canonical problem with wp show post plugin

@cybr

Hi thanks for the reply.

After digging this for a lot and I agree with you.

Is there a major difference between the /page/2, ?page=2 for SEO and canonical purpose? I’m seeing some plugin output ?page(d)=2 format, I might give them a try if there is no significant SEO differences.

Or should I not use a plugin, instead I need to customize the archive.php template and use it on a static page?

Thanks!

@cybr

Hi Sybre,

I’ve been testing with regular post archive page. It seems like TSF only outputs a next/prev tag without self-canonical.

I have a URL for you to inspect the issue, can I contact you and send you the url by your contact form?

@cybr

Hi yes, you are right.

My category is noindex by default.

Thanks!

hi,

sorry for tagging.

here is the issue:

1. with the default post archive URL with category prefix, everything is fine. i.e. abc.com/category/news, page-1, page-2 all self-canonical and with prev/next rel link.

2. If I want to strip the category prefix, i.e. use a plugin like this:

<?php
/*
Plugin Name:  Category Pagination Fix
Plugin URI:   https://wordpress.stackexchange.com/a/311858/110572
Description:  Fix category pagination
Version:      1.0.0
Author:       Fayaz Ahmed
Author URI:   https://www.fayazmiraz.com/
*/

function wpse311858_fix_category_pagination( $query_string = array() )
{
    if( isset( $query_string['category_name'] )
            && isset( $query_string['name'] ) && $query_string['name'] === 'page'
            && isset( $query_string['page'] ) ) {
        $paged = trim( $query_string['page'], '/' );
        if( is_numeric( $paged ) ) {
            // we are not allowing 'page' as a page or post slug 
            unset( $query_string['name'] );
            unset( $query_string['page'] )  ;

            // for a category archive, proper pagination query string  is 'paged'
            $query_string['paged'] = ( int ) $paged;
        }
    }   
    return $query_string;
}
add_filter( 'request', 'wpse311858_fix_category_pagination' );

a. In the abc.com/news, archive page, the canonical is still the original URL with category base: abc.com/category/news, but with correct self-canonical in page-2, page-3.: abc.com/cateogry/news/page/2

b. Then I try to edit the canonical URL in category TSF section. If I input the canonical URL to be abc.com/news. Then all canonical URLs in page-2. page-3 are all the same: abc.com/news, without correct self canonical.

As you said, I might use an archive template for displaying posts, but I also need to strip the category prefix as well.

Conclusion,

with category prefix, all fine.

without category prefix, the canonical has some conflicts.

What did I do wrong? Thanks!