Any URL Pros in Here? This one is Crazy. Sitewide duplicate content problems (major)

Charles Washington · 09-30-2010, 11:33 AM

Here is my problem. I am working on a massive ecommerce store. The store will have around 3000 products or more. A lot of those products belong in multiple categories.

In this niche, people search by category, then brand. I have a few products that fit into 4 or 5 different categories. Then add the fact that the shopping cart automatically creates duplicate URL's iteslf. For instance
mysite.com/product
mysite.com/category1/product
mysite.com/category1/brand/product

And many other variations. Here is where it gets difficult.

I have about 12 items that have 500 sizes a piece. Each of these size products need their own product page. I will end up with like 1500 pages with identical content, but with a different size.

That works out great for the visitor because of the way they find their product. They use a two step system, get to the size product page, checkout.

How do I account for all this sitewide duplicate content? I think the best way is to use rel="canonical" I can 301 some of the category/product pages to /product, but I dont know about those products with all the sizes.

For a 301, dont I have to know the URL for every duplicate url in order to 301 it to the correct URL
With rel=canonical, all I have to do is put that tag on all the pages I want indexed, right? Sounds almost too simple.

Let's discuss this. I have had a headache for 5 days trying to figure out the best way to handle this.

dburk · 09-30-2010, 01:18 PM

Hi Charles,

Sounds like you need to mod the shopping cart script or switch to a better designed script. All of the issues you asked about relate to link architecture and this needs to be handled by your shopping cart script. Check the script documentation to see if there are alternate ways to configure it for better link architecture. Sadly, there are many scripts that pay no attention to details like SEO. Don't let yourself get stuck using a poorly designed script.

Your script needs to use only one URL per page. You should decide which category is the primary and stick with that URL. Use redirecting if you have to, but don't use multiple URLs for the same page or the same content.

You may feel that you need 500 different pages for the same product, but I doubt that is really true. Again this seems like a limitation of a poorly designed or configured shopping cart script.

Charles Washington · 09-30-2010, 01:53 PM

The shopping cart I am using is Magento

Thomas De · 09-30-2010, 02:31 PM

You have two options to solve the problem.

1. Just make one page per item and link from the categories and brand pages to only one. For the product in 500 sizes you could make an option field, where the buyer can choose, in the product description.

2. The alternative is to place the noindex tag in all the copies to avoid the duplicate content problem.

dburk · 09-30-2010, 02:46 PM

Hi Charles,

That cart can be configured for SEO, it requires a lot of tweaking since it is has no SEO out of the box.

There are modules, extensions and themes all designed to deal with that platforms shortcomings related to SEO.

Check out these links to get started in the right direction:

Magento SEO - Yoast - Tweaking Websites
Magento Connect - Canonical URL for Magento - Overview - eCommerce Software for Growth
Magento Connect - Yoast Blank SEO Theme - Overview - eCommerce Software for Growth

These may not be the absolute best solutions, but a step in the right direction.

TruisticMedia · 09-30-2010, 02:51 PM

Why not just change to a script that lets you choose the size using a drop down menu or something.

09-30-2010, 11:33 AM	#1
Charles Washington Highly Actionable War Room Member Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: Florida Posts: 1,595 Thanks: 341 Thanked 265 Times in 182 Posts	Any URL Pros in Here? This one is Crazy. Sitewide duplicate content problems (major) Here is my problem. I am working on a massive ecommerce store. The store will have around 3000 products or more. A lot of those products belong in multiple categories. In this niche, people search by category, then brand. I have a few products that fit into 4 or 5 different categories. Then add the fact that the shopping cart automatically creates duplicate URL's iteslf. For instance mysite.com/product mysite.com/category1/product mysite.com/category1/brand/product And many other variations. Here is where it gets difficult. I have about 12 items that have 500 sizes a piece. Each of these size products need their own product page. I will end up with like 1500 pages with identical content, but with a different size. That works out great for the visitor because of the way they find their product. They use a two step system, get to the size product page, checkout. How do I account for all this sitewide duplicate content? I think the best way is to use rel="canonical" I can 301 some of the category/product pages to /product, but I dont know about those products with all the sizes. For a 301, dont I have to know the URL for every duplicate url in order to 301 it to the correct URL With rel=canonical, all I have to do is put that tag on all the pages I want indexed, right? Sounds almost too simple. Let's discuss this. I have had a headache for 5 days trying to figure out the best way to handle this.

09-30-2010, 01:18 PM	#2
dburk Senior Warrior Member Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Tampa, Florida Posts: 4,643 Thanks: 162 Thanked 671 Times in 581 Posts Contact Info	Re: Any URL Pros in Here? This one is Crazy. Sitewide duplicate content problems (major) Hi Charles, Sounds like you need to mod the shopping cart script or switch to a better designed script. All of the issues you asked about relate to link architecture and this needs to be handled by your shopping cart script. Check the script documentation to see if there are alternate ways to configure it for better link architecture. Sadly, there are many scripts that pay no attention to details like SEO. Don't let yourself get stuck using a poorly designed script. Your script needs to use only one URL per page. You should decide which category is the primary and stick with that URL. Use redirecting if you have to, but don't use multiple URLs for the same page or the same content. You may feel that you need 500 different pages for the same product, but I doubt that is really true. Again this seems like a limitation of a poorly designed or configured shopping cart script.
	Don Burk * Get Results - Outsource Your PPC Management * Get a Keyword Domain Name - www.SeriousNames.com

09-30-2010, 01:53 PM	#3
Charles Washington Highly Actionable War Room Member Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: Florida Posts: 1,595 Thanks: 341 Thanked 265 Times in 182 Posts	Re: Any URL Pros in Here? This one is Crazy. Sitewide duplicate content problems (major) The shopping cart I am using is Magento

09-30-2010, 02:31 PM	#4
Thomas De HyperActive Warrior War Room Member Join Date: Aug 2010 Posts: 139 Thanks: 10 Thanked 14 Times in 14 Posts	Re: Any URL Pros in Here? This one is Crazy. Sitewide duplicate content problems (major) You have two options to solve the problem. 1. Just make one page per item and link from the categories and brand pages to only one. For the product in 500 sizes you could make an option field, where the buyer can choose, in the product description. 2. The alternative is to place the noindex tag in all the copies to avoid the duplicate content problem.

09-30-2010, 02:46 PM	#5
dburk Senior Warrior Member Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Tampa, Florida Posts: 4,643 Thanks: 162 Thanked 671 Times in 581 Posts Contact Info	Re: Any URL Pros in Here? This one is Crazy. Sitewide duplicate content problems (major) Hi Charles, That cart can be configured for SEO, it requires a lot of tweaking since it is has no SEO out of the box. There are modules, extensions and themes all designed to deal with that platforms shortcomings related to SEO. Check out these links to get started in the right direction: Magento SEO - Yoast - Tweaking Websites Magento Connect - Canonical URL for Magento - Overview - eCommerce Software for Growth Magento Connect - Yoast Blank SEO Theme - Overview - eCommerce Software for Growth These may not be the absolute best solutions, but a step in the right direction.
	Don Burk * Get Results - Outsource Your PPC Management * Get a Keyword Domain Name - www.SeriousNames.com

09-30-2010, 02:51 PM	#6
TruisticMedia Warrior Member Join Date: Sep 2010 Posts: 20 Thanks: 0 Thanked 1 Time in 1 Post	Re: Any URL Pros in Here? This one is Crazy. Sitewide duplicate content problems (major) Why not just change to a script that lets you choose the size using a drop down menu or something.