I have an informational website running on WordPress, and I am using Yoast SEO for optimization. From the very beginning, the permalinks of all my posts have included a trailing slash: /category/%postname%/.
However, I've noticed that in Google Search Console, each of my posts appears with two URLs: one with the trailing slash (which returns a 200 status) and one without the trailing slash (which returns a 301 redirect). As a result, a significant number of my pages are marked as "Page with redirect" in the summary of indexed pages. This has left me puzzled because:
- All URLs in my sitemap include the trailing slash.
- Each page has a canonical tag pointing to the version of the URL with the trailing slash.
- I haven't found any internal links on my site that point to URLs without the trailing slash.
Despite the fact that most of my posts (with trailing slashes) are correctly indexed, their duplicates (without slashes) still appear in Search Console marked as "Page with redirect."
I am concerned that this might negatively affect my site’s indexing. With that in mind, I have two questions, but the information available online seems quite conflicting:
1. Should I remove the trailing slash from my permalinks?
On one hand, this could potentially solve the issue with the 301 redirects. On the other hand, it might create a new problem, as all currently indexed pages would then have a 301 redirect to the new URLs. I am worried this could negatively impact my (admittedly modest) traffic.
2. If it’s better not to change the permalinks, how can I fix this issue so that these "Page with redirect" entries no longer appear in Google Search Console?
Ideally, I’d like only the canonical URLs with the trailing slashes to be indexed.
Any advice or guidance on this matter would be greatly appreciated!