Hi!
How to avoid duplicates of one product in the category and subcategory for SEO?
If I create the category Cars, the Skoda subcategory and the Rapid model, and add the category and subcategory in the product card in which the product will be displayed (this allows you to display the goods of all subcategories in the items view in the category), then 2 links are generated immediately.
Example from my site:
https://zvukovoditel.ru/katalog-tovarov ... a-124.html
https://zvukovoditel.ru/katalog-tovarov ... a-124.html
https://zvukovoditel.ru/katalog-tovarov ... a-124.html
https://zvukovoditel.ru/katalog-tovarov ... a-124.html
Thus, I have 4 different URLs for one product, which is bad for SEO.
Maybe you should add a field: "canonical link" in the meta-options in the product card, which will prescribe the rel canonical attribute for all generated pages?
Duplicates of one product in the category and subcategory
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kodxenon
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Jan
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Re: Duplicates of one product in the category and subcategory
Hi, yes, product links include info about category (based on Joomla! rules and some logical rules), so if product is included in more categories it has more links to each category. If there will be a link to product without category information, the tree will be broken (going from parent category to category to product and back will be broken as there will be no information about category so if user wants to go back to category, the system will not know to which category)
Are there any SEO rules which says that different link to one product are bad for SEO? If you have one product but two links, it means that each product can be just found in two different categories and it is benefical for user and SEO that there are more links because user want to go to product in specific category and maybe find other products in such category - so the information about the category in link can be important for him/her, for SEO
Even if you filter displaying of products, you get a lot of different link for the same product:
- index.php?items&price_from=0&price_to=500 will include product A (price 250) and the same:
- index.php?item&price_from=100&price_to=500 will include product A
And many thousands of variations of such links will include still the same output - so in fact such product is accessible throuhg thousands of different links
So links to same product with different categories are in fact no duplicates as all differs in case of category inforamtion which is the parent category. To have another behaviour, I think, the router.php of Phoca Cart should be modified, e.g. to skip the category in links. Then each product will have only one link but the tree functionality will be completely broken, the same like all category information on item view page.
Jan
Are there any SEO rules which says that different link to one product are bad for SEO? If you have one product but two links, it means that each product can be just found in two different categories and it is benefical for user and SEO that there are more links because user want to go to product in specific category and maybe find other products in such category - so the information about the category in link can be important for him/her, for SEO
Even if you filter displaying of products, you get a lot of different link for the same product:
- index.php?items&price_from=0&price_to=500 will include product A (price 250) and the same:
- index.php?item&price_from=100&price_to=500 will include product A
And many thousands of variations of such links will include still the same output - so in fact such product is accessible throuhg thousands of different links
So links to same product with different categories are in fact no duplicates as all differs in case of category inforamtion which is the parent category. To have another behaviour, I think, the router.php of Phoca Cart should be modified, e.g. to skip the category in links. Then each product will have only one link but the tree functionality will be completely broken, the same like all category information on item view page.
Jan
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kodxenon
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Re: Duplicates of one product in the category and subcategory
Thanks! About duplicates understood. But can I assign a canonical URL for a product from the phoca cart component? Or should I do this on each page manually in code?
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Jan
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Re: Duplicates of one product in the category and subcategory
What do you exactly mean with "set canonical url for product"?
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kodxenon
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Re: Duplicates of one product in the category and subcategory
Hello!
Here are Google's recommendations on this: https://support.google.com/webmasters/a ... 9066?hl=en
If we create a product that is contained in 5 categories, then 5 different links to this product are generated and the search bot perceives these pages as duplicates and can distribute the weight of this product into 5 parts. This will have a bad effect on Google’s position.
For example, generated 5 links:
1 example.com/drinks/sweet/fruit/Fanta
2 example.com/drinks/sweet/Fanta
3 example.com/drinks/Fanta
4 example.com/sweets/drinks/Fanta
5 example.com/sweets/Fanta
In some store engines, in the product card, you can specify the main (canonical) link to this product. This may be called SEO URL. This adds on all 5 pages <link> element with the attribute rel="canonical" to the <head> section
Decision logic:
When we create the product, we can specify the SEO URL in the meta settings (for example: "https://example.com/drinks/Fanta").
