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Why Your Homepage Slug and Breadcrumbs Might Be Misbehaving in Yoast SEO

17 threads Sep 16, 2025 Plugin → Yoast seo

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If you've noticed your homepage URL displaying an unexpected slug like /home or your breadcrumbs showing a duplicate homepage link, you're not alone. These are common points of confusion for WordPress users of the Yoast SEO plugin. This guide will explain why this happens and walk you through the most effective solutions.

Why Does This Happen?

The core of this issue often lies in how WordPress itself handles the homepage. When you set a specific page as your static homepage in Settings > Reading, WordPress is designed to hide that page's slug from the public-facing URL. However, in the WordPress dashboard, the page will still technically have a slug (like "home"). This discrepancy can sometimes cause confusion within plugins like Yoast SEO that generate sitemaps and breadcrumbs.

Common Solutions

1. Check Your WordPress Reading Settings

First, confirm your homepage is configured correctly in WordPress. Navigate to Settings > Reading. Under "Your homepage displays," ensure "A static page" is selected and that the correct page is chosen for the "Homepage" option. This is the foundational setting that tells WordPress which page to treat as the root of your site.

2. Verify the Homepage Slug in the Page Editor

Edit your homepage. In the WordPress editor, you will likely still see a slug (e.g., "home") associated with the page. This is normal and expected behavior. WordPress uses this internal slug but does not display it on the front end of your site. Attempting to delete it here will usually be unsuccessful, as WordPress requires a slug for the page to exist in the database.

3. Investigate Breadcrumb Settings

If your breadcrumbs are showing an incorrect URL (like domain.com/home/), the solution is typically found in the breadcrumb settings. Navigate to Yoast SEO > Settings > Advanced > Breadcrumbs. The most important field to check is the "Anchor text for the Homepage" field. This text is what appears as the clickable link in your breadcrumb trail. Ensure it is set to a simple word like "Home." More critically, the issue often stems from the underlying page itself. Ensure there is not more than one page with the title "Home" in your Pages > All Pages list, as this can cause conflicts.

4. Clear Caches and Reset Yoast SEO Data

After making any changes, it is crucial to clear all caches. This includes your browser cache, any caching plugins you have active, and your server or CDN cache if applicable. If the issue persists, particularly with sitemaps showing duplicate entries, a deeper reset may be needed. Using a tool like the Yoast Test Helper plugin, you can reset Yoast SEO's indexables tables and then rerun the SEO data optimization under Yoast SEO > Tools. This forces the plugin to reanalyze all your content and can often resolve inconsistencies.

5. Perform a Conflict Check

If problems began after a plugin or theme update, a conflict is a likely culprit. The recommended way to test for a conflict is to temporarily deactivate all plugins except Yoast SEO and switch to a default WordPress theme (like Twenty Twenty-Four). If the issue resolves, reactivate your plugins and theme one by one to identify which one is causing the problem. For a safe way to do this without affecting visitors, consider using the Health Check & Troubleshooting plugin.

When to Look Elsewhere

It's important to note that some visual issues, such as a random word like "home" appearing above a slider, are often related to how your theme implements breadcrumbs and not a direct bug in the Yoast SEO plugin. If deactivating Yoast SEO makes the element disappear, the plugin's breadcrumb feature is likely being used by your theme. You would then need to configure the breadcrumb settings within Yoast SEO or your theme's options to hide it on the homepage.

By methodically working through these steps, you can usually resolve homepage slug and breadcrumb issues and ensure your site structure is clean for both users and search engines.

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