Add "Blog" to JSON-LD breadcrumbs?

Hi Namorbia,

That’s a very good question! I haven’t thought about it before.
I unfortunately can’t make a “too long; didn’t read” version of this, so I hope you enjoy the wall of text!

There are two answers for this. I believe you’re most interested in the second answer.
Please take your time to read through it all. The first answer is quite short, yet it explains a lot for the second one.

Introduction
The first is leaving it at default, without a breadcrumb trail. This will give us insight on what the blog page is and how it’s treated in various occasions.

The second is also creating a blog, but removing it from local-search, index and navigation. Add a slug for it you’ll never use (like I have done here) and, as you’ve said, create a category for it and assign it as such. Make the URL slug blog and link to it through your navigation.

To elaborate, both scenario’s are explained thoroughly below.

Case 1: Letting know it’s a Blog
The Blog Page gives out several indicators to social sites and Search Engines that it’s a Blog. First and foremost, it’s called a Blog, it has a collection of Titles with URLs assigned to them and some Themes even include Microdata. It’s paginated, and with HTML5 multiple Article HTML-tags also may be output. WordPress also gives out some signals it’s a blog, it’s all per standard. In fact, WordPress requires a Blog page to be available. Failing to do so may cause bugs in some plugins and themes, and even within WordPress itself.
Nothing has to be done. However, a blog isn’t hierarchical. This means no Breadcrumbs can be assigned to the posts which show up in the blog.

Case 2: Using a Category
The Blog page is a reserved item within WordPress. Many WordPress functions and queries are written around this item; after all, WordPress is in essence a blogging tool.
However, you can indeed create a Category called Blog. The steps on how-to proceed are written below.
Keep in mind that WordPress requires at least one category to be available. Many times it’s referred to as Uncategorized. This is category #1 and will always be used if none is assigned. If it’s removed, at least another category has to be available.

To proceed, follow these steps:

1. Make sure a Blog is assigned to a page. This page may have an uncommon slug.
2. Activate the “noindex” and “Exclude from Search” options for this page.
3. This page now can’t be found on Search Engines and through your own website’s front-end Search methods.
4. Either rename the Category “Uncategorized” to “Blog” and adjust the slug to your liking. Or, add a new category named “Blog” if you haven’t already.
5. Give the Blog Category a good manual description.
6. Assign your posts to the Blog Category.

Do not forget to link to the Blog Category. This will create natural flow.

Breadcrumbs are to be improved
Please note that the breadcrumbs aren’t as complete as I wished it to be in the current version, although they’re very valid.
The complete version is already available in the Beta version of The SEO Framework and will be available automatically when upgraded. More on that is to be revealed in the upcoming Changelog.

In essence, it means multiple categories can be assigned. The first one will be picked currently; more on this is explained in this Youtube video by Matt Cutts from Google Webmasters.

This complete version will support:

• all parent categories when assigned.
• multiple breadcrumbs.
• multiple hierarchies.

But it will not list unassigned categories.

You’d have to assign the Blog category
This means you need to assign the Blog category to each post you wish the breadcrumb to be for it. It also has to be the biggest category tree, so it’s a good thing you’ve made it the parent category :).

Explained, the complete version, when you’re running PHP5.3 or higher (highly likely), will pick out the biggest tree and place it on top, Google will pick this one up as the main one.

If you require any further assistance or have any more questions, feel free to ask!

Thanks and have a great day :).

Wow, thank you so much for the long answer. I read it several times but still feel a bit confused. I mean, to me the most logical structure of a website are permalinks like “mysite.com/blog/category/post-title” and breadcrumbs & rich snippets like “mysite.com > Blog > Category (> Post title)”. Strange that it’s so complicated to achieve this.

Some clarification on my setup:

• I only use one category per post and no parent categories (unless I decide to make “Blog” a parent category, but that’s just a technicality). So I won’t need the upcoming support for multiple breadcrumbs/hierarchies.
• I am using Genesis with the child theme Atmosphere Pro. (I read about this plugin’s origins and the Genesis connection, nice!)

In fact, WordPress requires a Blog page to be available. Failing to do so may cause bugs in some plugins and themes, and even within WordPress itself.

Really? I didn’t know that. I found a few sites that use a parent category for displaying all blog posts instead of a blog page. See the links at the end of this post.