If SEO URL is not empty, then Add a <link> element with the attribute rel="canonical" to the <head> section of duplicate pages, pointing to the canonical page, like this one:
<link rel = "canonical" href = "https://example.com/drinks/Fanta" />
I think this will save the structure of the tree with all the functionality and improve the position of each product in Google.
Have a nice day!
Oleg
Here are Google's recommendations on this: https://support.google.com/webmasters/a ... 9066?hl=en
If we create a product that is contained in 5 categories, then 5 different links to this product are generated and the search bot perceives these pages as duplicates and can distribute the weight of this product into 5 parts. This will have a bad effect on Google’s position.
For example, generated 5 links:
1 example.com/drinks/sweet/fruit/Fanta
2 example.com/drinks/sweet/Fanta
3 example.com/drinks/Fanta
4 example.com/sweets/drinks/Fanta
5 example.com/sweets/Fanta
In some store engines, in the product card, you can specify the main (canonical) link to this product. This may be called SEO URL. This adds on all 5 pages <link> element with the attribute rel="canonical" to the <head> section
Decision logic:
When we create the product, we can specify the SEO URL in the meta settings (for example: "https://example.com/drinks/Fanta").
If SEO URL is not empty, then Add a <link> element with the attribute rel="canonical" to the <head> section of duplicate pages, pointing to the canonical page, like this one:
<link rel = "canonical" href = "https://example.com/drinks/Fanta" />
I think this will save the structure of the tree with all the functionality and improve the position of each product in Google.
Have a nice day!
Oleg
-
Jan
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Re: Duplicates of one product in the category and subcategory
Hi, thank you for the info.
In Joomla! you don't set any exact urls, they are build by router. So you cannot define for the product the URL.
So the question is, what is the best way to mark which category will be main.
The flow can be following:
- you will somehow mark the main category in the product
- the system will add such cannonical link only in case the main product category is displayed.
So the question is, which will be the best way to add such information in product edit, to not confuse users with duplicated or similar parameters and of course to not overload the system with another select box of categories
Jan
In Joomla! you don't set any exact urls, they are build by router. So you cannot define for the product the URL.
So the question is, what is the best way to mark which category will be main.
The flow can be following:
- you will somehow mark the main category in the product
- the system will add such cannonical link only in case the main product category is displayed.
So the question is, which will be the best way to add such information in product edit, to not confuse users with duplicated or similar parameters and of course to not overload the system with another select box of categories
Jan
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kodxenon
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- Joined: 17 Aug 2018, 07:16
Re: Duplicates of one product in the category and subcategory
If I understand you correctly, then the difficulty is precisely the choice of category in the product card.
I think that if you assign canonical even the first category in the list (any at all), then this will have a positive effect on SEO. A canonical link to any of 5 is better than nothing))
Item may be:
1) in subcategories of one parent category (This is my case. On my site, each product is displayed in a parent category and subcategories of all levels). In this case, you can choose as canonical, for example, the shortest link (better for seo) or the longest (best for logic), maybe even the deepest category, if it is technically possible.
2) in different parent categories - it probably will not work here without another select box. Therefore, a good option is to choose the canonical first category in the list.
Based on all this, I think it’s best to assign the first selected category in the list to the canonical one, but only do this if the checkbox “add canonical link” is checked. Details can be specified in the description of the checkbox.
Have a nice day!
Oleg
I think that if you assign canonical even the first category in the list (any at all), then this will have a positive effect on SEO. A canonical link to any of 5 is better than nothing))
Item may be:
1) in subcategories of one parent category (This is my case. On my site, each product is displayed in a parent category and subcategories of all levels). In this case, you can choose as canonical, for example, the shortest link (better for seo) or the longest (best for logic), maybe even the deepest category, if it is technically possible.
2) in different parent categories - it probably will not work here without another select box. Therefore, a good option is to choose the canonical first category in the list.
Based on all this, I think it’s best to assign the first selected category in the list to the canonical one, but only do this if the checkbox “add canonical link” is checked. Details can be specified in the description of the checkbox.
Have a nice day!
Oleg
-
Jan
- Phoca Hero
- Posts: 47870
- Joined: 10 Nov 2007, 18:23
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Re: Duplicates of one product in the category and subcategory
Ok, thank you for your info.
Jan
Jan
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