Handling long URLs and overly-dynamic URLs on eCommerce site
-
Hello Forum,
I've been optimizing an eCommerce site and our SEOmoz crawls are favorable for the most part, except for long URLs and overly-dynamic URLs. These issues stem from two URL types: Layered navigation (faceted search) and non-Google internal search results. I outline the issues for each below.
We use an SEO-friendly URL structure for our product category pages, but once bots start "clicking" our layered navigation options, all the parameters are appended to our SEO-friendly urls, causing the SEOmoz crawl warnings.
Layered Navigation :
SEO-Friendly Category Page: oursite.com/shop/meditation-cushions.htmlEffects of layered navigation: oursite.com/shop/meditation-cushions.html?bolster_material_quality=414&bolsters_appearance=206&color=12&dir=asc&height=291&order=name
As you can see the parameters include product attributes and page sorts. I should note that all pages generated by these parameters use the element to point back to the SEO-friendly URL We have also set up Google's Webmaster Tools to handle these parameters.
Internal Search Function:
Our URLs start off simple: oursite.com/catalogsearch/result/?q=brown. Then the bot clicks all the layered navigation options, yielding oursite.com/catalogsearch/result/index/?appearance=54&cat=67&clothing_material=83&color=12&product_color=559&q=brown. Also, all search results are set to noindex,follow.My question is: Should we worry about these overly-dynamic and long ULR warnings? We have set up canonical elements, "noindex,follow" solutions, and configured Webmaster Tools to handle our parameters. If these are a concern, how would you resolve these issues?
-
I see this thread was from last year, so I am hoping between then and now you have determined an answer and would be able to advise. I am having the same issue with our consumer sight.
-
If you make them friendly it will shorten them
x=y can become y
But having done that and they are still too long i would ignore them as they are no-index.
-
There another company handling the server side of things. All I know is that we're using PHP and MySQL for Magento.
Even if we did a friendly URL rewrite, wouldn't we still get long URLs? We would just have each parameter become words separated by slashed. i.e .
/shop/meditation-cushions.html/high quaily/patterened/green/10inches/sortedbyname/
I suppose these URLs shorter. Is something like this better?
-
Marc
The crawl warnings are those found in SEOmoz's crawl diagnostics: "Overly-Dynamic URL" and "Long URL." These are not duplicate content issues and the URLs resolve properly.
I just want to make sure we're not getting dinged for having URLs that are too long. If we are, what are some way to go about shortening them?
-Aaron
-
What kind of "crawl warnings" are we talking about here? Duplicate content? Do the URL's resolve properly when the additional parameters are appending to the SEO-friendly URL's?
"I should note that all pages generated by these parameters use the element to point back to the SEO-friendly URL We have also set up Google's Webmaster Tools to handle these parameters."
Keep in mind, using canonical tags is like setting up 301 redirects on all those pages. Some people don't now that, so I thought I'd just throw it out there. So, if any of those additional pages with the host of parameters contain unique/different content than the seo-friendly versions, using canonical tags is not a good move as they will get no attention from search engines that respect the canonical tag.
For example, do not use a canonical tag on a 'Page 2' to point back to page 1. Each page will contain different information/products/whatever, and you want search engines (SE) to see and index those pages, regardless of what the URL looks like (as long as it works and your Title/META/H1-H6 tags are all in order to reflect the different content on each page.
I'm not sure I'm following your concern 100% percent, so I hope I was on the right path with what I said. Can you please be more specific as to what you concern is with the "overly-dynamic and long ULR warnings" please, and I'll be happy to help you out some more.
- Marc
-
The easy fix is the canonical, yet Bing suggest not using the canonical on the true page, only the duplicates. Best if you can handle that in code, but not a big worry of you cant.
Facet naviagtion is a big problem, with no easy answers.
What sort of server are you using, on a windows server it is very easy to set up friendly urls for your dynamic urls.
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
-
How to remove broken links from our wordpress site?
Hello! How are you? We just signed up to Moz.com. Moz link tool. It gave us many broken links with 404's and 302's. Could you please help me with deleting the links? Thanks!
Moz Pro | | hsma0 -
Site Crawl Error
In moz crawling error this message is appears: MOST COMMON ISSUES 1Search Engine Blocked by robots.txt Error Code 612: Error response for robots.txt i asked help staff but they crawled again and nothing changed. there's only robots.XML (not TXT) in root of my webpage it contains: User-agent: *
Moz Pro | | nopsts
Allow: /
Allow: /sitemap.htm anyone please help me? thank you0 -
Overly Dynamic URLS
I should be able to set URL Parameters in my Google Webmasters Tool that allows be to stop my overly dynamic page URL problem. Please help me on how to do this.
Moz Pro | | pinksgreens0 -
Open Site Explorer Page Authority
Hello, I ran a report on my website at http://www.opensiteexplorer.org/links?site=www.carrentalbuddy.com.au and noticed my page authority went to 1. I also noticed a lot of our results that were showing high page authority have dropped right down. I checked other sites and they all seemed fine but was wondering if this is a open site explorer issue or a a www.carrentalbuddy.com.au issue? Kindest Regards, Chris
Moz Pro | | kymodo0 -
Open Site Explorer only exporting 120 rows!
Has this happened to anyone else? I keep running reports in OSE and then exporting them, but I only get 120 rows exported to the csv when it should be several thousand. Thought I'd ask around before raising it to the Moz team!
Moz Pro | | PeterAlexLeigh0 -
How long should "Term Extractor" be let alone to complete??
It's been left alone to grind now for a good 20 mins, and ah... it's still grinding away. Is it worth just trying again? Or does that typically mean it probably isn't going to work on the domain it's, ah, grinding away on? Thanks
Moz Pro | | iansears0 -
"no urls with duplicate content to report"
Hi there, i am trying to clean up some duplicate content issues on a website. The crawl diagnostics says that one of the pages has 8 other URLS with the same content. When i click on the number "8" to see the pages with duplicate content, i get to a page that says "no urls with duplicate content to report". Why is this happening? How do i fix it?
Moz Pro | | fourthdimensioninc0