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  4. How to fix issues regarding URL parameters?

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How to fix issues regarding URL parameters?

Intermediate & Advanced SEO
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  • CommercePundit
    CommercePundit last edited by Nov 16, 2011, 11:23 AM

    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=100

    Syntax in Robots.txt
    Disallow: /?dir=
    Disallow: /
    ?p=
    Disallow: /*?limit=

    Now, I am confuse. Which is best solution to get maximum benefits in SEO?

    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
    • AlanMosley
      AlanMosley @CommercePundit last edited by Nov 16, 2011, 12:12 PM Nov 16, 2011, 12:12 PM

      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

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • CommercePundit
        CommercePundit @CommercePundit last edited by Nov 16, 2011, 12:08 PM Nov 16, 2011, 12:07 PM

        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?

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • AlanMosley
          AlanMosley @CommercePundit last edited by Nov 16, 2011, 12:00 PM Nov 16, 2011, 12:00 PM

          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

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • CommercePundit
            CommercePundit @CommercePundit last edited by Nov 16, 2011, 11:56 AM Nov 16, 2011, 11:56 AM

            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.

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • AlanMosley
              AlanMosley @CommercePundit last edited by Nov 16, 2011, 11:51 AM Nov 16, 2011, 11:51 AM

              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

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • CommercePundit
                CommercePundit @AlanMosley last edited by Nov 16, 2011, 11:47 AM Nov 16, 2011, 11:47 AM

                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.

                AlanMosley CommercePundit 5 Replies Last reply Nov 16, 2011, 12:12 PM Reply Quote 0
                • AlanMosley
                  AlanMosley last edited by Nov 16, 2011, 11:40 AM Nov 16, 2011, 11:40 AM

                  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

                  CommercePundit 1 Reply Last reply Nov 16, 2011, 11:47 AM Reply Quote 0
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