500 error codes caused by W3 Total Cache plugin?

[oconn146]

Hello Everyone,

I operate a site (http://www.nationalbankruptcyforum.com) that has been receiving 500 error codes in Webmaster Tools as of late. This morning, webmaster tools showed 129 500 crawling errors. I've included one of the URLs that contained an error message here: http://www.nationalbankruptcyforum.com/marriage-and-bankruptcy/do-my-wife-and-i-both-have-to-file-for-bankruptcy/

I've been getting these errors now for about 3 weeks and they've mostly been on obscure, strange URLs (lots of numbers etc.) however, this morning they started showing up on pages that will actually be trafficked by users. I'm really not sure where they're coming from, although I do believe it's  a software issue as I've had my hosting company take a look to no avail.

I have had some development work done recently and am running the W3 Total Cache plugin (my site is built on WP). I also run the Yoast SEO plugin and rely on it to publish an XML sitemap among other things.

Anyone have any idea where these 500 errors originate from?

Thanks,

John

[oconn146]

Dan, thanks for taking the time to look into this, I've sent your answer along to my developer, I'll update the thread if we find something that could help out other readers.

[evolvingSEO]

Hi John

I've checked this out a few times today, and tossed it around with a few other Moz people.

When I crawled the site earlier today with Screaming Frog, I got all the 500 errors you describe on the "normal" pages.

Now when I crawl the site I only get the "weird" pages with the unusual URLs.

We don't think this has to do with either Yoast of W3 Total Cache causing any of it. As far as what caused 500's on the "normal" pages, its hard to tell now. They loaded fine in my browser when I checked earlier.

But I strongly suspect maybe something going wrong in .htaccess for those stranger URLs.

Not sure why those URLs exist like that in the first place - they should all be "clean" whenever possible with the question marks etc in them. That'd be the first place I'd get straightened out. Check permalink settings or maybe a theme setting? Or did someone do something custom to the .htaccess file?

Get your URLs operating correctly. Then if the 500s still exist, you know its a different matter but at least you've narrowed it down and correct the URLs.

Hope this helps!

-Dan