More Google Duplicate Problems

October 19, 2009

Problem:

Title Tag: 13th Green Delivers Cool & Stylish Golf Clothes, Apparel, & Accessories that are Manufactured with...

Link 2: /index.php?cPath=29

Link 3: /index.php?manufacturers_id=

Both link 2 & 3 do not exist. Please tell me the fix is easy. I looked into "Google Duplicate Content Manager vs 1.0 alpha" but in the instructions forward, it says it does not service this. So someone please tell me there is a simple way to resolve this.

My Title Meta Tag

<title>
<?php if (strlen($categories['categories_name']) > 1 || strlen($manufacturers['manufacturers_name']) > 1) { echo $categories['categories_pagetitle'] . $manufacturers['manufacturers_pagetitle']; } else { echo '13th Green - Your Source for Style on the Course! + FREE SHIPPING ALL DAY EVERY DAY'; } ?>
</title>

GemRock · October 19, 2009

ask your question in the support thread for the meta tag addon you are using. it would help if you say what is being duplicated in your post.

Ken

October 19, 2009

ask your question in the support thread for the meta tag addon you are using. it would help if you say what is being duplicated in your post.

Ken

Thanks for getting back to me. I started with your meta tag add on script I believe, then modified it to meet my needs. Because I've modified it to the extent that I did, posting it in the support thread for the mod would be useless. However, I'm thinking the modification has little to do with the issue. Why? Well in my original post I showed that google reported I had a duplicate title tag for 3 pages. But the 2nd and 3rd pages do not exist. cPath 29, is a made up location. I'm not a pro or expert with osCommerce, but I think the best way to solve the cPath issue is to have some kind of function/script that redirects empty cPath pages back to the home page or something. So if the spider somehow lands on a blank cPath it gets ignored. As for the 3rd link I would think something along the lines of my proposed cPath solution would suffice. Anyways I don't know how to do what I've suggested nor know if that will work.

Everyone's help is very appreciated!

GemRock · October 19, 2009

3 pages with duplicated title? I would not bother with it. but if you do bother then take a look at the 3 pages to see what they are and should not be difficult to figure out why and how to fix it. i suppose they are not product info pages as these pages can all have their own title tag if you enter it from admin.

why cpath 29 page does not exist? and where is the manu_id= [blank] coming from? if a proper google sitemap or sitemaps have been submitted to google from the very day that the site is submitted to google, then there is no reason for these urls: google does not invent urls. if however the sitemaps were submitted after google had crawled and indexed the site, then in addition to the submission of sitemaps, use robot.txt to tell google NOT to index parameter urls, ie, question-mark-in-url, webmater tool tells you how.

Ken

October 19, 2009

Ken,

I agree with your statements, to my knowledge Google has never invented URLS. My leading theory is that cPath 29 was a deleted category that was previously indexed. As for "/index.php?manufacturers_id=" I'm without explanation. I will look into Google help to learn how to remove parameters using the robots file. With a little luck you won't see me asking for help on that subject. Thanks for your time.

Although the solution seems evident, I am still open to other posters with different opinions/solutions. Everyone's help is appreciated.

October 20, 2009

Ken,

I was trying to avoid asking you for further help. Unfortunately, I can not find definitive information on removing parameters using the robots file. Using "Disallow" I could do this.

User-agent: Googlebot
Disallow: /*?cPath=29*
Disallow: /*?manufacturers_id=*

I believe this may solve the ?cPath=29 issue, however, I think this would also cause Google not to index any of my manufacturers pages. In this case I assume the asterisk is a wild card symbol. Given your knowledge on the matter, what would you recommend?

Thanks

GemRock · October 20, 2009

this is what google advises to add at the top of the robots.txt to tell google not to index any parameter urls. the advice is published in google webmaster tools:

User-agent: Googlebot
Disallow: /*?

it is used in conjunction with google sitemaps such as categories, products and manufacturers that you are supposed to submit to google, and none of the urls in these sitemaps should have parameter urls. over time, google would drop those ? urls it may previously index and replace them with those in your sitemaps. so, i dont understand why you would worry about "Google not to index any of my manufacturers pages"?

google may have made some changes. it used to have a function whereby you can enter urls and have them removed from google index, which would apply to the cpath=29 situation. you can take a look at the new Parameter handling.

Ken

October 20, 2009

Ken,

Maybe I do not understand this entirely. All my categories, products, manufacturers, and specials all contain a parameter in the site map. The site map is also dynamically generated.

13th Green Site map:

http://www.13thgreen.com/sitemaps.xml

Examples for sub site maps:

http://www.13thgreen.com//index.php?cPath=21_92&page=1 // Category Ex.
http://www.13thgreen.com//product_info.php?products_id=75 // Product Ex.
http://www.13thgreen.com//index.php?manufacturers_id=4&page=1 // Manufacturer Ex.

Would adding "User-agent: Googlebot Disallow: /*?" stop the Google bot from crawling any of my products, categories, manufacturers, ect? I'm afraid it would.

I do not use Ultimate SEO or similar modifications because our site has been heavily modified. Attempts to install any mod of that caliber have caused unsolvable errors. So using the stock URL format how can I get this all to work? I am concerned that any change I make will stop google from indexing my pages. For example our manufacturer's pages are good landing pages for us. We have altered them in such a way that they rank good.

Ken I appreciate all your help! Getting to the bottom of this would be awesome!

Thanks

Ryan B.

