What Are Duplicate and Scaffold URLs?
When you edit pages inside Website Studio, the platform can sometimes auto-generate additional URLs that were never meant to go live. These fall into two categories:
- Scaffold URLs — temporary placeholder pages created during the editing or publishing process (for example, /Page1, /Page7).
- Duplicate URLs — unintended copies of existing pages, often with incorrect slug structures (for example, /blog-slug/blog-slug or a mismatched /home URL).
Both types can appear in your live site and sitemap if they are not removed, which can harm your crawl budget and create confusing redirect chains.
Why Does This Happen?
This is a known platform bug in which Website Studio auto-generates duplicate URLs and scaffold pages during editing sessions. The extra URLs are created as part of the editing process and are not automatically discarded, causing them to appear on your live site and in your sitemap.
What to Have Ready When You Escalate
Because this is a backend bug, our team will need to investigate and resolve it on your behalf. To help us act quickly, please have the following information ready before reaching out:
- Your project or site name — the exact name as it appears in your Search Atlas account.
- The affected URLs — list the specific duplicate or scaffold URLs you have identified (for example, /Page1, /blog-slug/blog-slug).
- When you first noticed the issue — an approximate date and time, and whether it followed a specific editing action.
- Any error messages or unexpected behavior — copy the exact text of any error messages you see.
Do not attempt to manually delete or redirect the affected URLs until our team has reviewed them, as doing so before the underlying cause is identified could create additional issues.
If you need further assistance, open the chat widget in the bottom-right corner of the platform and type human teammate to be connected with a member of our team.