Duplicate URLs are search engine unfriendly?

1. 60

   TomatoCartposted 13 years ago

   Hi all,
   
   I'm a newbie here and no little about seo. Could you please tell me are duplicate urls search engine unfriendly?
   
   http://www.tomatocart.com/blog/38-tomat … carts.html
   
   http://www.tomatocart.com/index.php?vie … ;Itemid=82
   
   The urls below are linked to the same page. I've found the cause why there are two urls. The first is created by the Joomla, the application we use to create our site, and the second is created by the extensions we added to the Joomla.
   
   If it is search engine unfriendly, how can I avoid/resolve the problem?
   
   Thanks!

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   1. 62

      Mishaposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      It used to be a huge problem. Now there is a remedy - google "canonical url".

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         TomatoCartposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         Maybe I should to learn sth about google "canonical url".
         
         Thanks!

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2. 87

   WryLiltposted 13 years ago

   From what I've read, the more places and URLs pointing to your site the better - although a hard coded single link URL for backlinks is best.
   
   However I believe double and triple URLs to one page are very common. For instance if you have categories and subcategories on your site, the links from each to a specific page generate different URLs.
   
   You'd be best checking with an SEO expert but I believe duplicate content pages,  not URLS, are 'search engine unfriendly'

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   1. 60

      TomatoCartposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      WryLitt, Thanks for your answer

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      1. 87

         WryLiltposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         Maybe you should ignore my post, it appears that these other hubbers know far more about the technical side of URLs than I do!
         
         *Sits back and learns*

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3. 68

   Peter Hogganposted 13 years ago

   There is also a canonical issue with the www and non www versions of the tomatocart site. You should  set up a 301 redirect to the version you prefer in order to prevent your site being seen as duplicate and to concentrate all your incoming links onto one version of the site.
   
   Edit: You might want to consider one of the seo plugins for Joomla that will solve all your canonical problems.

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   1. 60

      TomatoCartposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      But I found many sites have two versions with www. and non www.
      
      And could you please recommend some seo plugins?
      
      Thanks a lot!

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      1. 68

         Peter Hogganposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         Because they are there doesn’t mean it’s ok and there are associated SEO issues detrimental to rankings if you leave things unchanged.
         
         A good list of plugins can be found hear -
         
         http://www.seo-expert-blog.com/blog/25- … -wordpress
         
         There are also commercial plugins -
         
         http://www.sakic.net/products/sef_advance/

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         1. 60

            TomatoCartposted 13 years agoin reply to this

            Thanks!

            replyreport
4. 61

   wilsonallen01posted 13 years ago

   Just redirect one url to the another one. This is nothing but a canonical issue. It is not good according to search engines. So please redirect one towards another and for redirecting only use 301 redirect.
   
   Thanks

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   1. 68

      Peter Hogganposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      301's alone might not fix the core problem, i.e. new url's could still have the same issue.

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5. 72

   Hauntyposted 13 years ago

   You might want to consider adding the site in Google Webmaster Tools and then specifying the preferred domain under settings to fix the www / non-www issue. I suggest using the non-www version. Also, open your .htaccess file and remove # from these lines:
   # RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www./.example/.com$ [NC]
   # RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://example.com/$1 [L,R=301]
   Then test the site.
   
   
   Canonical urls is only the second best option when it comes to solving duplicate urls. Redirects are your best option.
   
   Your post titles are enclosed in h3 tags, and you don't use h2 tags at all. I guess this is an issue with the template. I suggest replacing all h3 tags with h2 tags, even in lists of titles.
   
   Your meta description is the same for every page.

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      Marisa Wrightposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      I'd love to know how to avoid that.
      
      If you Google how to insert a meta description on your Wordpress blog, you'll find instructions to enter it in the header of your theme.  Which means it appears on every page.  I've never seen instructions on how to get a different meta description on different pages.

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         Mishaposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         I think any SEO plugin will let you do this.

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         englightenedsoulposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         You can download meta tag manager plug in.  It will do the required job.

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      3. 72

         Hauntyposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         I don't use Wordpress, but I've written a hub called Wordpress SEO blah blah blah... that's based on the belief that the All in One SEO plugin let's you write a description for every individual post on the post submission page. After you've written the post you just have to scroll down to the All in ONE SEO section and there you find a field for the description.

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   2. 60

      TomatoCartposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Haunty,  our site does have some problems with seo. Thanks for your hints!

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