Unlimited Product Pages
-
While browsing through my Moz campaign, I noticed that my site is pulling up unlimited numbers of product pages even though no products appear on them. i.e.
http://www.interstellarstore.com/star-trek-memorabilia?page=16
http://www.interstellarstore.com/star-trek-memorabilia?page=100
http://www.interstellarstore.com/star-trek-memorabilia?page=200
I have no ideal how to resolve this issue. I can't possible 301 an unlimited number of pages, and I can see this being a big SEO problem. Any thoughts?
-
Everett, you've been incredibly helpful - thank you!
-
This is a deeper issue that will probably require the help of a developer, though it shouldn't take them long to fix. Basically, paginated category pages that have ZERO products should return a 404 status code because they really shouldn't exist. The fact that any content appears on those URLs is a bug that needs to be fixed, because they should show "Page Not Found". Also, as you mentioned, the very last page in the set should NOT have a Rel "Next" tag, and there should be no links, (whether href or javascript) to subsequent pages beyond the last one with products on it.
-
Oh I understand now, thank you!
_**Re #1: **_Would putting Rel Prev on the last page in the set resolve the issue? Or is this a deeper issue within my website code which needs to be resolved by not allowing pages to be created beyond the end of the paginated set?
-
#1. The way you're handing paginated URLs with products on them is fine, but the problem is when you get to the end of the paginated set and the system continues to make pages even though there are no more products to show. That is the issue I was trying to help you resolve, which is not the same as paginated pages that show products.
#2 Yes, the canonical for the brand pages should be the URL listed above as "Category". Thus both the "Category" URL and the "Brand" URL in your example should list the Category URL as Canonical.
I agree that this is likely the cause of your duplicate title issues.
-
Thank you for the link, but I'm still unsure about these two specific issues.
Issue One:
So I have say the two below links, which are the same category but just page 1 and 2.
Page 1: http://www.interstellarstore.com/star-wars-memorabilia
Page 2: http://www.interstellarstore.com/star-wars-memorabilia/page/2/
Should Page 1 be the Canonical for all subsequent pages, or by their own rights is Page 2 and onward considered their own page? From what I understand of the former this would cause a Duplicate Title problem. The latter however would surely cause problems for Google as it would ignore all of the products on Pages 2 and onward?
Currently I have Rel Canonical and Rel Prev/Next in place, am I correct in thinking this is the correct way to do this?
Issue Two:
One of the below links is the main category (Canonical) while the other is indirect from the Brand option available on our site.
Category: http://www.interstellarstore.com/star-wars-memorabilia
Brand: http://www.interstellarstore.com/star-wars-memorabilia?page=2%2F
Am I correct in thinking that the Canonical URL displayed on the Brand page should in fact be the Category URL above?
I'm sorry for all the questions, I'm just trying to make heads to tails of the issue. Currently there are over 20,000 Duplicate Title issues and I'm thinking this may be the cause.
-
It means the page has a Rel="Canonical" tag that tells search engines it is the right page to show in search results -- as opposed to one that says another page should show up instead. You can learn more here.
-
What do you mean by ''self-referencing Rel ="canonical" tags''?
-
Google may have figured out that they don't want those pages in their index, but the problem still exists and needs to be fixed. The pages show a 200 status code, do not have a robots Noindex tag, and have self-referencing Rel ="canonical" tags. All of these things are problems, but if you just have the system return a 404 status code on those pages that don't list any products you should be fine.
-
Hello Everett, according to Oleg these pages aren't being indexed, so the resulting soft 404's aren't a problem, correct?
-
Hello Oleg. I noticed by accident. Instead of entering page 2, I entered page 20 and then noticed the problem. I then entered 200, 1000 and so on and found no matter what number I entered a page with no products always showed up.
Thanks for letting me know about Google not picking up on them, that makes me feel a whole lot better!
-
Hello Spacecollective,
Your shopping cart is throwing Soft 404 errors on paginated URLs that don't exist. These pages need to return a 404 status code in order to be removed from the index and to address this issue. And yes, it can be a big problem.
I did a quick search for "OpenCart soft 404 errors" and here's a forum post that might help you out:
http://forum.opencart.com/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=102748
Good luck!
-
I can see the links working in reverse (page=200 links to page=199 via rel="prev" code) but what is the largest number and where did that link come from?
Good news is that Google isn't picking up on those urls so you should be find rankings wise (its a Moz crawler issue) - https://www.google.com/search?q=site:http://www.interstellarstore.com/star-trek-memorabilia%3Fpage%3D&start=0
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
-
External 404 pages
A client of mine is linking to a third-party vendor from their main site. The page being linked to loads with a Page Not Found error and then replaces some application content once the Javascript kicks in. This process is not visible to users (the application loads fine for front-end users) but it is being picked up as a 404 error in broken link reports. This link is part of the site skin so it's on every page. Outside of the annoyance of having lots of 404 errors being flagged in a broken link report, does this cause any actual issue? Eg, do search enginges see that my client is linking to something that is a 404 error, and does that cause them any harm?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | mkleamy0 -
What is the impact of an off-topic page to other pages on the site?
