Should this site be using Rel=Canonical VS No Index

[Andrew-SEO]

I'm currently working on this site

https://www.visitliverpool.com/accommodation

I've been watching this video by Rand - https://moz.com/blog/rel-canonical but it's still unclear in this scenario.

if you use the search facility "check availability" half way down the page the results page (urlparams) are no indexed. Would it be better to index and canonicalise?

There is no similar content but I'm concerned that no index will remove the ability for semantic content to be  visible to google.

LADkajY

[Andrew-SEO]

Thanks for this. I will set up the canonicalisation accordingly.

In regards to the internal clicks. I guess I was hoping that all the clicks would essentially be added together. As in - All of the actual page clicks and all the clicks variations with URL parameters.

But as internal clicks are not a ranking factor it doesn't matter.

Are the links to the page with parameters the only way the 'source' page benefits through using a cannnonical?

[ThompsonPaul]

This is a classic case where rel-canonical should be applied. The two URLs are identical except one has had a query string added. By including a self-referential canonical tag on the main URL, it will automatically catch the same URLs with query strings added.

This will help avoid a situation where someone gets to the guest house page via the internal search tool and links to it, but the link is wasted because the page is no-indexed.

As far as internal links - they are reported in Google Search Console in the Search Traffic section and are a general way to assess whether your internal link scheme is appropriately linking to the most important pages, but it doesn't measure clicks.

Internal link clicks are not a ranking factor - but should that matter? You should be optimising them to generate more engagement with your site's content regardless, yea?

[Andrew-SEO]

Hi Paul

Yes that is most helpful. I have a sub-question. I hope that's ok. You've been very helpful. Please see below.

I've also reposted it here - https://moz.com/community/q/internal-clicks-and-ctr-is-rel-canonical-better-than-noindex-in-this-case

Andrew

[Andrew-SEO]

Thanks Paul that's helpful.

I will keep the results no indexed.

When you click one of the results it takes you to a product. But the product also has URL Params and is also no indexed.

e.g. https://www.visitliverpool.com/accommodation/albion-guest-house-p305431?bookurl=%2Fbook-online%3Fstage%3Dunitsel%26isostartdate%3D2017-10-31%26nights%3D1%26roomReq_1_adults%3D1%26NumRoomReqs%3D1%26fuzzy%3D0%26product%3D305431

The product also exists as this which is indexed

https://www.visitliverpool.com/accommodation/albion-guest-house-p305431

Should I canonicalise is this instance?

Does CTR apply to internal links? i.e. Does search console consider internal clicks? Are internal clicks a ranking factor?

[ThompsonPaul]

Search results pages should pretty well always be no-indexed. Definitely the case in this instance.

Which makes sense if you think about it. What value would there be in a search result in the SERPS for every variation of date, time, number of beds etc? None. And your site would have a literally infinite number of those pages for the search engine to try to index, as every combination of variables creates orders of magnitude of page variations.

So long story short - keep 'em no-indexed.

Hope that helps?

Paul