What could cause Google to not honor canonical URLs?
-
I have a strange situation on a website, when I do a Google query of site:example.com all the top indexed results appear to be queries that users can perform on the website. So any random term the user searches for on the website for some reason is causing the search result page to get indexed - like example.com/search/query/random-keywords
However, the search results page has a canonical tag on it that points to example.com/search, but that doesn't seem to be doing anything. Any thoughts or ideas why this could be happening?
-
Hi there,
First of all, its a mistake to think that when searching with _site: _operator, the first results are the most important nor the more relevant. Google has said a few times that we shouldn't rely that much on what that search in terms of what's being shown.
Blocking search results with robots.txt wont be of help, as it will not remove already indexed pages and cant prevent for new pages to be indexed (if there's an external link to a robots.txt blocked page, google can still index it) it'll only prevent Googlebot from discovering new ones FROM YOUR SITE.
Again, i'd try to dig deeper to understand where are the links to internal searches that google is finding. Googlebot will not do any search in your site.
The thing with GSC, might be related to quite a few reasons. I cant say much because I don't know any more specifics, but from what you are telling me it looks like you are getting impressions in searches that you don't relate to your site and that land on pages that google is noindexing. Yeah im repeating the obvious, hehe.
In my experience, Google can have these strange behaviours. You know, there are cases when a page is canonicalized, but it can still be shown in SERPS. Dont ask me why, but it happens. It takes a little time to google fully replace it with the correct one.
I'd wait a little longer to see how Google is handling them.I don't know if im helping you.
it kinda took me a few minutes to understand/process what you wrote and come up with an answer.Please, feel free ask again or comment on my reply if I misunderstood something.
Best luck,
Gaston -
Hi here's some more background info on this situation that makes it even stranger. I can perform some pretty specific searches on Google where these indexed search result pages show up. And I can look in Google Search Console under the performance section and see that those pages receive impressions and clicks. However, if I inspect the URL, Search Console says it is not included in Google's index, and the reason it gives under indexing is because it says it is honoring the canonical URL. So search console is saying it isn't indexed because of the canonical, but I can do searches and find that exact URL in the index. Any ideas what this could be from?
-
Hi Gaston,
Thanks for the response. I can confirm that the example, /search and /search?q=foo are pretty much identical. However that may not always be the case, only when a user searches for something that would return no results. So, a website that sells widgets, /search and /search?q=widgets would not be identical, and in that case it would make sense that Google would not honor the canonical link. What's really strange is if I search google for the site: operator of the domain, the top pages are not user queries for things that make sense. The top indexed pages are random, non-relevant user searches.
I do not have a way with this system to control noindex tags on these search result pages. The only thing I could do is take the nuclear option and just block it all with robots.txt using wildcards. But that means no search result pages would get indexed, relevant or not.
-
Hi there,
in my experience, when google doesn't honor Canonicals, is because pages arent similar.
In its definition, canonical are there for two or more pages that have the same content.If you are finding it problematic, i'd suggest to use noindex tags for that search pages.
I'd investigate If there are links pointing to those internal search pages, as its not common for google to discover search pages.Hope it helps,
Best luck.
Gaston
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
-
If Google's index contains multiple URLs for my homepage, does that mean the canonical tag is not working?
I have a site which is using canonical tags on all pages, however not all duplicate versions of the homepage are 301'd due to a limitation in the hosting platform. So some site visitors get www.example.com/default.aspx while others just get www.example.com. I can see the correct canonical tag on the source code of both versions of this homepage, but when I search Google for the specific URL "www.example.com/default.aspx" I see that they've indexed that specific URL as well as the "clean" one. Is this a concern... shouldn't Google only show me the clean URL?
Technical SEO | | JMagary0 -
Duplicate url problem causing me problems
Hi, i am working with a joomla site and i am using the sh404sef plugin. I have contacted the developer of the plugin who has not been very helpful so i am hoping to get help here. The problem i am having is, the description of the page showing in google listings is not the same as what i have put into the meta tag description. for example, for this page http://www.clairehegarty.co.uk/virtual-gastric-band-with-hypnotherapy the meta tag description should be Gastric Band Hypnotherapy to lose weight guaranteed. Free Gastric Band Hypnosis Consultations with Well Known Gastric Hypno Band expert as seen on TV. Hypno Gastric Band Works. We offer full support after your Gastric Band Hypnotherapy but in google it is showing Gastric Band Hypnotherapy Works. If you would like a slimmer and healthier body with all the benefits of weight loss surgery without any of the risks that can be ... now one thing i have noticed is: in the sh404sef control panel, i have noticed that i have the following index.php?option=com_content&Itemid=190&id=153&lang=en&view=article the above is the original url from day one but then i have the one below which is not the original index.php?option=com_content&Itemid=190&catid=150&id=153&lang=en&view=article i keep deleting the above which is not the original but it keeps coming back and i have been told this could be the fault can anyone please help me with this and solve how to stop it from coming back so google shows the correct description please.
