Moz Q&A is closed.
After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.
Does Google Read URL's if they include a # tag? Re: SEO Value of Clean Url's
-
An ECWID rep stated in regards to an inquiry about how the ECWID url's are not customizable, that "an important thing is that it doesn't matter what these URLs look like, because search engines don't read anything after that # in URLs. " Example http://www.runningboards4less.com/general-motors#!/Classic-Pro-Series-Extruded-2/p/28043025/category=6593891
Basically all of this: #!/Classic-Pro-Series-Extruded-2/p/28043025/category=6593891
That is a snippet out of a conversation where ECWID said that dirty urls don't matter beyond a hashtag...
Is that true? I haven't found any rule that Google or other search engines (Google is really the most important) don't index, read, or place value on the part of the url after a # tag.
-
Thanks Sachin
So basically on sites that use ECWID for their ecommerce, only the main pages on the actual website (not the product pages that ECWID generates which is the part from the hashtag on) get indexed?
Essentially Google is NOT indexing any products because ECWID uses an existing page on a website and shows products there.
Is that correct? For example if you look at an XML sitemap for the running boards site that we used as an example you will see there are only 10 pages on it. However there are over a 1000 different types of running boards sold on the site which have their own pages populate after a #tag in the url: http://www.runningboards4less.com/index.php?option=com_xmap&view=xml&tmpl=component&id=1
-
Traditionally, the search engines ignore everything after the hash-tag because it's usually content contained on the same page or URL. Therefore, those additional URLs should not get indexed (only the part before the hashtag should). As per my experience, they completely disregard anything after the # tag in a URL.
However, it is always advisable to have clean urls as both SEs and people prefer them over complicated one. Clean urls deliver enhanced usability to help users remember and share your URLs more easily. Another benefit of a simple URL is that other sites are more likely to link to a simple URL, because it is easier to do so.
-
Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?
Also if anyone knows how to modify Ecwid urls so that they are "clean", please chime in...
-
Thank you for your response. I am not implying that it is indexing a "separate" url. I am referring to the SEO value of a proper "clean" url for the specific page. ECWID doesn't allow for it's users to create custom urls.
If I were creating a url for the page I listed above, I would have it something like **** .com/chevy-van NOT _.com/#!/Classic-Pro-Series-Extruded-2/p/28043025/category=6593891 _
My question regards the low or lack of any value at all using a url like the long one above and if the statement made by the ECWID rep is factual.
-
These URLs are called AJAX URL- a URL containing a hash fragment, e.g.,
www.example.com/index.html#mystate
, where#mystate
is the hash fragment.Reg. the above mentioned URL- This url is using Hash-Bang (#!) not hashtag, which makes Ajax/ javascript pages crawlable. The basic # indicates a location on a page (anchor) so does not get indexed as a separate URL.
You can find detailed information here- https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/174992?hl=en
https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/174993
Hope this helps!
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
-
URL Injection Hack - What to do with spammy URLs that keep appearing in Google's index?
A website was hacked (URL injection) but the malicious code has been cleaned up and removed from all pages. However, whenever we run a site:domain.com in Google, we keep finding more spammy URLs from the hack. They all lead to a 404 error page since the hack was cleaned up in the code. We have been using the Google WMT Remove URLs tool to have these spammy URLs removed from Google's index but new URLs keep appearing every day. We looked at the cache dates on these URLs and they are vary in dates but none are recent and most are from a month ago when the initial hack occurred. My question is...should we continue to check the index every day and keep submitting these URLs to be removed manually? Or since they all lead to a 404 page will Google eventually remove these spammy URLs from the index automatically? Thanks in advance Moz community for your feedback.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | peteboyd0 -
Do I need to re-index the page after editing URL?