6. Assign your posts to the Blog Category.

I would rather not do this, because “Blog” would appear in the “Filed under:” part of every single post. So posts will always have something like “Filed under: Blog, Interviews” or “Filed under: Blog, Resources”, which is redundant and looks bad. Plus, Genesis excludes the child category from breadcrumbs, if parent category is also assigned. But, if you only assign a child category, then both parent and child category appear in breadcrumbs. How strange!

Example websites of what I want:

Here some WP sites I found that use the structure that I want (/blog/category/post-title).

Websites with “Blog” as parent category:

wiideman.com
codigonexo.com (though “/blog” redirects to “/blog-tecnologia/”, so maybe it’s a combination of parent category and blog page?)
ianjgough.com

Websites possibly with “Blog” as parent category, not 100% sure:

interneteffect.com

Websites possibly with “Blog” as a Blog page, not 100% sure:

evanmarckatz.com
seventhqueen.com

Hi Namorbia,

I understand the confusion, it’s a lot of (new) information to process. And I also need to work on my English — as of late I notice I make quite a few mistakes as I type too much too fast.

Because of the way WordPress’ category hierarchy is designed, you can’t evade selecting the Blog page as being the parent category.
What you can do, however, is removing every little quirk you do not like that comes with it.

Genesis’ breadcrumb should by default display hierarchical breadcrumbs. In essence, they should output the category structure: Home > Blog > Category > Post-name.

When following the steps provided, everything should work out.
And to remove “Blog” from “Filed under:”, please use the following code:

add_action( 'genesis_entry_footer', 'alter_categories_filter', 0 );
/**
 * Initialize category list filter.
 */
function alter_categories_filter() {
	add_filter( 'the_category_list', 'remove_blog_category', 10, 2 );
}

/**
 * Remove 'Blog' from listed categories.
 *
 * @param array $cats The listed categories.
 * @param int $post_id The Post ID.
 */
function remove_blog_category( $cats = array(), $post_id = 0 ) {

	if ( $post_id ) {
		if ( ! empty( $cats ) ) {
			foreach ( $cats as $i => $cat ) {
				if ( isset( $cat->name ) && 'Blog' === $cat->name ) {
					unset( $cats[$i] );
					break;
				} else {
					continue;
				}
			}
		}
	}

	return $cats;
}

add_action( 'genesis_entry_footer', 'reset_categories_filter', 999 );
/**
 * Reset category list filter.
 */
function reset_categories_filter() {
	remove_filter( 'the_category_list', 'remove_blog_category', 10 );
}

For the permalink structure, please go to https://example.com/wp-admin/options-permalink.php and set the custom permalink structure as the following: /%category%/%postname%/.

Please note that by design, WordPress selects the category alphabetically. More information is found here in the codex.

I hope this helps! Good luck :).

Thank you for that code snippet!

Genesis’ breadcrumb should by default display hierarchical breadcrumbs. In essence, they should output the category structure: Home > Blog > Category > Post-name.

Actually Genesis doesn’t show the parent category in breadcrumbs, only the child category. I’ve tried. But it I can use the plugin Breadcrumb NavXT instead to fix that problem, so no worries.

In fact, WordPress requires a Blog page to be available. Failing to do so may cause bugs in some plugins and themes, and even within WordPress itself. […] Make sure a Blog is assigned to a page. This page may have an uncommon slug. […] Activate the “noindex”.

Can’t I just leave the Blog page blank? I can’t find any documentation or other threads that say you must have a Blog page. If you have any links where I can read more, I would truly appreciate it.

Hi Namorbia,

I did notice some inconsistencies with the breadcrumbs whilst testing them, so your findings are correct.
Nevertheless, I do use Genesis Breadcrumbs on theseoframework.com, I placed them next to the menu and it seems to be working alright for me :). But Breadcrumb NavXT is a greatly praised alternative and can be safely used as a replacement.

About the blog page, it’s an issue I’ve encountered myself within The SEO Framework (already fixed), and a bug is still present within WordPress not recognizing what the “page for posts” or “page on front” should be.

Therefore I recommend assigning a blog page, even though you’ll not be using it. Applying “noindex” to the page makes sure it doesn’t get indexed found by Search Engines. Applying “Exclude from local search” to it makes sure it doesn’t get found through your on-site Search Engine.

I hope this clears things up! ??