Google breadcrumbs problem

[bikegremlin]

It is discussed at the Yoast support forum:

​https://wordpress.org/support/topic/google-webmaster-reporting-breadcrumb-problems/

Last post I made up to date with some tests/conclusions:

I find that not only my website shows the “funny” links. Some examples:

​https://techcrunch.com/page/6/?cat=-1
​http://www.bbcamerica.com/page/3/?cat=-1
​https://variety.com/page/4/?cat=-1

I tested on a test website.

​https://test.bikegremlin.com/page/2/?cat=-1

Installed Twenty Nineteen and disabled ALL the plugins.

If I make all the posts uncategorized, the “strange links” are no longer working (as they shouldn’t work any time).

Looks like a WordPress itself is a problem, but it just got reported by Google after the Breadcrumb reports introduction.

[SergeyBiryukov]

Hi there, welcome to WordPress Trac! Thanks for the report.

I'm not exactly sure what's the issue being reported here. These are all valid URLs for:

• Excluding category with the ID 1 from the list of posts.
• Showing page X of the results.

What would the expected result be?

[bikegremlin]

Replying to SergeyBiryukov:

Hi there, welcome to WordPress Trac! Thanks for the report.

I'm not exactly sure what's the issue being reported here. These are all valid URLs for:

• Excluding category with the ID 1 from the list of posts.
• Showing page X of the results.

What would the expected result be?

Please take a look at the provided link, where it's explained and discussed:

​https://wordpress.org/support/topic/google-webmaster-reporting-breadcrumb-problems/

The noted Yoast plugin support forum is full of similar reports these days, yet my conclusion (as explained how tested and why) is that it's probably related to WordPress itself, not any particular theme, or plugin.

I value everyone's time and if you think it's more productive, I could make a discussion digest and post it here as well, even though there aren't too many replies and it's not too long - just let me know. But that would mean the replies that aren't mine will be reported the way I understood them, not the way they were written (I prefer to see first hand source when it comes to solving tech. problems).

[Pcosta88]

@SergeyBiryukov

The issue with the

?=cat-1

is not a breadcrumb problem but rather appears to be a way WordPress is outputting an exclude filter. ie: Showing all categories NOT in category 1.

There is a solution offered here: ​https://wordpress.org/support/topic/urls-with-page-5-cat-1-indexed-in-gooogle/#post-12667363.

And a more specific outline here ​https://support.google.com/webmasters/thread/27682311?hl=en&msgid=27737501.

I am not sure if this is a bug with WordPress?