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  4. Vanity URLs are being indexed in Google

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Vanity URLs are being indexed in Google

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  • seogirl22
    seogirl22 last edited by Nov 30, 2015, 4:32 PM

    We are currently using vanity URLs to track offline marketing, the vanity URL is structured as www.clientdomain.com/publication, this URL then is 302 redirected to the actual URL on the website not a custom landing page. The resulting redirected URL looks like:  www.clientdomain.com/xyzpage?utm_source=print&utm_medium=print&utm_campaign=printcampaign.

    We have started to notice that some of the vanity URLs are being indexed in Google search. To prevent this from happening should we be using a 301 redirect instead of a 302 and will the Google index ignore the utm parameters in the URL that is being 301 redirect to?  If not, any suggestions on how to handle?

    Thanks,

    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
    • seogirl22
      seogirl22 @OlegKorneitchouk last edited by Dec 1, 2015, 10:22 PM Dec 1, 2015, 10:22 PM

      Thanks for your quick response and your recommendations!

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • OlegKorneitchouk
        OlegKorneitchouk last edited by Dec 2, 2015, 11:03 PM Nov 30, 2015, 8:36 PM

        1. Yes, use 301 instead of 302. 301 would pass any authority (i.e. any backlinks) that the vanity URL gains to the actual page whereas a 302 doesn't.

        2. Add a canonical URL to www.clientdomain.com/xyzpage so that search engines only index 1 version of the page

        That should do it!

        seogirl22 1 Reply Last reply Dec 1, 2015, 10:22 PM Reply Quote 2
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