Duplicate content Product Category Page Pagination

Hello,

The %page% variable would only be added in the title, but the issue is about duplicate content.

If you still want to add the canonical URL to those pages, then you will have to set them as index first, from WP Dashboard > Rank Math > Titles & Meta > Misc Pages, and disable the Noindex Paginated Pages option.

Then add the code given below in your theme’s functions.php file to set the canonical URL as the URL of the main page:

add_filter( 'rank_math/frontend/canonical', function( $canonical ) {
	if ( is_product_category() && is_paged()) {
			$link = $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'];
			$arr = explode('/p/', $link,);
			$canonical = home_url($arr[0]);
		}
		return $canonical;
});

Hope that helps.

Thank you.

Hello,

Because of the way you have those pages set up, the function is_paged() from WordPress returns false, which means it’s not being detected as an actual paginated page, and as such any settings related to paginated pages are not applied on those.

To add a self-referencing canonical on those pages you can use the following filter:

add_filter( 'rank_math/frontend/canonical', function( $canonical ) {
    $url = home_url( $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'] );
    if(strpos($url, '?product-page=')) {
        $canonical = $url;
    }
    return $canonical;
});

Hope this helps clarify your doubts.

Don’t hesitate to get in touch if you have any other questions.

Hello,

The filter shared by my colleague adds the self-referencing canonical URL. If you want to use the URL of the main page as the canonical URL, you can remove the filter as it is being added by default.

Let us know if you need any other assistance.

Hello,

I added the following filter to your site and now the canonical URL of the paginated product categories is set as the URL of the first page: https://pastebin.com/VcGzWm0H

Please check and let us know if you need any other assistance.

Hello,

Your shop and category pages are not returning actual paginated pages like my colleague explained above, that’s why the rel="next" tag is not being applied.

Also, if you look at https://mytap.com.au/product-category/phoenix-tapware/ and https://mytap.com.au/product-category/phoenix-tapware/page/2/, both of them have the same content, and the actual link for the 2nd page of your category pages is https://mytap.com.au/product-category/phoenix-tapware/?product-page=2

Yes, the filter should be added in our child theme’s functions.php or rank-math.php file:
https://rankmath.com/kb/wordpress-hooks-actions-filters/

Hope that helps.

Thank you.