Skip to content

When i input a wrong URL, it returns a “Default Category” page, but URL stays the same

I am working on a website and finding that when a URL is inputted wrong, it still returns a live, status 200, page, but provides a “Default Category” page.

Initially, I thought it was a product retirement issue – but now I realise I can adjust the URL to something I know isn’t right, and it’ll return the same “Default Category” page.

https://www.example.com/this-luxury-white-1.html
https://www.example.com/is-luxury-white-1.html
https://www.example.com/wrong-white-1.html
https://www.example.com/wrong-white-1

The canonical does change though, and instead uses a parameterised homepage:

https://www.example.com/?cat=92

The problem with this is, that a) the page will remain indexed or continue to be crawled by Google, which can be a problem if we delete a load of products at once, and b) the page contains links to a whole new set of category links using the ?cat=92 as the base.

Any idea where this is set up? There’s no category ID of 92.

Many thanks!