Canonical Tags & GWT Parameters
-
A site I'm working on has canonical tags which I find to be accurate, regardless of tracking parameters or anything else added to the url. The tag looks like:
And we have alot of parameters in Google Search Console that look like
Parameter Crawl
page Let Googlebot Decide
destination Let Googlebot Decide
filters Let Googlebot Decide
Since all of our parameters follow a question mark, like
http://www.examplesite.com/questions/avocados?source=ad12345
and all of our pages have canonical tags showing the representative url without the additional parameters, why wouldn't we just have the one parameter in GWT as
Parameter Crawl
? Representative URL
I ask because I find that Google analytics shows pages with parameters as landing pages in search, which has me concerned about Google seeing it as duplicate content.
Thanks! Best... Darcy
-
Thanks, Dirk!
-
If Google for some reason chooses another url as the preferred version rather than the canonical I think you can assume that links to the duplicates are counted as links to the preferred version - no hard evidence to confirm this however.
If you check the Best Practices- Be consistent: Try to keep your internal linking consistent. For example, don't link to
http://www.example.com/page/
andhttp://www.example.com/page
andhttp://www.example.com/page/index.htm
.
So if possible - rather link to the canonical than the parameter version.
On duplicate content in general - there is an interesting article on Kissmetrics - https://blog.kissmetrics.com/myths-about-duplicate-content/
Dirk
- Be consistent: Try to keep your internal linking consistent. For example, don't link to
-
Hi Dirk,
One last clarification...
If Google ignores the canonical and chooses to take the url with parameters seriously, do you think this is causing a duplicate content issue or at least loss of link juice problem?
For instance, the navigation has parameters. If Google chooses to see a page with parameters as index-worthy instead of the canonical, is it then two duplicates splitting the link juice flowing to what we hoped was the one true url for the page? That would be no bueno.
Thanks! Best... Darcy
-
The problem with canonical url is that it's just a request to Google to index the canonical rather than the real url - Google however is not obliged to do this (to quote google:
"This (=canonical) indicates the preferred URL to use so that the search results will be more likely to show users that URL structure. (Note: We attempt to respect this, but cannot guarantee this in all cases.)"
Example: if all your internal links go to mysite.com/page¶m=xyz with canonical mysite.com/page Google will probably still rather index the real url mysite.com/page¶m=xyz rather than the canonical version.
If you want to be absolutely sure that the parameter version is not indexed you should redirect the parameter version to the non-parameter version with a 301 which is a (binding) directive that Google has to follow.
You could use the parameter tool in Webmaster tools - but you run a risk that if you do it the wrong way Google will not index these pages at all. In any case - it will not solve your reporting issue in Analytics (as people coming from other sources with parameters will still be measured on the parameter url)
Dirk
-
HI Dirk,
Super helpful insight... thanks!
On the people still visiting the page, if they are landing there out of search, why is Google showing them the url with parameters as opposed to just the representative url? That's the part that has me concerned... landing out of search on a page with parameters.
Best... Darcy
-
If you added the canonicals there is no need to configure parameters in search console.
The issue you have in Analytics is not the same - even if google is respecting the canonicals people are still visiting the pages with the parameters and these are tracked in analytics. You can however tell analytics to ignore the parameters and only measure the traffic on the "main" version of the page. A detailed how to can be found here: http://blog.crazyegg.com/2013/03/29/remove-url-parameters-from-google-analytics-reports/
Dirk
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
-
Query on Implementing Product Impression Via Tag Manager?
Hi All, I have to implement Product Impression tracking as per this - https://developers.google.com/tag-manager/enhanced-ecommerce#product-impressions but In our product listing page we show 33 products in total. If we need to track the product impression of only those products which are visible currently in the screen. If we have 3 products in one row, then there should be 3 product impressions and when we do 2nd scroll then again 6 product impression and so on. How can we implement this? In this guide - https://developers.google.com/tag-manager/enhanced-ecommerce#product-impressions nothing mention like such things. In my case we I scroll the page on 1st scroll only 33 impression fall down even though I am able to see only 3 products. Hope you understood what I mean?
Reporting & Analytics | | dhisman
Thanks!0 -
A/B Testing Through Google Tag Manager
Hi I have just started working on Google Tag Manager and trying to implement all important tags through Tag Manager only. Can we also implement A/B Testing (Experiment in Analytics) through Google Tag manager.
