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Hi folks.

Instead of an archive page template in my theme (I have my reasons), I am thinking of simply typing the post title as and when I publish a post, and linking to the post from there.

Any SEO issues that you can think of?

Thanks in advance!

Thanks for the reply!

I really didn't want to use a plugin, but I take your point...maybe it's a need.

I have recently been working with Ghost, which looks like a better option for the blog (the entire project/site is a blog).

I only have one category, so everything is going to be paginated, potentially. Ghost handles this differently - hence my preference there.

Cheers.

Hi there.

I use Genesis and StudioPress themes. I recently noticed that the canonical link for blog pages points to the first page on all paginated pages, which I understand is an SEO no-no.

I found some code here that adds a unique canonical link to each paginated page but for categories only. It works fine.

I only have one category for my site.

My question is: is there a downside (or even upside) to not having a blog page and placing a link to my category page in the navigation bar instead, using the category page as the blog page? It looks good and works.

What do you think?

I find it odd that this seems to be an issue across the Internet and the only solution that comes up relies on the Yoast plugin, which I don't want to use (don't want to use a plugin for SEO).

Thanks in advance.

Thanks, Paddy!

That was well timed!

I am in the process of developing a blog and am lining up my ducks SEO-wise before I go live. I think I have opened a can of worms.

I have asked the question of StudioPress - why a page allocated to Posts Page is not canonicalised, and neither are paginated pages. Category pages are canonicalised but I'd rather show a dedicated blog page as opposed to a category page for the blog (I only have one category).

I don't want to use a plugin.

I have even been tempted by Ghost but looks like I need a PhD to figure that out!

Thanks again

Hi folks.

I would like to discuss pagination.

I use WordPress (Genesis, specifically).

I ran my site through a site scan and it flagged an error which told me that my blog was producing duplicate meta descriptions because the  blog is paginated - the same meta description from the blog page is being used on Page 2, Page 3 etc.

I looked into this and the Internet is awash with many other people scratching around for a solution.

My understanding is that using a canonical link on the first page is not a good idea, because it says to Google that only Page 1 of the blog is important.

I also read an article that states Google no longer reads the Rel=Prev/Next code that could be used to tell Google to ignore the issue.

So, what's the solution?

Do I even need one?

As a side-thought, it seems to me that pagination is, well, pretty useless. I mean, if my blog has 20 pages and I've worked hard to create content, who is going to click through to anywhere near page 20? Nobody. There has to be a smarter way for people on-site to access content.

I would love your thoughts on all of this.

Cheers.

Hi Martin.

Thanks for the reply.

The results are similar in terms of content type, but there are significantly more results when a z is used and not an s.

I am concerned that if I use a z, my UK audience will think of me as illiterate (especially if I am not consistent). I can't maintain American spelling throughout all of my writing.

I guess I have answered my own question: I either use English UK spelling or got all out and use English US completely.

I would expect Google's AI to overlook such a trivial thing, but I am not convinced!

Catch 22, I think.

Hi folks.

I am based in the UK.

I am about to launch a new blog, and I want to appeal to the UK and US markets.

One of my primary keywords is 'generalised', which gets way more traffic (as seen using Moz's keyword tool) in my keyword phrase when spelt with a z and not an s.

What do I do?

Any guidance would be great. I note this has been discussed before, but seemingly without a conclusion.

I would really appreciate any help you can provide.