Is it a problem that Google's index shows paginated page urls, even with canonical tags in place?

[94501]

Since Google shows more pages indexed than makes sense, I used Google's API and some other means to get everything Google has in its index for a site I'm working on.

The results bring up a couple of oddities.

It shows a lot of urls to the same page, but with different tracking code.The url with tracking code always follows a question mark and could look like:

http://www.MozExampleURL.com?tracking-example 

http://www.MozExampleURL.com?another-tracking-examle

http://www.MozExampleURL.com?tracking-example-3

etc

So, the only thing that distinguishes one url from the next is a tracking url.

On these pages, canonical tags are in place as:

<link rel="canonical<a class="attribute-value">l</a>" href="http://www.MozExampleURL.com" />

So, why does the index have urls that are only different in terms of tracking urls? I would think it would ignore everything, starting with the question mark.

The index also shows paginated pages. I would think it should show the one canonical url and leave it at that.

Is this a problem about which something should be done?

Best... Darcy

[94501]

Hi Samuel,

Thank you for the detailed answer. A couple of things;

My two "L" typo is just as written here... not on the site. Sorry about that.

On the use of the url parameters indexed, those are used internally, but they're set in GWT as having no effect and to only look at the representative url,.. everything before the question mark.

On your point about rel canonicals, one way we use them is in a category pages which are long lists of other pages. In that case it looks at page one of the long list as the canonical.

With that in mind, along with all the duplicate stuff in the index (paginated page #s, ignored url parameters), what would you suggest I change?

Thanks... Darcy

[SamuelScott]

A couple of things. First, a rel=canonical tag -- like many other things -- is only a suggestion to search engines. Google and others can choose to ignore it, though they rarely do. In your post above, you have "canonicall" spelled with two "l"s -- so it might be as simple as changing that!

Second, just to clarify your teminology: What you are showing is not "tracking code" but "URL paramaters." I'm curious as to why the pages with tracking paramaters are being indexed -- normally, this should not happen at all. How are you using the paramaters? Usually, it should only be used to track traffic from external websites. For example: If I run a Facebook ad campaign, I can add a parameter to the ad's destination URL to track the results of the campaign. Google, however, would not index that special URL as a separate page. I'd review Google's information and recommendations on URL paramaters and perhaps change any settings in Google Webmaster Tools.

Third, the recommended practice for paginated pages is to have a "single page" version of the article and make that canonical for search engines (have all paginated pages point to that single-page one with a rel=canonical tag). This can be done whether you want to show a single-page version for users -- though I'd recommend it because most pagination is a cheap attempt just to get more pageviews for advertising revenue, and it's annoying.

Good luck -- I hope this helps!