Reporting & Analytics | | RuchiPardal0 -
Google Search Console (new GWT) - Does a language specific sub folder need its own GSC profile
HI I've got a clients site set which targets 3 language/countries: English via the main site on the domain.com Turkish via a Turkish language site on a subfolder domain.com/tr/ And German via domain.de The devs have set up .com and .de in GSC and is reporting data in both However there's no data in the domain/com/tr GSC profile ! Is that because its on a subfolder so data pertaining to it is being reported in the main domain.com GSC account ? Or does something more need to be done to set up the Turkish subfolder in GSC ? If so what ? All Best Dan
Reporting & Analytics | | Dan-Lawrence0 -
Verifying Site Ownership & Setting Up Webmaster tools for clients who use Hubspot
We are a Hubspot partner agency. I'm trying to find the best route for managing Google's tools as an extra resource for insight, not the primary basis for marketing effort. I also want to explore adwords in more depth. Finding a lot of our clients don't have one or the other or both Analytics/Webmaster tools in place. Can I verify site ownership to set up webmaster tools simply by having admin access to their analytics account or will that require ownership of the analytics account? With Google merging things together these days I'm not sure of the best approach to take. Usually clients have their site hosted somewhere and built on some platform and ADD a Hubspot blog and the landing pages/cta's, Hubspot tools on a subdomain hosted by Hubspot. Hubspot has tools in it's website settings for adding google analytics (actually it's just a field to add code to the header area). If a client has universal analytics on their primary domain do I still need to go and add a separate analytics property for the subdomain and go through Hubspot's tools to install it on the subdomain? Or just use the same code from their primary domain and add it to the Hubspot header? What is the best route? Any additional thoughts on this subject are welcome - with so much updating and changing coming from Google (and Hubspot as we implement 3.0 - COS) I'm trying to avoid wasted effort, outdated methods, etc. Thanks!
Reporting & Analytics | | rhgraves651 -
How to remove unwanted dynamic parameters from a URL in Google Analytics
Hi, Would really appreciate some help with this. I have been experimenting with RegEx to achieve this but as I’ve never used it before am currently failing miserably. We have conversion pages i need to set goals for that are formatted as below: https://www.domain.co.uk//Application_Form/(S(ewhbqp5cki0mppuzukunkqno))/enterCardDetails.aspx I need to remove the (s(xxx)) section from the URL as rather than one pages i currently have thousands of unique URL's. What’s catching me out is that as it’s not a URL parameter I can’t discount and as half way through can’t just do head matches etc to /entercarddetails Help would be much appreciated. Thanks.
Reporting & Analytics | | Sarbs0 -
Why is Benetton ranking with tracking parameters?
For this search: https://www.google.com/search?q=benetton&pws=0 I see the following URL ranking #1 http://www.benetton.com/?utm_source=centrum.sk&utm_medium=listing Why is this happening? I could likely figure it out but I'm busy so I was hoping someone could dig around and let me know 🙂 Anyone? Incidentally, Benetton is in the middle of a massive campaign at the moment so it's strange timing for them to have this showing up and screwing with their GA tracking... EDIT: I should clarify, Benetton is not a client - I don't know anyone who works for or with them. I'm just curious why this is showing up. cmNWx.png
Reporting & Analytics | | TomCritchlow1 -
Subdomains and SEO - Analytics & Webmaster Tools Setup Help
Any advice on the following greatly appreciated: How to get multiple subdomain data into 1 Google Analytics profile? Can we get multiple subdomain data into Google Webmaster Tools (and if so how?) or do we need to set GWT up per subdomain?
Reporting & Analytics | | AndyMacLean0 -
Google Analytics - paid & unpaid visits messed up
I guess Google Analytics messes up my paid and unpaid visits. In the list of top 10 kw's sending non-paid traffic it shows 5 very short kw's that we don't rank for at all (checked with RankTracker - we are not in first 50 search results). But these are the kw's we advertise for... One more proof: Webmaster Tools 'Search queries' shows 10 times less 'Clicks' from organic search than Google Analytics. Is there anyone who is experiencing this kind of problems with GA? Is there anything you can do with it?
Reporting & Analytics | | Alexey_mindvalley0