Disallowing URL Parameters vs. Canonicalizing
-
Hi all,
I have a client that has a unique search setup. So they have Region pages (/state/city). We want these indexed and are using self-referential canonicals.
They also have a search function that emulates the look of the Region pages. When you search for, say, Los Angeles, the URL changes to _/search/los+angeles _and looks exactly like /ca/los-angeles.
These search URLs can also have parameters (/search/los+angeles?age=over-2&time[]=part-time), which we obviously don't want indexed.
Right now my concern is how best to ensure the /search pages don't get indexed and we don't get hit with duplicate content penalties. The options are this:
-
Self-referential canonicals for the Region pages, and disallow everything after the second slash in /search/ (so the main search page is indexed)
-
Self-referential canonicals for the Region pages, and write a rule that automatically canonicalizes all other search pages to /search.
Potential Concern: /search/ URLs are created even with misspellings.
Thanks!
-
-
Just so you know Meta no-index can be applied through the HTML but also through the HTTP header which might make it easier to implement on such a highly generated website
-
Yeah, I know the difference between the two, I've just been in a situation where canonicals were recommended as a means of controlling the preferred page _within an indexation context. _If that makes sense.
My biggest concern is with the creation of URLs from misspellings, which still return search results if it's close enough. The redirects could work. Honestly that wasn't something we considered.
I'm liking the noindex approach. They'd have to write a rule that applies it to every page created with a search parameter, which I think they should be able to do.
If it helps, almost the entire site is run by Javascript. Like...everything.
Thanks for the advice. Much appreciated.
-Brad
-
Robots.txt controls crawling, not indexation. Google will still sometimes index pages they cannot crawl. Canonical tags are for duplicate content consolidation, but are not a hard signal and Google frequently ignores them. Meta no-index tags (or X-robots no-index through the HTTP header, if you cannot apply Meta no-index in the HTML) is a harder signal and is meant to help you control indexation
To be honest if the pages are identical why not just 301 redirect the relevant searches (the top-line ones, which result in pages exactly the same as your regional ones) to the regional URLs? If the pages really are the same, it won't be any different for users except for a small delay during the redirect (which won't really be felt, especially if you are using Nginx redirects)
If you can't do that, you're really left with the Meta no-index tag and the canonical tag. Canonical tags avoid content duplication penalties but are a softer signal and they don't consolidate link equity like 301 redirects do (so in many way, there's not actually that much different between Meta no-index and canonicals, except canonical tags are more complex to set up in the first place as they require a destination field)
I'd probably just Meta no-index all the search URLs. Once Google had swallowed that, I would then (after 2-3 weeks) apply the relevant robots.txt rules
If you apply them both at the same time, Google won't be able to crawl the search URLs (since your robots.txt rule will block them) and therefore they will be blind to your canonical / Meta no index directive(s). So you have to handle de-indexation first, and THEN after that block the crawling to save your crawl allowance a bit
But don't do it all at once or you'll get in an unholy mess!
-
Hi there
Canonical tags prevent problems caused by identical or "duplicate" content across multiple URLs. So in this instance implement the disallow rule on al of the URLs containing /search/
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
-
Same URL for languages sub-directories
Hi All, I have a main domain and 9 different subdirectories for languages, example: www.example.com/page.html www.example.com/uk/page-uk.html www.example.com/es/page-es.html we are implementing hreflang tags for the languages, but we are thinking to get rid of the dashes on the languages URL: -uk or -es, so it will be: www.example.com/page.html www.example.com/uk/page.html www.example.com/es/page.hrml would this be a problem? to have same page names even if they are in different subdirectories? would we need to add canonical tags, at lease for the main domain URLs? www.kornferry.com/page.html Thank you, Rachel
Technical SEO | | RaquelSaiz0 -
If a URL canonically points to another link, is that URL indexed?
