Is rel=canonical needed for URLs with Google Analytics query strings?
-
If a page URL has Google Analytics query strings, does the page need a canonical tag? e.g.,
something.com/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_campaign=mar-2013-nsl
I have rel=canonical on all our pages because some of them will be accessed via URLs that have non-Google strings. The strings are only for marketing purposes, not for identifying a specific page to display. e.g.,
Should I only implement the canonical tag on the pages that might have non-Google marketing strings in the URL?
-
Another vote for proactively adding canonical tags to all pages. They're a great preventive measure in case someone else links with unusual parameters.
Also, Google is "supposed" to understand the UTM tags and ignore them, but we've all seen cases where Google's actual processes don't work quite like they're supposed to. (I've seen plenty of utm-tagged URLs indexed in Google)
(Plus, there's even less guarantee that other search engines would discount them and avoid dupe content. Bing et al may not be a huge traffic source on your site, but no sense throwing it away unnecessarily.)
Paul
-
Agreed. It can only help to set canonical. Google is smart enough to figure out to discard those parameters, as they are their own parameters. But you could also set those parameters to be ignored in GWT.
-
I would add them every page on your site, because pages with query parameters can get indexed by Google. Even if you don't use any parameters yourself, other sites can tack them onto your URL. Best to be safe and add them to all pages.
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
-
Why put rel=canonical to the same url ?
Hi all. I've heard that it's good to put the link rel canonical in your header even when there is no other important or prefered version of that url. If you take a look at moz.com and see the code, you'll see that they put the <link rel="<a class="attribute-value">canonical</a>" href="http://moz.com" /> ... pointing at the same url ! But if you go to http://moz.com/products/pricing for example, they have no canonical there ! WHY ? Thanks in advance !
Technical SEO | | Tintanus0 -
Google adding strings to meta title in SERPs => Driving my client crazy!
Fellow Mozzers, I'm really baffled by Google's behaviour adding strings before my meta title in the SERPs.
Technical SEO | | TheReference
This behaviour seems random, but it mainly happens on queries that trigger the homepages (multilingual .com domain).
I'm aware of meta title guidelines concerning length, and I know that Google may insert strings if it thinks it could benefit the user.
But clearly their "aid" is not helpful at all... Client is really anxious to get this resolved and we're stumped on what could be the cause for this... Some examples: Query: https://www.google.co.uk/#hl=en&pws=0&q=Ogone - Online payment gateway
Result title: en-gb - Ogone - Online payment gateway
Normal title: Ogone - Online payment gateway Query: https://www.google.at/#hl=de&q=Ogone Online Payment Service Provider
Result title: ogone.at - Ogone. Online Payment Service Provider & e-payment ...
Normal title: Ogone. Online Payment Service Provider & e-payment Deutschland
=> For longer titles it will just prepend strings, and leave out our piece of the meta title Query: https://www.google.nl/#hl=nl&pws=0&q=Support Ogone
Result: Support | Ogone
=> For very short titles, Google doesn't add anything, why does it so for the other results? I really don't understand why this happens. The titles are long enough (but not too long), no strange characters inserted. Please, please help. Thanks in advance! Nikolaas0 -
Rel canonical between mirrored domains
Hi all & happy new near! I'm new to SEO and could do with a spot of advice: I have a site that has several domains that mirror it (not good, I know...) So www.site.com, www.site.edu.sg, www.othersite.com all serve up the same content. I was planning to use rel="canonical" to avoid the duplication but I have a concern: Currently several of these mirrors rank - one, the .com ranks #1 on local google search for some useful keywords. the .edu.sg also shows up as #9 for a dirrerent page. In some cases I have multiple mirrors showing up on a specific serp. I would LIKE to rel canonical everything to the local edu.sg domain since this is most representative of the fact that the site is for a school in Singapore but...
Technical SEO | | AlexSG
-The .com is listed in DMOZ (this used to be important) and none of the volunteers there ever respoded to requests to update it to the .edu.sg
-The .com ranks higher than the com.sg page for non-local search so I am guessing google has some kind of algorithm to mark down obviosly local domains in other geographic locations Any opinions on this? Should I rel canonical the .com to the .edu.sg or vice versa? I appreciate any advice or opinion before I pull the trigger and end up shooting myself in the foot! Best regards from Singapore!0 -
Canonical needed after no index
Hi do you need to point canonical from a subpage to main page if you have already marked a no index on the subpage, like when google is not indexing it so do we need canonicals now as is it passing any juice?
Technical SEO | | razasaeed0 -
301 an old URL with a ? in the URL?
I am redoing a site and the URL's are changing structure. The client's site was in magento and in the store they would get two URLs, for example: /store/categoryname/productname and /store/categoryname/productname?SID=dslkajsfdoiu947598whouieht983hg98 Do I have to 301 redirect both of these URL's to their new counterpart? Both go to the same content but magento seemed to add these SIDs into the navigation and Google has both versions in the index.
Technical SEO | | DanDeceuster0 -
Why is this url showing as "not crawled" on opensiteexplorer, but still showing up in Google's index?
The below url is showing up as "not crawled" on opensitexplorer.com, but when you google the title tag "Joel Roberts, Our Family Doctors - Doctor in Clearwater, FL" it is showing up in the Google index. Can you explain why this is happening? Thank you http://doctor.webmd.com/physician_finder/profile.aspx?sponsor=core&pid=14ef09dd-e216-4369-99d3-460aa3c4f1ce
Technical SEO | | nicole.healthline0 -
How to handle sitemap with pages using query strings?
Hi, I'm working to optimize a site that currently has about 5K pages listed in the sitemap. There are not in face this many pages. Part of the problem is that one of the pages is a tool where each sort and filter button produces a query string URL. It seems to me inefficient to have so many items listed that are all really the same page. Not to mention wanting to avoid any duplicate content or low quality issues. How have you found it best to handle this? Should I just noindex each of the links? Canonical links? Should I manually remove the pages from the sitemap? Should I continue as is? Thanks a ton for any input you have!
Technical SEO | | 5225Marketing0 -
Is the full URL necessary for successful Canonical Links?
Hi, my first question and hopefully an easy enough one to answer. Currently in the head element of our pages we have canonical references such as: (Yes, untidy URL...we are working on it!) I am just trying to find out whether this snippet of the full URL is adequete for canonicalization or if the full domain is needed aswell. My reason for asking is that the SEOmoz On-Page Optimization grading tool is 'failing' all our pages on the "Appropriate Use of Rel Canonical" value. I have been unable to find a definitive answer on this, although admittedly most examples do use the full URL. (I am not the site developer so cannot simply change this myself, but rather have to advise him in a weekly meeting). So in short, presumably using the full URL is best practise, but is it essential to its effectiveness when being read by the search engines? Or could there be another reason why the "Appropriate Use of Rel Canonical" value is not being green ticked? Thank you very much, I appreciate any advice you can give.
Technical SEO | | rmkjersey0