Unlimited Product Pages
-
While browsing through my Moz campaign, I noticed that my site is pulling up unlimited numbers of product pages even though no products appear on them. i.e.
http://www.interstellarstore.com/star-trek-memorabilia?page=16
http://www.interstellarstore.com/star-trek-memorabilia?page=100
http://www.interstellarstore.com/star-trek-memorabilia?page=200
I have no ideal how to resolve this issue. I can't possible 301 an unlimited number of pages, and I can see this being a big SEO problem. Any thoughts?
-
Everett, you've been incredibly helpful - thank you!
-
This is a deeper issue that will probably require the help of a developer, though it shouldn't take them long to fix. Basically, paginated category pages that have ZERO products should return a 404 status code because they really shouldn't exist. The fact that any content appears on those URLs is a bug that needs to be fixed, because they should show "Page Not Found". Also, as you mentioned, the very last page in the set should NOT have a Rel "Next" tag, and there should be no links, (whether href or javascript) to subsequent pages beyond the last one with products on it.
-
Oh I understand now, thank you!
_**Re #1: **_Would putting Rel Prev on the last page in the set resolve the issue? Or is this a deeper issue within my website code which needs to be resolved by not allowing pages to be created beyond the end of the paginated set?
-
#1. The way you're handing paginated URLs with products on them is fine, but the problem is when you get to the end of the paginated set and the system continues to make pages even though there are no more products to show. That is the issue I was trying to help you resolve, which is not the same as paginated pages that show products.
#2 Yes, the canonical for the brand pages should be the URL listed above as "Category". Thus both the "Category" URL and the "Brand" URL in your example should list the Category URL as Canonical.
I agree that this is likely the cause of your duplicate title issues.
-
Thank you for the link, but I'm still unsure about these two specific issues.
Issue One:
So I have say the two below links, which are the same category but just page 1 and 2.
Page 1: http://www.interstellarstore.com/star-wars-memorabilia
Page 2: http://www.interstellarstore.com/star-wars-memorabilia/page/2/
Should Page 1 be the Canonical for all subsequent pages, or by their own rights is Page 2 and onward considered their own page? From what I understand of the former this would cause a Duplicate Title problem. The latter however would surely cause problems for Google as it would ignore all of the products on Pages 2 and onward?
Currently I have Rel Canonical and Rel Prev/Next in place, am I correct in thinking this is the correct way to do this?
Issue Two:
One of the below links is the main category (Canonical) while the other is indirect from the Brand option available on our site.
Category: http://www.interstellarstore.com/star-wars-memorabilia
Brand: http://www.interstellarstore.com/star-wars-memorabilia?page=2%2F
Am I correct in thinking that the Canonical URL displayed on the Brand page should in fact be the Category URL above?
I'm sorry for all the questions, I'm just trying to make heads to tails of the issue. Currently there are over 20,000 Duplicate Title issues and I'm thinking this may be the cause.
-
It means the page has a Rel="Canonical" tag that tells search engines it is the right page to show in search results -- as opposed to one that says another page should show up instead. You can learn more here.
-
What do you mean by ''self-referencing Rel ="canonical" tags''?
-
Google may have figured out that they don't want those pages in their index, but the problem still exists and needs to be fixed. The pages show a 200 status code, do not have a robots Noindex tag, and have self-referencing Rel ="canonical" tags. All of these things are problems, but if you just have the system return a 404 status code on those pages that don't list any products you should be fine.
-
Hello Everett, according to Oleg these pages aren't being indexed, so the resulting soft 404's aren't a problem, correct?
-
Hello Oleg. I noticed by accident. Instead of entering page 2, I entered page 20 and then noticed the problem. I then entered 200, 1000 and so on and found no matter what number I entered a page with no products always showed up.
Thanks for letting me know about Google not picking up on them, that makes me feel a whole lot better!
-
Hello Spacecollective,
Your shopping cart is throwing Soft 404 errors on paginated URLs that don't exist. These pages need to return a 404 status code in order to be removed from the index and to address this issue. And yes, it can be a big problem.
I did a quick search for "OpenCart soft 404 errors" and here's a forum post that might help you out:
http://forum.opencart.com/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=102748
Good luck!
-
I can see the links working in reverse (page=200 links to page=199 via rel="prev" code) but what is the largest number and where did that link come from?
