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2.4.2 – Canon in C

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Updated

Changelog

Summarized:

This update is harmonizing canonical URL’s in special situations. This includes complete support with WPML and qTranslate X, and on complex mutiple certificate MultiSite installations the canonical URL is now always correct when-and where ever you go.

Moreover, I present to you with pride, canonical URL’s have been put into a lovely breadcrumb script. Where the sitemap lacks, the breadcrumb script makes up for it, and Google will better structure your website in the search results; this also informs the visitor of the structure of your pages before entering your website.

Among these changes, a few functions have been added to the options API to cover very special cases for every developer to use.

To top it off, this plugin is now also 150% to 500% times faster on the front page! Thanks to added transient caching methods on the LD+Json scripts.

SEO Tip of the Update:

  • Canonical URLs are the URLs that lead to exactly where a page is located. It’s very important for Search Engines to find the right page, to prevent duplicated content mistakes.
  • The Search Engine will therefore always follow the canonical URL and will most likely ignore the current page if the canonical URL points to a page other than the current page.
  • For this reason, the canonical URL within The SEO Framework will look for many variables before making one, with this update even more so.
  • This concludes that it’s advised not to touch the Custom Canonical URL unless you’re absolutely certain that Search Engines should look for another webpage.

For everyone:

  • Added: Breadcrumbs LD+Json script on categorized posts and child pages. This makes sure Google knows what category a post belongs to, or what page a page is a child of, even more structured than regular breadcrumbs. This can be removed through a filter.
  • Added: Added more than one index-able category for a post? Now Google will know.
  • Added: Complete Canonical URL support for qTranslate X.
  • Added: Basic Sitemap Support for qTranslate X, it will create a sitemap for each of the languages if Hide URL Language information is set to off. It will generate one for the current language it finds otherwise and will cache it for a week or until post update.
  • Added: Taxonomies and Terms Automated Descriptions now also try to fetch the custom Title.
  • Added: The LD+Json scripts are now cached inside a transient for each page.
  • Fixed: The Canonical URL within Posts and Pages are now correct again when using WPMUdev Domain Mapping and when you are within the original’s domain dashboard.
  • Fixed: The Canonical URL on the front end now doesn’t output the incorrect scheme when using HTTPS anymore when the subdomain is HTTPS but the Mapped Domain is HTTP when using Domain Mapping by WPMUdev.
  • Fixed: When using Donncha’s Domain Mapping, the scheme will now always be correct.
  • Fixed: The sitemap URLs now shows language domain URLs correctly again when using WPML.
  • Fixed: Shortlink URL’s no longer includes the language base when using WPML or qTranslate X.
  • Fixed: The manual Canonical URL set for posts or pages are no longer reflected on the contained archives if the set post or page is the latest post or page.
  • Fixed: The Featured Image set for posts or pages are no longer reflected on the contained archives for the social image Meta tags if the set post or page is the latest post or page.
  • Improved: URL sanitation.
  • Improved: No more home page cache keys are being generated on 404 pages.
  • Improved: LD+Json search script, it now outputs your website’s name in custom search if newly registered.
  • Removed: Canonical URL on 404 pages. Not only was it unnecessary, but it was also wrong.
  • Note: All sitemap transients will be invalidated upon this update to remain a consistent experience, they will be cleaned up automatically.

For developers:

  • Added: New filters.
  • Added: New functions for the options API.
  • Added: New actions action listeners in page/taxonomy post boxes.
  • Added: New useful function AutoDescription_Generate::set_url_scheme(). It’s WordPress’ core function without filter and a negligible nanosecond optimization.
  • Added: New useful function AutoDescription_Generate::get_relative_term_url() for fetching archive urls.
  • Added: URL input debugging when using debug ‘more’.
  • Added: Output debug in source only with a new constant. This still outputs debug information in the title tag, so be careful.
  • Revised: Shortlink URL. It now uses a more static way of making one, instead of relying on home_url().
  • Reworked: AutoDescription_Generate::the_url() was starting to get smelly because of compatibility with so many plugins and types of pages. All parameters except the first two have been put into an argument array. Please note that the parameters will output a _doing_it_wrong notice if your input call is invalid. The code will continue to run normally but will ignore your parameters set.
  • Revised: All title functions can now fetch the title from external posts.
  • Cleaned up code.

Note:

  • I’ve seen websites using CloudFlare combined with a relative scheme URL layer of some sort. This won’t hurt your site, unless you mainly prefer using HTTPS.
  • To prevent this from happening, I’ve created a filter which will force the https scheme. `the_seo_framework_canonical_force_scheme’.
  • Please note that the CloudFlare layer, or any other early scheme overriding plugin will prevent the filter from working.
  • The filter is quite simple, and can be found here, heading “Since 2.4.2”.
  • Don’t know what Canonical does? Then let The SEO Framework figure it all out for you :).
  • What’s better than this filter? A global 301 redirect from https to http, or vice versa. Consult with your hosting provider.

About the breadcrumb script:

  • Read all about the breadcrumb script.
  • It’s a heavy process, it even tripled the output time of the meta on some pages. This is because each individual LD+Json input item has to be sanitized.
  • Therefor it has been cached, simultaneously reducing this plugin’s load time on the front-page by almost 100% caused by the search and Knowledge Graph script.
  • Because WordPress doesn’t have a one-way does it structure; this is truly something unique :). It has been tested on many sites with different parameters.
  • Posts with multiple categories will have multiple scripts output.
  • Posts with multiple categories of the same tree will have one script output per tree.
  • Pages will always have at most one script output.
  • Test categorized posts and pages with a tree here. Let me know if you find an error under BreadcrumbList, thank you very much in advance!
  • This feature will not do anything yet with CPT, since they’re not predictable. I will take a look at them in the future, because I really believe Portfolio’s and Forums should support this.