Hi, I have two URL both talking about keyword phrase 'counting aggregated cells' The first URL has canonical link pointing to the second URL, but if one searches for 'counting aggregated cells' both URLs are shown in the results. The first URL is the pdf, and i need only second URL (the landing page) to be shown in the search results. The canonical links should tell Google which URL to index, i don't understand why both URLs are present in search results? Is 'noindex' for the first URL only solution? I am using Yoast SEO for my website. Thank you for the answers.
Technical SEO | | Chemometec0 -
Blocked URL parameters can still be crawled and indexed by google?
Hy guys, I have two questions and one might be a dumb question but there it goes. I just want to be sure that I understand: IF I tell webmaster tools to ignore an URL Parameter, will google still index and rank my url? IS it ok if I don't append in the url structure the brand filter?, will I still rank for that brand? Thanks, PS: ok 3 questions :)...
Technical SEO | | catalinmoraru0 -
Canonical URLs in an eCommerce site
We have a website with 4 product categories (1. ice cream parlors, 2. frozen yogurt shops etc.). A few sub-categories (e.g. toppings, smoothies etc.) and the products contained in those are available in more than one product category (e.g. the smoothies are available in the "ice cream parlors" category, but also in the "frozen yogurt shops" category). My question: Unfortunately the website has been designed in a way that if a subcategory (e.g. smoothies) is available in more than 1 category, then itself (the subcategory page) + all its product pages will be automatically visible under various different urls. So now I have several urls for one and the same product: www.example.com/strawberry-smoothie|SMOOTHIES|FROZEN-YOGURT-SHOPS-391-2-5 and http://www.example.com/strawberry-smoothie|SMOOTHIES|ICE-CREAM-PARLORS-391-1-5 And also several ones for one and the same sub-category (they all include exactly the same set of products): http://www.example.com/SMOOTHIES-1-12-0-4 (the smoothies contained in the ice cream parlors category) http://www.example.com/SMOOTHIES-2-12-0-4 (the same smoothies, contained in the frozen yogurt shops category) This is happening with around 100 pages. I would add canonical tags to the duplicates, but I'm afraid that by doing so, the category (frozen yogurt shops) that contains several non-canonical sub-categories (smoothies, toppings etc.) , might not show up anymore in search results or become irrelevant for Google when searching for example for "products for frozen yoghurt shops". Do you know if this would be actually the case? I hope I explained it well..
Technical SEO | | Gabriele_Layoutweb0 -
How to do ip canonicalization ?
Hi , my website is opening with IP too. i think its duplicate content for google...only home page is opening with ip, no other pages, how can i fix it?, might be using .htaccess i am able to do...but don't know proper code for this...this website is on wordpress platform... Thanks Ramesh
Technical SEO | | unibiz0 -
Friendly URLS (SEO urls)
Hello, I own a eCommerce site with more than 5k of products, urls of products are : www.site.com/index.php?route=product/product&path=61_87&product_id=266 Im thinking about make it friend to seo site.com/category/product-brand Here is my question,will I lost ranks for make that change? Its very important to me know it Thank you very much!
Technical SEO | | matiw0 -
Would you shorten this url, and if so how?
I designed the structure of my website way before I even thought about SEO. I run a website that requires me to categorize articles is somewhat deep nested categories so an example url would be as follows http://www.yakangler.com/articles/news/new-products/boats/item/1442-jackson-kayak-launches-the-big-tuna Would you shorten the url to somethign like this? http://www.yakangler.com/a/n/np/b/item/1442-jackson-kayak-launches-the-big-tuna If so how would you manage the redirects I'm unsure how to add a 301 redirect in my .htaccess file that wouldn't require me to add one for every single article. Could I do it with a rule that recognizes only the middle part of the url and redirect it accordingly? Thanks for any advice you might have!
Technical SEO | | mr_w0 -
Can I Disallow Faceted Nav URLs - Robots.txt
I have been disallowing /*? So I know that works without affecting crawling. I am wondering if I can disallow the faceted nav urls. So disallow: /category.html/? /category2.html/? /category3.html/*? To prevent the price faceted url from being cached: /category.html?price=1%2C1000
Technical SEO | | tylerfraser
and
/category.html?price=1%2C1000&product_material=88 Thanks!0