Does It Really Matter to Restrict Dynamic URLs by Robots.txt?
-
Today, I was checking Google webmaster tools and found that, there are 117 dynamic URLs are restrict by Robots.txt. I have added following syntax in my Robots.txt You can get more idea by following excel sheet.
#Dynamic URLs
Disallow: /?osCsidDisallow: /?q=
Disallow: /?dir=Disallow: /?p=
Disallow: /*?limit=
Disallow: /*review-form
I have concern for following kind of pages.
Shorting by specification:
http://www.vistastores.com/table-lamps?dir=asc&order=name
Iterms per page:
http://www.vistastores.com/table-lamps?dir=asc&limit=60&order=name
Numbering page of products:
http://www.vistastores.com/table-lamps?p=2
Will it create resistance in organic performance of my category pages?
-
I am quite late to add my reply on this question. Because, I was busy to fix issue regarding dynamic URLs.
I have made following changes on my website.
- I have re-write all dynamic URLs and make it static one exclude session ID and internal search option. Because, I have restricted both version via Robots.txt.
- I have set canonical to near duplicate pages which Dr.Pete described in Duplicate content in post panda world.
I want to give one live example to know more about it.
Base URL: http://www.vistastores.com/patio-umbrellas
Dynamic URLs: It was dynamic but, I have re-write to make it static one. But canonical tag to base URL is available on each near duplicate pages which are as follow.
http://www.vistastores.com/patio-umbrellas/shopby/limit-100
http://www.vistastores.com/patio-umbrellas/shopby/lift-method-search-manual-lift
http://www.vistastores.com/patio-umbrellas/shopby/manufacturer-fiberbuilt-umbrellas-llc
http://www.vistastores.com/patio-umbrellas/shopby/price-2,100
http://www.vistastores.com/patio-umbrellas/shopby/canopy-fabric-search-sunbrella
http://www.vistastores.com/patio-umbrellas/shopby/canopy-shape-search-hexagonal
http://www.vistastores.com/patio-umbrellas/shopby/canopy-size-search-7-ft-to-8-ft
http://www.vistastores.com/patio-umbrellas/shopby/color-search-blue
http://www.vistastores.com/patio-umbrellas/shopby/finish-search-black
http://www.vistastores.com/patio-umbrellas/shopby/p-2
http://www.vistastores.com/patio-umbrellas/shopby/dir-desc/order-positionNow, I am looking forward towards Google crawling and How Google treat all canonical pages. I am quite excited to see changes in organic ranking with distribution of page rank in website. Thanks for your insightful reply.
-
Robots.txt isn't the best solution for dynamic URLs. Depending on the type of URL, there are a number of other solutions available.
1. As blurbpoint mentions, Google Webmaster Tools allows you to specify URL handling. They actually do a decent job of this automatically, but also allow you the option to change the settings yourself.
http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1235687
2. Identical pages with different parameters can create duplicate content, which is often best handled with canonical tags.
3. Parameters that result in pagination may require slightly nuanced solutions. I won't get into them all here but Adam Audette gives a good overview of pagination solutions here: http://searchengineland.com/the-latest-greatest-on-seo-pagination-114284
Hope this helps. Best of luck with your SEO!
-
Hi,
Instead of blocking those URLs, You can use "URL parameter" setting in Google webmaster tool. You will get parameters like "?dir" & "?p" in it, select appropriate option from that like what actually happens when this parameter come into picture.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Using folder blocked by robots.txt before uploaded to indexed folder - is that OK?
I have a folder "testing" within my domain which is a folder added to the robots.txt. My web developers use that folder "testing" when we are creating new content before uploading to an indexed folder. So the content is uploaded to the "testing" folder at first (which is blocked by robots.txt) and later uploaded to an indexed folder, yet permanently keeping the content in the "testing" folder. Actually, my entire website's content is located within the "testing" - so same URL structure for all pages as indexed pages, except it starts with the "testing/" folder. Question: even though the "testing" folder will not be indexed by search engines, is there a chance search engines notice that the content is at first uploaded to the "testing" folder and therefore the indexed folder is not guaranteed to get the content credit, since search engines see the content in the "testing" folder, despite the "testing" folder being blocked by robots.txt? Would it be better that I password protecting this "testing" folder? Thx
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | khi50 -
Numbers (2432423) in URL
Hello All Mozers, Quick question on URL. I know URL is important and should include keywords and all that but my question is does including numbers (not date or page numbers but numbers for internal use) in the URL affect SEO? For example, www.domain.com/screw-driver,12,1,23345.htm Is that any better or worse than www.domain.com/screw-driver.htm? I understand that this is not user friendly but in SEO stand point does it hurt ranking? What's your opinion on this? Thank you!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | TommyTan0 -
Can we really learn from the best?
