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Missing post?

Sometimes, you publish a new story, jump into your dashboard, and can’t find your article. If you’re unable to find your content and don’t believe that we registered it properly, then this guide is for you. We’ll discuss reasons the post isn’t in the dashboard, is difficult to find, or why you see duplicate entries. Let’s troubleshoot.

Use the Open in Parse.ly Bookmarklet

Go to your live post and use the Open in Parse.ly Bookmarklet (drag & drop install, one-click to use)

  1. If your browser says “Parse.ly is not loaded on this page”, then you’ll need to install our tracking code here. Here’s what that alert looks like:
    A browser alert that reads: example.com says Parse.ly is not loaded on this page.d
  2. If you’re directed to a Dashboard link that says “Not Found”, then it’s likely that you just published the post. Check again in a couple of minutes. Here’s what that error page will look like:
    An error message that reads: Not Found The requested resource was not found on this server.
  3. If none of that worked, contact Parse.ly Support and provide the url that you’re looking to find.

Supply Missing Metadata

Maybe you’re looking at your post details page but you think it’s difficult to find. In this case:

  1. If you just published your post, then we must first wait for a pageview event. That is, you or someone else needs to visit the live url. This will trigger the tracking code to send a pageview to the designated Site ID. Within a couple of minutes, the Parse.ly Dashboard will display the pageview on your timeline. It will also post a listing on your Posts listings page. Initially, we don’t have any metadata from this post, so it will appear as a non-post. Adjusting your Page Type filter will let you see this. Within a few more minutes, our crawler with gather your metadata. From there, we’ll update your listing and re-categorize (if needed).
  2. If you’re new to Parse.ly and you’re in the integrations process, you might be blocking our crawler. Please allowlist our crawler with the information found here.
  3. If you have plenty of other properly displayed posts, then there could be something wrong in the pre-publishing workflow. An article in preview could send a pageview event to Parse.ly. If you suspect this cause, read more about that here and how to troubleshoot.
  4. Some sites have third-party JavaScript code errors that prevent the Parse.ly tracker code from running correctly. If you suspect this is the issue, you’ll need to reach out to our support team to investigate, at support@parsely.com.

Once we have your metadata, there will be many ways to find your post. You can use search, browse author names, tags, sections, or use the path filter.

Fix Incorrect Metadata

There could be other issues with the page in question. For example:

  • There may be some issue with the metadata on your page. Review our metadata requirements and verify that you’re supplying the correct metadata. Doublecheck that you’re providing the correct type value so that we categorize your posts properly.
  • One metadata error of note is an incorrect canonical URL. It may be configured in a way you don’t expect. This could result with it showing up as a “link alias” for a “Multi-page article” elsewhere in your dashboard.

Duplicate / Split Post?

The most common cause for split posts is that you’ve changed your canonical url. You might unintentionally do this when modifying your post title (and your CMS automatically changes the article slug). Here’s what that might look like in your Dashboard:

What we’re looking at is the same post listed twice in the Dashboard. We’ve had this article for some time with a longer title and matching slug. Later, we modified the article, it’s title, and slug. Depending on your CMS, plugins, etc., the act of changing your slug could update the canonical url too. Parse.ly treats the canonical url as the foundation for all the data that goes with it. Setting the correct social share urls is important for the same reasons.

If this is a rare mistake, contact Support and we will recrawl the affected urls to obtain the latest metadata. Then we can perform a rebuild to associate the pageviews to a single canonical url.

On the other hand, if you plan to change canonical urls frequently, then we suggest reviewing the option of setting a Post ID. Keep in mind that Parse.ly centers around canonical urls and that Post IDs are a backup method.

If all else fails, contact Support.

Last updated: January 09, 2024