Technical SEO | | ClaireH-1848860 -
ECommerce Site, URL's, Canonical and Tracking Referral Traffic
I'm very, very new to eCommerce websites that employ many different URL's to track referral traffic. I have a client that has 18 different URL's that land on the Home Page in order to track traffic from different referral sources. For example: http://erasedisease.com/?ref=abot - Tracks traffic from an affiliate source http://erasedisease.com/?ref=FB01 - Tracks traffic from a FB Ad http://erasedisease.com/?ref=sas&SSAID=289169 - Tracks more affiliate traffic ...and the list goes on and on. My first question is do you think this could hinder our Google rankings? SEOMoz Crawl doesn't show any Duplicate Content Errors, so I guess that's good. I've just been reading a lot about Canonical Url's and eCommerce sites, but I'm not sure if this is a situation where I'd want to use some kind of canonical plugin for this Wordpress website or not. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks so much!!
Technical SEO | | Linwright0 -
Removing duplicate &var=1 etc var name urls from google
Hi I had a huge drop in traffic around the 11th of july over 50% down with no recovery as yet... ~5000 organic visits per day down to barley over 2500. I fixed up a problem that one script was introducing that had caused high bounce rates. Now i have identified that google has indexed the entire news section 4 times, same content but with var=0 var=1 2 3 etc around 40,000 urls in total. Now this would have to be causing problems. I have fixed the problem and those url's 404 now, no need for 301's as they are not linked to from anywhere. How can I get them out of the index? I cant do it one by one with the url removal request.. I cant remove a directory from url removal tool as the reuglar content is still there.. If I ban it in robots.txt those urls, wont it never try to index them again and thus not ever discover they are 404ing? These urls are no longer linked to from anywhere, so how can google ever reach them by crawling to find them 404ing?
Technical SEO | | Adsau0 -
Url's don't want to show up in google. Please help?
Hi Mozfans 🙂 I'm doing a sitescan for a new client. http://www.vacatures.tuinbouw.nl/ It's a dutch jobsite. Now the problem is here: The url http://www.vacatures.tuinbouw.nl/vacatures/ is in google.
Technical SEO | | MaartenvandenBos
On the same page there are jobs (scroll down) with a followed link.
To a url like this: http://www.vacatures.tuinbouw.nl/vacatures/722/productie+medewerker+paprika+teelt/ The problem is that the second url don't show up in google. When i try to make a sitemap with Gsitecrawler the second url isn't in de sitemap.. :S What am i doing wrong? Thanks!0 -
HTML url extension
I've read some information about the extension of an url. But i couldn't find a clear answer. What is better for SEO, an extension with html or without? /make-money-online/how-to-make-a-million-dollars-in-1-year/ or /make-money-online/how-to-make-a-million-dollars-in-1-year.html/ Is there a difference between a normal website or a blog?
Technical SEO | | PlusPort0 -
Home page URL disappears in Google after switching to WordPress
It was a 10 page static HTML page website. 3 year old, PR2. Monday night, copied a WordPress from somewhere to this website's public_html folder and activate it. The home page was "index.html" before switching to WordPress. Now this html file (index.html) has been deleted, so WordPress' Home page can work. All other 9 static html pages are still there in Google index. Just notice it today that the home page URL disappears in Google completely. Why? All other 9 static html pages' URL are still in Google. robots.txt is Allow: / What may have gone wrong to remove the home domain URL from Google index? Thank you for your help!
Technical SEO | | johnzhel0 -
Canonical tags and internal Google search
Quick question: I want some pages that will have canonical tags, to show up in internal results for a Google site search that's built into the site. I'm not finished with the site, but is it correct to assume that pages with canonical will NOT show up in internal site search results, when powered by Google?
Technical SEO | | EricPacifico0