Hi, I had to edit some of the URLs. But, google is still showing my old URL in search results for certain keywords, which ofc get 404. By crawling with ScremingFrog it gets me 301 'page not found' and still giving old URLs. Why is that? And do I need to re-index pages with new URLs? Is 'fetch as Google' enough to do that or any other advice? Thanks a lot, hope the topic will help to someone else too. Dusan
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Chemometec0 -
Alt tag for src='blank.gif' on lazy load images
I didn't find an answer on a search on this, so maybe someone here has faced this before. I am loading 20 images that are in the viewport and a bit below. The next 80 images I want to 'lazy-load'. They therefore are seen by the bot as a blank.gif file. However, I would like to get some credit for them by giving a description in the alt tag. Is that a no-no? If not, do they all have to be the same alt description since the src name is the same? I don't want to mess things up with Google by being too aggressive, but at the same time those are valid images once they are lazy loaded, so would like to get some credit for them. Thanks! Ted
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | friendoffood0 -
Does Google bot read embedded content?
Is embedded content "really" on my page? There are many addons nowadays that are used by embedded code and they bring the texts after the page is loaded. For example - embedded surveys. Are these read by the Google bot or do they in fact act like iframes and are not physically on my page? Thanks
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | BeytzNet0 -
How Google Adwords Can Impact SEO Ranking ?
Hi SEO Gurus, I have a question. How Google Adwords Can Impact SEO Ranking ?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Webdeal
Positive , negative or neutral impact? I will appreciate if you will provide detailed answer Thank you for your time webdeal0 -
Two Pages with the Same Name Different URL's
I was hoping someone could give me some insight into a perplexing issue that I am having with my website. I run an 20K product ecommerce website and I am finding it necessary to have two pages for my content: 1 for content category pages about wigets one for shop pages for wigets 1st page would be .com/shop/wiget/ 2nd page would be .com/content/wiget/ The 1st page would be a catalogue of all the products with filters for the customer to narrow down wigets. So ultimately the URL for the shop page could look like this when the customer filters down... .com/shop/wiget/color/shape/ The second page would be content all about the Wigets. This would be types of wigets colors of wigets, how wigets are used, links to articles about wigets etc. Here are my questions. 1. Is it bad to have two pages about wigets on the site, one for shopping and one for information. The issue here is when I combine my content wiget with my shop wiget page, no one buys anything. But I want to be able to provide Google the best experience for rankings. What is the best approach for Google and the customer? 2. Should I rel canonical all of my .com/shop/wiget/ + .com/wiget/color/ etc. pages to the .com/content/wiget/ page? Or, Should I be canonicalizing all of my .com/shop/wiget/color/etc pages to .com/shop/wiget/ page? 3. Ranking issues. As it is right now, I rank #1 for wiget color. This page on my site would be .com/shop/wiget/color/ . If I rel canonicalize all of my pages to .com/content/wiget/ I am going to loose my rankings because all of my shop/wiget/xxx/xxx/ pages will then point to .com/content/wiget/ page. I am just finding with these massive ecommerce sites that there is WAY to much potential for duplicate content, not enough room to allow Google the ability to rank long tail phrases all the while making it completely complicated to offer people pages that promote buying. As I said before, when I combine my content + shop pages together into one page, my sales hit the floor (like 0 - 15 dollars a day), when i just make a shop page my sales are like (1k+ a day). But I have noticed that ever since Penguin and Panda my rankings have fallen from #1 across the board to #15 and lower for a lot of my phrase with the exception of the one mentioned above. This is why I want to make an information page about wigets and a shop page for people to buy wigets. Please advise if you would. Thanks so much for any insight you can give me!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | SKP0 -
Should I use both Google and Bing's Webmaster Tools at the same time?
Hi All, Up till now I've been registered only to Google WMT. Do you recommend using at the same time Bing's WMT? Thanks
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | BeytzNet0 -
What's your best hidden SEO secret?
Don't take that question too serious but all answers are welcome 😉 Answer to all:
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | petrakraft
"Gentlemen, I see you did you best - at least I hope so! But after all I suppose I am stuck here to go on reading the SEOmoz blog if I can't sqeeze more secrets from you!9