We are working with a client who has one irrelevant, off-topic post ranking incredibly well and driving a lot of traffic. However, none of the other pages on the site, that are relevant to this client's business, are ranking. Links are good and in-line with competitors for the various terms. Oddly, very few external links reference this off-topic post, most are to the home page. Local profile is also in-line with competitors, including reviews, categorization, geo-targeting, pictures, etc. No spam issues exist and no warnings in Google Search Console. The only thing that seems weird is this off-topic post but that could affect rankings on other pages of the site? Would removing that off-topic post potentially help increase traffic and rankings for the other more relevant pages of the site? Appreciate any and all help or ideas of where to go from here. Thanks!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Matthew_Edgar0 -
SEO implication of adding large number of new product pages
If I have an eCommerce website containing 10,000 product pages and then I add 10,000 new product pages using a bulk upload (with limited/basic but unique content), does this pose any SEO risk? I am obviously aware of the risks of adding a large number of low quality content to the website, which is not the case here, however what I am trying to ascertain is whether simply doubling the number of pages in itself causes any risk to our SEO efforts? Does it flag to the Search Engines that something "spammy" is happening (even if its not)
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | DHS_SH0 -
Different Header on Home Page vs Sub pages
Hello, I am an SEO/PPC manager for a company that does a medical detox. You can see the site in question here: http://opiates.com. My question is, I've never heard of it specifically being a problem to have a different header on the home page of the site than on the subpages, but I rarely see it either. Most sites, if i'm not mistaken, use a consistent header across most of the site. However, a person i'm working for now said that she has had other SEO's look at the site (above) and they always say that it is a big SEO problem to have a different header on the homepage than on the subpages. Any thoughts on this subject? I've never heard of this before. Thanks, Jesse
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Waismann0 -
Wrong page in serps
Hi
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | niclaus78
I've been working with a law firm's website for a couple of years and we've encounter a problem. The pages were divided to target employers and employees separately. For the very targeted keywords mentioning either employees or employers everything was good but for broader less targeted keywords e.g unfair dismissal keywords chooses either one or the other which is a problem. Now I created this ''bridge'' pages where all the topics are explained and then users are directed to and then they will chose where to go. the problem is a lot of off page was created during this years either targeting on or the other. What I plan to do is: -Create a new site map and changing the priority, so the new pages will have a priority 1 and the others less. - bookmarks, articles, etc will be targeting now to the new pages. I place the new pages linked from the home page so that they get the link juice of the home page and they are also now more a category page in the map, so a level up comparing to the previous ones. Questions: 1- Is it worthwhile adding a rel canonical tag to the new pages and rel alternate to previous pages, or if its not a question of duplicate content it shouldn't have an impact? What other things should I take into consideration? Thanks a lot. nico0 -
Landing Page - Home Page redesign SEO factor question - Serious concern.
Hi Folks, I'm considering making a big change to our website and really need some expert advise. Will we lose ranking if we do what I propose? Our site www.meninkilts.com, needs to split users/clients by "Commercial" and "Residential" so we can message/market completely differently to each client. We are considering doing this structure: Landing Page | | Commercial Homepage Residential Homepage Right now we rank well, for our keywords like "Window Cleaning cityname" but are worried that adding a landing page, and splitting our site to two homepages will effect seo (ie: a landing page would only have two buttons: one for commercial and one for residential). What would be the best way to handle this. Looking forward to your insights! Cheers Brent
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | MenInKilts0 -
Pages that were ranking now are not?
Hi Folks Noticed something strange just now pages that were ranking on position 10 on Google for searches such as 'ufc trainer kinect best price' at the start of this week are no longer ranking? Is what has happened to the site the famous google dance or sandbox effect as the site only officially went live on Monday If this is the case what is the recommended course of action to get back ranking competitively again? as I have no idea on what has gone wrong as I has always tried to follow best practice from these forums and the SEOMOZ and YOUMOZ articles My site is www.cheapfindergames.com Many Thanks Ian
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | ocelot0 -
Page titles
Hi Guys, Hope your all well and business is good. I have been going through and changing page titles for my site which is currently huge attracting massive amounts of traffic. However from my pro membership i have notice a lot of the rankings in Google search engine has decreased. I have been using a strategy that i read on SEOMoz which is; example Keyword | Page heading | company name Is this why? if so what is the best method? I have changed nothing else so far.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | wazza19850