Category Page with Subcategories Pagination

Hi @melissaod

I understand that your website is generating additional pages within your main product categories, which is leading to indexing issues with Google Search Console and your cache plugin. These extra pages should ideally return a 404 error, but instead, they are redirecting to the main product category page with all products from all subcategories combined.

This issue might be related to your pagination settings. If you have a lot of products in a category, WooCommerce will automatically create additional pages to display these products. You can control this behavior by going to Appearance> Customize > WooCommerce > Product Catalog > adjusting the Products and Rows per page settings.

If you’re using an SEO plugin, it might be creating these additional pages. Check the settings of your SEO plugin and ensure it’s not set to index additional category pages.

Additionally, If you’ve modified your WooCommerce templates, this could also be causing the issue. You might need to review your template files and ensure they’re not generating additional category pages.

If you’ve tried all these solutions and the issue still persists, it might be a good idea to temporarily disable all your plugins (except WooCommerce) and switch to a default theme like Storefront. If this resolves the issue, you can enable your plugins one by one to identify which one is causing the problem.

I hope this helps! Please let us know how it goes or if you need further assistance. Thanks!

I have my Woocommerce store set to display only subcategories on my top product categories and to display products on my subcategories. The problem I am referring to above is with my top product categories. My top product categories only have a minimum of two subcategories and a maximum of eight subcategories which take up less than one page which is why there should not be any paginated pages for my top product categories.

My SEO plugin is set to not index additional category pages (or search pages). I have not modified the WooCommerce template in any way. I have disabled each plugin one by one but they are not causing the issue.

Hello @melissaod,

The problem I am referring to above is with my top product categories. My top product categories only have a minimum of two subcategories and a maximum of eight subcategories which take up less than one page which is why there should not be any paginated pages for my top product categories.

Can you please explain how you are limiting the number of subcategories displayed? Category pages are archive pages, which means they can’t be edited by default. It would be helpful if you could attach some screenshots to provide a clearer picture of the issue.

If you don’t already have a screenshot service installed, here are a few free options: 

• https://snipboard.io
• https://skitch.com/
• https://getcloudapp.com/

Additionally, are you aware of this issue occurring on the first page of all category archives?

Link to image: https://d.pr/i/O2tJLe

Look forward to hearing back from you.

Hello. I am not limiting the number of subcategories displayed. Each Top Category only has a few subcategories. Rather than screenshots, just see for yourself by visiting my website. Sticking to my initial example, please visit my Top category of Toys & Games at https://collectiblesandmoreinstore.com/product-category/toys-and-games/ . There you can see its subcategories. Toys & Games has a total of six (6) subcategories. There is no need for a 2nd, 3rd, 4th, etc. page because all six subcategories fit on the one page.

If you click on a subcategory, let’s say “Collectible Toy Vehicles” as an example at  https://collectiblesandmoreinstore.com/product-category/toys-and-games/collectible-toy-vehicles/ , you will then see all of the products for that subcategory (total of 154) which does require paginated pages.

There is a specific reason the products are divided that way. There are many different types of products that fall under the Google Taxonomy Category of “Toys & Games” which is why they are further broken down into subcategories which then displays the specific products.

When a buyer is looking for Hot Wheels, they don’t want to browse through a bunch of dolls and bobbleheads. They want to only browse through the Toy Vehicles. Therefore, it does not produce a good user experience to have all of the products for every subcategory grouped together under a Toys & Games paginated page that shouldn’t even exist like https://collectiblesandmoreinstore.com/product-category/toys-and-games/page/2/

Just to confirm we’re on the same page, you don’t want to include sub-category products in the archive page of the parent category, correct?

You can use this snippet to achieve this: https://www.themelocation.com/hide-subcategory-products-from-main-category-in-woocommerce/

Kindly use a plugin like Code Snippet instead of adding directly to your theme’s functions.php file.

Let us know if I misunderstood your request.