Hi All, When I started my site (an eCommerce site) I copied (or tried) a lot of things from the best eCommerce sites I thought were out there. Sites like Zappos, ZALES, Overstock, BlueNile etc. I got hit pretty hard with latest algo changes and I posted my question at Google Webmaster Help forum I received answers from Gurus that we are keyword stuffing etc. (mainly with internal links to product pages but other issues as well). My answer was a link to Zappos and other sites showing that what we do is nothing compared to them. I also showed dozens of SEO "errors" like using H1 tag 10 times per page, not using canonicals and many other issues. The Guru's answer was "LOL" - who am I to compare myself to Zappos. So the question is... Can we take them for example or are they first simply because they are the biggest?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | BeytzNet0 -
URL language on Global Sites
Has anyone looked into a page not ranking as well because the URL is in English when the subdomain is geared for a different country and different language? I can defiantly see this taking away from the user experience, but didn't know if there was any concrete evidence or case studies that would show if it is a big deal or not for rankability? I know this is a backwards question to begin with because the priority over rankability is always UX, but there may not be a way to fix it unless I can prove it is a big deal.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Ryan_Henry0 -
If i disallow unfriendly URL via robots.txt, will its friendly counterpart still be indexed?
Our not-so-lovely CMS loves to render pages regardless of the URL structure, just as long as the page name itself is correct. For example, it will render the following as the same page: example.com/123.html example.com/dumb/123.html example.com/really/dumb/duplicative/URL/123.html To help combat this, we are creating mod rewrites with friendly urls, so all of the above would simply render as example.com/123 I understand robots.txt respects the wildcard (*), so I was considering adding this to our robots.txt: Disallow: */123.html If I move forward, will this block all of the potential permutations of the directories preceding 123.html yet not block our friendly example.com/123? Oh, and yes, we do use the canonical tag religiously - we're just mucking with the robots.txt as an added safety net.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | mrwestern0 -
Duplicate content via dynamic URLs where difference is only parameter order?
I have a question about the order of parameters in an URL versus duplicate content issues. The URLs would be identical if the parameter order was the same. E.g.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | anthematic
www.example.com/page.php?color=red&size=large&gender=male versus
www.example.com/page.php?gender=male&size=large&color=red How smart is Google at consolidating these, and do these consolidated pages incur any penalty (is their combined “weight” equal to their individual selves)? Does Google really see these two pages as DISTINCT, or does it recognize that they are the same because they have the exact same parameters? Is this worth fixing in or does it have a trivial impact? If we have to fix it and can't change our CMS, should we set a preferred, canonical order for these URLs or 301 redirect from one version to the other? Thanks a million!0 -
Multiple URLs for the same page
I am working with a client and recently discovered that they have several URLs that go to the same page. http://www.maps.com/FunFacts.aspx
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | WebMarketingandDesign
http://www.maps.com/funfacts.aspx
http://www.maps.com/FunFacts.aspx?nav=FF
http://www.maps.com/FunFacts.aspx?nav=FS
http://www.maps.com/funfacts.aspx?nav=FF
http://www.maps.com/funfacts.aspx?nav=ffhttp://www.maps.com/FunFacts.aspx?nav=MShttp://www.maps.com/funfacts.aspx?nav=
http://www.maps.com/FunFacts.aspx?nav=FF#
http://www.maps.com/FunFacts
http://www.maps.com/funfacts.aspx?.nav=FF I am afraid this is happening all over the site. So, my question is: Is this hurting the SEO and how? If so what is the best way to go about fixing this problem? Thanks for your help!0 -
Category Pages - Canonical, Robots.txt, Changing Page Attributes
A site has category pages as such: www.domain.com/category.html, www.domain.com/category-page2.html, etc... This is producing duplicate meta descriptions (page titles have page numbers in them so they are not duplicate). Below are the options that we've been thinking about: a. Keep meta descriptions the same except for adding a page number (this would keep internal juice flowing to products that are listed on subsequent pages). All pages have unique product listings. b. Use canonical tags on subsequent pages and point them back to the main category page. c. Robots.txt on subsequent pages. d. ? Options b and c will orphan or french fry some of our product pages. Any help on this would be much appreciated. Thank you.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Troyville0