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By block, I assume you mean not index them? If you're using Yoast, all you need to do is select "noindex subpages of archives" under the Titles & Meta menu. So if simply not indexing is the desired result, that's the easiest bet - and then you will not index all other subpages such as /category/page/2/ etc

'nofollow' - got it. Thanks for the response, and your logic makes sense. Would love a 2nd or 3rd on that from the masses just to make sure. RE: the use or random posts as opposed to related - great question Oleg! My guess is this was a theme feature that was added in to fill the footer, TBH. I use LinkWithin for related posts on almost every blog I manage - I might need to suggest that to this site, too (or something similar). Appreciate the extra insights.

Not a bad idea, and I can do that right from my SEO plugin of choice. Dummy ?'s: Will that disallow addition catch them even if they are at the end of a child page? Also, for correct coding, wouldn't I need the wildcard to go after the ?=, ie Disallow: /?=* and not place the * in front of the ?=... Please clarify for me before I add this line of code. Thanks for your help Dean! Sorry for the late edit of the question.

This is also advised as a part of the on page optimization within the Moz grading system "Although the canonical URL tag is generally thought of as a way to solve duplicate content problems, it can be extremely wise to use it on every (unique) page of a site to help prevent any query strings, session IDs, scraped versions, licensing deals or future developments to potentially create a secondary version and pull link juice or other metrics away from the original. We believe the canonical URL tag is a best practice to help prevent future problems, even if nothing is specifically duplicate/problematic today."