How to fix issues regarding URL parameters?
-
Today, I was reading help article for URL parameters by Google.
http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=1235687
I come to know that, Google is giving value to URLs which ave parameters that change or determine the content of a page. There are too many pages in my website with similar value for Name, Price and Number of product. But, I have restricted all pages by Robots.txt with following syntax.
URLs:
http://www.vistastores.com/table-lamps?dir=asc&order=name
http://www.vistastores.com/table-lamps?dir=asc&order=price
http://www.vistastores.com/table-lamps?limit=100Syntax in Robots.txt
Disallow: /?dir=
Disallow: /?p=
Disallow: /*?limit=Now, I am confuse. Which is best solution to get maximum benefits in SEO?
-
No i dont think so, even if the thought they were duplicate, then they will pick one as the original. so one of them will rank.
If you are still concerned use tha canonicall tag, rather them remove them from index
-
Your concern is that, Google will crawl following all pages. If I will not do any thing with those pages. Right?
http://www.vistastores.com/table-lamps
http://www.vistastores.com/table-lamps?limit=100&p=2
http://www.vistastores.com/table-lamps?limit=60&p=2
http://www.vistastores.com/table-lamps?limit=40&p=2
Now, my website is on 3rd page of Google for Discount Table Lamps keyword.
I have fear that, If Google will crawl multiple pages with duplicate Title tag so it may mesh up current ranking for Discount Table Lamps keyword.
What you think about it?
-
If the content is different, then dont do anything, but if it is duplicate us ethe canonical tag.
The meta tages are not a problem, you are not going to get flaged for that, it would be better if you could make them unique but this is a very small problem
-
Will it really work? Because, both page have different content.
http://www.vistastores.com/table-lamps have 100 products and
http://www.vistastores.com/table-lamps?limit=100&p=2 have different + unique 100 products.
One another problem is regarding Meta info. Both page have same Meta info. If Google will index both pages so it may create warning message for duplicate Meta info across too many pages.
-
Thats the advice i gave you, put a canonical tag in the page
rel="canonical" href="http://www.vistastores.com/table-lamps"/>
if google finds http://www.vistastores.com/table-lamps?dir=asc&order=name
it will know it5 is mean to be http://www.vistastores.com/table-lamps
-
Honestly, I did not getting it. Because, I have read one help article about URL parameters by Google.
It shows me some different thing. Google suggested to use Google webmaster tools. But, I have restricted all dynamic pages by robots.txt.
So, I want to know best practice which may help me to gain my crawling and no of indexed pages.
-
I would simplty put a rel canonical in the page point ing to the true URL. so SE's will see them as one page.
It is better to use cononical for the reasons in the google doc you posted, goolge may not pick the nest url to be the canonical, you should make that choice for them
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
-
Changing Url Removes Backlink
Hello MOZ Community, I have question regarding Bad Backlink Removal. My Site's Post's Image got 4 to 5k backlinks from unknown sites and also their is no contact details on their site so that i can contact them to remove. So, I have an idea for which i want suggestion " If I change the url that receieves backlinks" does this will remove backlinks? For Example: https://example.com/test/ got 5k backlinks if I change this url to https://examplee.com/test-failed/ does this will remove those 5k backlinks? If not then How Can I remove those Backlinks? I Know about disavow but this takes time.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Jackson210 -
URL Parameters
Hi Moz Community, I'm working on a website that has URL parameters. After crawling the site, I've implemented canonical tags to all these URLs to prevent them from getting indexed by Google. However, today I've found out that Google has indexed plenty of URL parameters.. 1-Some of these URLs has canonical tags yet they are still indexed and live. 2- Some can't be discovered through site crawling and they are result in 5xx server error. Is there anything else that I can do (other than adding canonical tags) + how can I discover URL parameters indexed but not visible through site crawling? Thanks in advance!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | bbop330 -
Redirecting to Modal URLs
Hi everyone! Long time no chat - hope you're all well! I have a question that for some reason is causing me some trouble. I have a client that is creating a new website, the process was a mess and I am doing a last minute redirect file for them (long story, for another time). They have different teams for different business categories, so there are multiple staff pages with a list of staffers, and a link to their individual pages. Currently they have a structure like this for their staff bios... www.example.com/category-staff/bob-johnson/ But now, to access the staffers bio, a modal pops up. For instance... www.example.com/category-staff/#bob-johnson Should I redirect current staffers URLs to the staff category, or the modal URL? Unfortunately, we are late in the game and this is the way the bio pages are set up. Would love thoughts, thanks so much guys!!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | PatrickDelehanty0 -
Should I disallow all URL query strings/parameters in Robots.txt?
Webmaster Tools correctly identifies the query strings/parameters used in my URLs, but still reports duplicate title tags and meta descriptions for the original URL and the versions with parameters. For example, Webmaster Tools would report duplicates for the following URLs, despite it correctly identifying the "cat_id" and "kw" parameters: /Mulligan-Practitioner-CD-ROM
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | jmorehouse
/Mulligan-Practitioner-CD-ROM?cat_id=87
/Mulligan-Practitioner-CD-ROM?kw=CROM Additionally, theses pages have self-referential canonical tags, so I would think I'd be covered, but I recently read that another Mozzer saw a great improvement after disallowing all query/parameter URLs, despite Webmaster Tools not reporting any errors. As I see it, I have two options: Manually tell Google that these parameters have no effect on page content via the URL Parameters section in Webmaster Tools (in case Google is unable to automatically detect this, and I am being penalized as a result). Add "Disallow: *?" to hide all query/parameter URLs from Google. My concern here is that most backlinks include the parameters, and in some cases these parameter URLs outrank the original. Any thoughts?0 -
Sitemap Issue - vol 2
Hello everyone! I validated the sitemap with different tools (w3Schools, and so on..) and no errors were found. So I uploaded into my site, tested it through GWT and BANG! all of a sudden there is a parsing error, which correspond to the last, and I mean last piece of code of thousand of lines, . I don't know why it isn't reading the code and it's giving me this as there are no other errors and I haven't got a clue about what to do in order to fix it! Thanks
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | PremioOscar0 -
Tracking URLS and Redirects
We have a client with many archived newsletters links that contain tracking code at the end of the URL. These old URLs are pointing to pages that don't exist anymore. Is there a way to set up permanent redirects for these old URLs with tracking code? We have tried and it doesn't seem to work. Thank you!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | BopDesign0 -
Multiple URL's exist for the same page, canonicaliazation issue?
All of the following URL's take me to the same page on my site: 1. www.mysite.com/category1/subcategory.aspx 2. www.mysite.com/subcategory.aspx 3. www.mysite.com/category1/category1/category1/subcategory.aspx All of those pages are canonicalized to #1, so is that okay? I was told the following my a company trying to make our sitemap: "the site's platform dynamically creates URLs that resolve as 200 and should be 404. This is a huge spider trap for any search engine and will make them wary of crawling the site." What would I need to do to fix this? Thanks!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | pbhatt0 -
Issues with Load Balancers?
Has anyone ran into SEO issues with sites utilizing load balancing systems? We're running into some other technical complications (for using 3rd party tracking services), but I'm concerned now that the setup could have a not-so-good impact from an SEO standpoint.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | BMGSEO0