After our upgrade to V4.0.X Google is now finding Duplicate Title tags due to the “Send To Friend”.
How do we fix this. ??
http://www.carstickersdecals.com/sailboat-2-sticker.html
http://www.carstickersdecals.com/sailboat-2-sticker.html?selected_section=send_to_friend
You will need to add but_rel=“nofollow”, example:-
{include file="buttons/button.tpl" but_text=__("send") but_name="dispatch[share_by_email.send]" but_role="submit" but_rel="nofollow"}
to each button call found in /design/themes/yourtheme/templates/addons/social_buttons/providers/
This will prevent (or at least should prevent, according to Google) search engines crawling these URLs. However, like a zombie apocalypse, once you're infected…you can only limit the damage done. Google will likely not index these after you implement this fix, but Google may choose to keep indexing the duplicate URLs as they are already indexed and penalise as appropriate. CS-Cart didn't see this as a problem and would not be drawn into providing a similar issue with V2>V3.0.6 which in essence caused the same type of problem. In the end, the fix provided would only benefit new CS-Cart installations, those who already had the unfortunate experience of Google already indexing these URL's, were pretty much doomed until Google decided if it would index the way you want and need it to.
Thanks Stellar, I added it and we'll see if that works. Thanks again. Starting to wonder about cs-cart.
Found another one added to the end of the url causing duplicate title tags…
?selected_section=discussion
Same applies to /design/themes/yourtheme/templates/addons/discussion/views/discussion/view.tpl
I suggest you look through the source files for occurrences of include file=“buttons/button.tpl” and check what the functionality is for and add the but_rel tag as appropriate. I have lost count how many times I have asked CS-Cart to implement this and many other SEO functions.
Yeah, I went in and fixed them. Just wanted to post it out there for others.
Thanks Again
Much easier and gets them all.
Disallow: /*?[quote name='The Tool' timestamp='1384744157' post='171800']
Much easier and gets them all.
Disallow: /*?
[/quote]
Are you being serious ? Don't take that the wrong way. Wasn't sure if you were being sarcastic. If that works, then AWESOME !
Is this a good way to fix the issues ? .
[quote name='CarStickersDecals' timestamp='1384749085' post='171808']
Are you being serious ? Don't take that the wrong way. Wasn't sure if you were being sarcastic. If that works, then AWESOME !
Is this a good way to fix the issues ? .
[/quote]
Yep.
By the way, I don't see the Send to friend add on in 4.x. Is this an old url from previous versions?
You are correct… Cannot find any reference of the send_to_friend in V4.0.X… Except on on the store import code as shown below. Must be old url structure. Not sure why google all the sudden is showing this. Hard to keep up with all the changes.
DELETE FROM `?:addons` WHERE addon='send_to_friend';
DELETE FROM `?:addon_descriptions` WHERE addon='send_to_friend';
DELETE FROM `?:language_values` WHERE name='send_to_friend';
DELETE FROM `?:ult_language_values` WHERE name='send_to_friend';
DELETE FROM `?:product_tabs` WHERE addon='send_to_friend';
DELETE FROM `?:product_tabs_descriptions` WHERE `name`='send_to_friend';
So question. Is the “Disallow: /*?” something good we should have in our robot.txt file anyway for basic SEO. ??
[quote name='CarStickersDecals' timestamp='1384779553' post='171846']So question. Is the “Disallow: /*?” something good we should have in our robot.txt file anyway for basic SEO. ??
[/quote]
Some might argue differently but it's been working fine for me all these years. CS 4.x might not even use it anymore? I couldn't say as I am still on 2.2.5.
In V4, 'send_to_friend' is now email_share and is incorporated into the 'Social Buttons' addon.
[quote name='The Tool' timestamp='1384744157' post='171800']
Much easier and gets them all.
Disallow: /*?
[/quote]
That will work, but then…what if Google has already decided the parameter URL is correct and the normal URL is the duplicate? Now you will be telling Google not to index the pages Google chose to index. There are pros and cons of using both methods, but in my experience using nofollow and canonical is the way forward for a site which has already been indexed and already receives a quantifiable amount of traffic from search engines. It would make sense to go for this option from the onset with a new store launch (ie. not a store upgrade, but a completely new store).
[quote name='StellarBytes' timestamp='1384796965' post='171864']
That will work, but then…what if Google has already decided the parameter URL is correct and the normal URL is the duplicate? Now you will be telling Google not to index the pages Google chose to index. There are pros and cons of using both methods, but in my experience using nofollow and canonical is the way forward for a site which has already been indexed and already receives a quantifiable amount of traffic from search engines. It would make sense to go for this option from the onset with a new store launch (ie. not a store upgrade, but a completely new store).
[/quote]
Now that makes sense. I'll stick with the nofollow…
I get the same duplicate title errors, but mine are related to different languages. I've disabled languages on the customer side (disabled the block in layouts), but due to a bug problem I'm having on my admin end (cs-cart is currently investigating) I am unable to turn off languages.
[quote name='StellarBytes' timestamp='1384796965' post='171864']
That will work, but then…what if Google has already decided the parameter URL is correct and the normal URL is the duplicate?[/quote]
Search engines will only ignore the url with the “?” and not the one without regardless of whether it's been indexed or not.