Will google regards www.example.com and www.example.com?331457 as the duplicate content?
-
Our site has some affiliates, and the affiliate id is the suffix following with the url "?xxxxxx".
I can see Google Analytics regards www.example.com and www.example.com?331457 as the different page, but in fact they are exactly the same, the version www.example.com?331457 is the visit from our affiliate site.
And yesterday I start up my Moz Pro membership, and in the crawl issues I see SEOMoz thinks www.example.com and www.example.com?331457 are duplicate content.
Is this really an issue? Will the search engine thinks these two pages are duplicate content??
Thanks you guys
My first question here, not too dumb I hope.
-----------------Update----------------------
I should explain how our affiliates work.
We are an eBook related software company, and anyone can apply an affiliate account on the transaction platform "RegNow" even without our permission because we have opened the affiliate door.
When a visitor come to our order page from an affiliate site, the url will add the affiliate ID suffix "?xxxxxx", and it's combined in cookies. After the deal is done, the affiliate gets his commission.
So no matter how I customize the url with URL Builder, there must be the suffix "?xxxxxx". It's the ID of our affiliate, or they will get nothing.
So the key point is, will the suffix "?331457" makes Google think www.example.com and www.example.com?331457 are different pages and duplicate content?
-
Thanks dude, that's the answer I need.
-
Hi Jonny,
As the others have said rel=canonical is the way to go, and as you describe is the way to implement. Just put the rel=canonical tag in the head of your index page (or whichever page is in question) and all the urls with your affiliate ids in them will see the same head and rel=canonical tag and you should be good to go!
-
I would say that you just need to add rel="canonical" to the on each page - this will tell Google to affectivley ignore all other variations of that URL.
You could also considering using Web Master Tools to advise the search engines to refrain from indexing all of the URLs with those specific parameters - just be careful though as giving the wrong parameter instruction could result in pages you DO want to be indexed being ignored or dropped out of the SERPs.
-
But in fact there is not a practical page which is exactly named "www.example.com?331457" on my server, I am not using WordPress, so all the pages of our site are indeed existing on our server.
You can find dozens of versions of our order page with different suffix as they are all our affiliates.
If I should use rel="canonical", then I think it might be like this:
-
If Google thinks they are duplicate, then this tag will work on the "www.example.com?331457" page (although I don't think it really exists) and tell Google "www.example.com" is the original version.
-
If Google doesn't think they are duplicate, this tag will not harm our site.
Is it reasonable?
-
-
Rel="canonical" it. That's my answer.
-
I should explain how our affiliates work.
We are an eBook related software company, and anyone can apply an affiliate account on the transaction platform "RegNow" even without our permission because we have opened the affiliate door.
When a visitor come to our order page from an affiliate site, the url will add the affiliate ID suffix "?xxxxxx", and it's combined in cookies. After the deal is done, the affiliate gets his commission.
So no matter how I customize the url with URL Builder, there must be the suffix "?xxxxxx". It's the ID of our affiliate, or they will get nothing.
-
I agree OR they should be made using the Google URL builder. GA will start recording your campaigns.
-
It is a good question. your affiliate links should be made.
No follow
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
-
Regarding internal duplicate content
Suppose two of my webpages from the same site are having 30% to 35% common content. The reason behind this common content is that I put same data and images (in the main content area) since both pages are partially related. But, title tag, meta description, h1 tag, urls are different.
On-Page Optimization | | b.me
My questions are Can Google consider it as duplicate content?
Can it hamper the ranking of my pages ?
How can I deal with it?0 -
How to replace the keywords of our Google Site https://www.opcfitness.com/ 's TITLE
How to replace the keywords of our Google Site https://www.opcfitness.com/ 's TITLE Our new google site https://www.opcfitness.com/ page https://www.opcfitness.com/commercial-fitness title: Gym Equipment for Sale - Buy Commercial Fitness The site name is Gym Equipment for Sale. But we need the title like this Buy Commercial Fitness - Gym Equipment for Sale How to fix it?
On-Page Optimization | | ahislop5740 -
Duplicate Content Re: Product listing body copy on Website, Amazon & Ebay - issues ?
Hi Is it ok to have identical product body copy on market/platform listings same as the websites product listings ? In this case the products are the websites/own brand products (all pages canonicalised), so i take it shouldn't cause any issues or are you supposed to differentiate the product body copy on marketplace listings ? Im asking re seo reasons All Best Dan
On-Page Optimization | | Dan-Lawrence0 -
Duplicate and thin content - advanced..
Hi Guys Two issues to sort out.. So we have a website that lists products and has many pages for: a) The list pages - that lists all the products for that area.
On-Page Optimization | | nick-name123
b) The detailed pages - that when click into from the list page, will list the specific product in full. On the list page, we perhaps have half the description written down, when clicked into you see the full description.
If you search in google for a phrase on the detailed page, you will see results for that specific page including 'multiple' list pages where it is on. For example, lets say we are promoting 'trees' which are situated in Manhatten. And we are also promoting trees in Brooklyn, there is a crossover. So a tree listed in Manhatten will also be listen in brooklyn as its close by (not from America so don't laugh if I have areas muddled)
We then have quite a few pages with the same content as a result. I read a post a while back from the mighty Cutts who said not to worry about the duplicate unless its spammy, but what is good for one person, is spammy to another.. Does anyone have any ideas as to if this is a genuine problem and how you would solve? Also, we know we have alot of thin content on the site, but we dont know how to identify it. It's a large site so needs something automated (I think).. Thanks in advance Nick0 -
Why will google not index my Images
Hi I've added to index images in our sitemap although they are showing as being submitted Google hasn't indexed a single one. This has been the case for about 3 months. Is there any reason why Google would not index them? Thanks
On-Page Optimization | | tidybooks0 -
Duplicate content from category pages?
I have an ecommerce store with different categories for my products. Some products do appear in more than one category, is that an issue even if you end up on the same product page/link? Also, I have a "show all products" category, which I believe creates duplicate content too? What is your take on this? What can I do to solve this? Is it even an issue of duplicate content? All answers are very much appreciated!
On-Page Optimization | | danielpett0 -
301 redirect www.brandname.com to www.brandname-keyword.com
It seems I've been reading about 301 for hours now, but I still didn't find an answer to my question, so I'm hoping someone can help me out here. I'm starting a new webshop which is relaunching a semi known brand within its specific niche, say kids toys. Now my question is - since the brand name is relatively known and it is only 5 letters short, the website will be www.xxxxx.com. However the brand name itself doesn't say anything about the products we sell, so I was thinking to buy www.xxxxx-toys.com and 301 redirect www.xxxxx.com to this new site, but still use the shorter version in all marketing material since it's a lot easier to type and remember. Apparently Google doesn't give extra juice to sites with keywords in the domain name anymore (?) but it would still say something about site to new customers unaware of the brand name. Any advice? 🙂
On-Page Optimization | | JaneVO0 -
Article on site and distribution, is it duplicate content?
I was always taught to place all original articles on site, let them get indexed by Google, then put out for distribution through various press release outlets. With the latest penguin update, how does this practice work out concerning duplicate content? In theory, I wrote the article so I should get credit for it on my site first, then push through various distribution outlets to get it out to my targeted audience in my niche field. Typing out loud I would tend to think if the article is on my site first then I would get credit and any others following would be hit by duplicate content if in fact google considered it a dupe violation. Any input on this? Am I on track or am I heading for a train wreck.
On-Page Optimization | | anthonytjm0