social Platforms to Re-scrape

Social media sites like Facebook cache shared link data aggressively. Use their debugging tools to force a refresh:

Conclusion

Incorrect or duplicate meta data in Yoast SEO is almost always solvable. The most effective approach is to methodically work through the solutions above, starting with a conflict check. If the problem persists after trying these steps, it can be helpful to seek advice in WordPress community forums, detailing the steps you've already taken.

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