Good news is that Google isn't picking up on those urls so you should be find rankings wise (its a Moz crawler issue) - https://www.google.com/search?q=site:http://www.interstellarstore.com/star-trek-memorabilia%3Fpage%3D&start=0
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
-
When serving a 410 for page gone, should I serve an error page?
I'm removing a bunch of old & rubbish pages and was going to serve 410 to tell google they're gone (my understanding is it'll get them out of the index a bit quicker than a 404). I should still serve an error page though, right? Similar to a 404. That doesn't muddy the "gone" message that I'm giving Google? There's no need to 410 and die?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | HSDOnline0 -
How many links to the same page can there be for each page?
I need to know if I can add more than 2 equal links on the same page, for example 1 link in the header, another in the body and one in the footer
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Jorgesep0 -
Merging Pages and SEO
Hi, We are redesigning our website the following way: Before: Page A with Content A, Page B with Content B, Page C with Content C, etc
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | viatrading1
e.g. one page for each Customer Returns, Overstocks, Master Case, etc
Now: Page D with content A + B + C etc.
e.g. one long page containing all Product Conditions, one after the other So we are merging multiples pages into one.
What is the best way to do so, so we don't lose traffic? (or we lose the minimum possible) e.g. should we 301 Redirect A/B/C to D...?
Is it likely that we lose significant traffic with this change? Thank you,0 -
Does Google still don't index Hashtag Links ? No chance to get a Search Result that leads directly to a section of a page? or to one of numeras Hashtag Pages in a single HTML page?
Does Google still don't index Hashtag Links ? No chance to get a Search Result that leads directly to a section of a page? or to one of numeras Hashtag Pages in a single HTML page? If I have 4 or 5 different hashtag link section pages , consolidated into one HTML Page, no chance to get one of the Hashtag Pages to appear as a search result? like, if under one Single Page Travel Guide I have two essential sections: #Attractions #Visa no chance to direct search queries for Visa directly to the Hashtag Link Section of #Visa? Thanks for any help
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Muhammad_Jabali0 -
Optimize the category page or a content page?
Hi, We wish to start ranking on a specific keyword ("log house prices" in italian). We have two options on what pages we should optimize for this keyword: A long content page (1000+ words with images) Log houses category page, optimized for the keyword (we have 50+ houses on this page, together with a short price summary). I would think that we have better chances with ranking with option nr.2 , but then we can't use that page for ranking with a more short-tail keyword (like "log houses"). What would you suggest? Is there maybe a third option for this?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | JohanMattisson0 -
Page not appearing in SERPs
I have a regional site that does fairly well for most towns in the area (top 10-20). However, one place that has always done OK and has great content is not anywhere within the first 200. Everything looks OK, canonical link is correct, I can find the page if I search for exact text, there aren't any higher ranking duplicate pages. Any ideas what may have happened and how I can confirm a penalty for example. TIA,
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Cornwall
Chris0 -
Duplicate Content on Product Pages
I'm getting a lot of duplicate content errors on my ecommerce site www.outdoormegastore.co.uk mainly centered around product pages. The products are completely different in terms of the title, meta data, product descriptions and images (with alt tags)but SEOmoz is still identifying them as duplicates and we've noticed a significant drop in google ranking lately. Admittedly the product descriptions are a little bit thin but I don't understand why the pages would be viewed as duplicates and therefore can be ranked lower? The content is definitely unique too. As an example these three pages have been identified as being duplicates of each other. http://www.outdoormegastore.co.uk/regatta-landtrek-25l-rucksack.html http://www.outdoormegastore.co.uk/canyon-bryce-adult-cycling-helmet-9045.html http://www.outdoormegastore.co.uk/outwell-minnesota-6-carpet-for-green-07-08-tent.html
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | gavinhoman0 -
Duplicate page content and Duplicate page title errors
Hi, I'm new to SeoMoz and to this forum. I've started a new campaign on my site and got back loads of error. Most of them are Duplicate page content and Duplicate page title errors. I know I have some duplicate titles but I don't have any duplicate content. I'm not a web developer and not so expert but I have the impression that the crawler is following all my internal links (Infact I have also plenty of warnings saying "Too many on-page links". Do you think this is the cause of my errors? Should I implement the nofollow on all internal links? I'm working with Joomla. Thanks a lot for your help Marco
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | marcodublin0