A Magento site driving me crazy... any suggestion is appreciated

[gfiorelli1]

Hi guys,

this time it's me asking for help :D.

I have a client with a Magento 1.7.0.0 version site: www.mybomboniere.it

I audited it, and found out tons of issues, but the one that worries me more is the fault of canonicalization, which is causing serious duplicated content problems.

I'm not new to Magento, hence, the first thing I did was going to:

First: Going to System > Configuration > Catalog > Search Engine Optimization and setting on "No" the Use Categories Path for Product URLs voice. Doing so I quit all the duplicated product pages.

System > Configuration > Catalog > Catalog > Search Engine Optimization and setting on "yes" the voices Use Canonical Link Meta Tag For Categories and Use Canonical Link Meta Tag For Products.

Doing this I should see URLs with sort parameters having the URLs without them as canonical

The BIG PROBLEM is that even if I did that, I am still not seeing any rel="canonical" tag added to the code. I've tried to figure out the reason of this, but - sincerely - I cannot find one.

Secondly, the client created so many categories and subcategories that - honestly - the best thing would be to start cutting some of them. But one thing is what is correct in theory, another what the client desires, and she does not desire cutting any subcategory. 
That means that some risk to be a substantial duplicate of others. The correct choice should be to canonicalized the overly identical subcategories to a main one... but this is not possible using the default Magento functions.

So, or using an SEO extension (but, which one is the best for Magento 1.7.0.0.? Yoast plugins seem outdated), or using a solution like the second option proposed in this post: http://www.adurolabs.com/blog/technical/how-to-add-rel-canonical-in-magento.

The doubt is that the post is presenting it in case of products pages, not categories ones. Hence, is it correct also for them, or do you have others suggestions.

Sorry for the long question, but any help will be much appreciated :).

Ciao

Gianluca

[LynnPatchett]

Hi,

Following some testing, you can actually use the xml update feature for both categories and products individually, the trick is to first remove the existing rel=canonical that is put in if you have those settings turned on for that in the magento admin. So:

<reference name="head"><action method="removeItem"><type>link_rel</type>
<name>http://www.domain.com/oldurl</name></action></reference>

<action method="addLinkRel"><rel>canonical</rel>
<href>http://www.domain.com/new-url</href></action>

You will need to identify the canonical url being inputted into the code, add it to the oldurl bit above and then put in the new url. You can do this in products and also for categories in the custom design tab and then the custom layout update box.

Hope that helps!

[andyslimming]

Hopefully you are nearly there with Lynn's advice but if you do go down the extension route I highly recommend this one: http://www.magentocommerce.com/magento-connect/online-promotions-by-mirasvit-1211.html

[LynnPatchett]

Actually I take back that bit about the filtered urls. Just checked and indeed they should canonical back to the base category url, so if you find out why the canonical is not showing up you should be good

[LynnPatchett]

Hi Gianluca,

What an honour

For the product canonical meta tag you have set it up correctly, I assume you have cleared the magento cache, are you sure there is not a php cache/accelerator running also (like apc or similar)? This would also prevent the changes you have enabled from immediately showing up.

The second option in the link you mention will also work, but really the first option (which you are trying now) is more efficient and automatic as long as you do not have duplicate content across different products which ideally you wont. That being said it is worth trying the second option on your sub categories, I believe you can do custom layout updates at the category level also and that should help you!

One thing to clarify: You say you expect to see canonicals on urls with sort parameters, but in my experience you will not. I cannot think of a commercial seo module for magento off the top of my head that will handle correct canonical tags for search and filtering parameters. The easiest way to do it is some custom development work which is not that difficult to do if you find someone comfortable with Magento.

Hope that helps!