GemRock · October 20, 2009

i am afraid you completely lost the plot. get you one seo urls i mean the one created in 2005 should be good enough except that it may not redirect (the code is not there) those ? urls that you have unfortunately got google to index. i have yet to see a shop that is too complicated to have seo urls (the one i referred to above) installed. you may be referring to the admin side (the categories.php) of the installation but that bit is completely not required as it does not affect it functioning at the shop front. so far, i install seu urls to ANY osc based shop (including creloaded) without even first looking at the shop and there is no problem at all.

and in that case, do not use the robots.txt to ban google indexing ? urls, and seo urls is almost a must, further more with auto redirection of ?url to seo urls, it would be a perfect solution.

Ken

October 21, 2009

Ken,

Thanks for the advice. I am going to give it a shot. I have been super reluctant to install one of these modifications. Right now I think I am going to try FWR's SEO URL mod, If that fails I might give another stab at Chemo's modification. I will keep you updated with the results.

October 22, 2009

So I gave FWR's modification a go. Things didn't work out. The installation was easy, however, it does not function properly. For example, www.13thgreen.com shows up as not a link, however, www.13thgreen.com/index.php works fine. Any ideas?

GemRock · October 22, 2009

Ken,

Thanks for the advice. I am going to give it a shot. I have been super reluctant to install one of these modifications. Right now I think I am going to try FWR's SEO URL mod, If that fails I might give another stab at Chemo's modification. I will keep you updated with the results.

i said the one created (and posted) in 2005, not any others. id be getting irritated if someone tells me their shop is too complicated to add the mentioned seo urls addon, unless the shop has been modified in a very very strange (and therefore unnecessarily) way, eg, a completely different tep_href_link function or the whole shop does not use tep_href_link function, but hardcod all links (another word for being stupid).

heres my offer: you set up a test site and i will do it for free - it would not take me more than a few minutes.

Ken

♥FWR Media · October 22, 2009

So I gave FWR's modification a go. Things didn't work out. The installation was easy, however, it does not function properly. For example, www.13thgreen.com shows up as not a link, however, www.13thgreen.com/index.php works fine. Any ideas?

As you noted in the Ultimate Seo Urls 5 support thread your configure file was totally wrong which is the only reason USU5 didn't seem to work for you, it would be nice if you posted back here once it is correct.

October 23, 2009

Robert,

I understand, I was just updating Ken on where things are at. He has been very gracious to help me with this whole ordeal ;)

October 24, 2009

Robert,

Your mod USU5 works beautifully, it turned out the errors I thought I had with USU5 had nothing to do with your modification. I appreciate your help in getting things squared away. Thanks

Ken,

You nailed it with stupid. My configure.php file was completely wrong and as Robert pointed out many links were/are hard coded. With help from Robert I was able to resolve most of the issues and get the modification installed. I appreciate the offer! Also I want to give you thanks for the final push that got me to install a URL rewrite mod. I hope now I will have less Google problems and more traffic.

Thanks for the help!

GemRock · October 24, 2009

the other u seo urls addons would work beautifully - i dont see thers a need to upgrade and i never do as i dont want to introduce anything that is useless as far as a particular site is concerned.

Ken

♥FWR Media · October 24, 2009

the other u seo urls addons would work beautifully - i dont see thers a need to upgrade and i never do as i dont want to introduce anything that is useless as far as a particular site is concerned.

Ken

Now I don't know where you get off saying things like that Gemrock.

usu series 2 I supported for ages and tried to keep going for far too long for the benefit of the community. It is old inefficient code that was not supported and ruined further by badly thought out additions/versions.

I have created a fresh, modern far more efficient and flexible solution and I hope that the work I have put in for the community gets on average far better and more intelligent comments than ..

i dont see thers a need to upgrade and i never do as i dont want to introduce anything that is useless

GemRock · October 24, 2009

the intelligence for some is "mine is the best" as i just experienced today when i happened to go to the free food market, some selling beautifully looking things including some harmful GM stuff so i ended up buying from the guy i recognise whos been there a long long time and who did not say his was the best in fact he just standing behind the stand quietly, most importantly i have been enjoying good health because of buying/eating what he sells. after all, if you believe your stuff is the best then there is need to shout and its awful to say the next stall is selling rubbish.

Ken

November 2, 2009

UPDATE: 11/2/2009

This are terrible. My google web masters account is dinging me a lot and subsequently my traffic went down 11%. This is the first time we have ever went down in traffic. Desperate cry for help. I need just a direction to go into, I should be able to do the rest from there.

Duplicate Title Tags: 51

Duplicate meta descriptions: 48

Title Ex.

Title: Oakley Golf Clothes & Apparel

Link 1: /index.php?manufacturers_id=20

Link 2: /oakley-m-20.html

Same goes for the descriptions. The first link is the default link. The second is USU5 link. Another terrible offset is that my sitemap is practically rejected.

http://www.13thgreen.com/sitemapindex.xml (By Chemo, with edits by Robert 4 USU5)

Total: 920, Indexed: 15.

I only had 15 URLS indexed!!! None of which were products :/

Any directions would be very appreciated. I would like to keep USU5.

♥FWR Media · November 2, 2009

UPDATE: 11/2/2009

This are terrible. My google web masters account is dinging me a lot and subsequently my traffic went down 11%. This is the first time we have ever went down in traffic. Desperate cry for help. I need just a direction to go into, I should be able to do the rest from there.

Duplicate Title Tags: 51

Duplicate meta descriptions: 48

Title Ex.

Title: Oakley Golf Clothes & Apparel

Link 1: /index.php?manufacturers_id=20

Link 2: /oakley-m-20.html

Same goes for the descriptions. The first link is the default link. The second is USU5 link. Another terrible offset is that my sitemap is practically rejected.

http://www.13thgreen.com/sitemapindex.xml (By Chemo, with edits by Robert 4 USU5)

Total: 920, Indexed: 15.

I only had 15 URLS indexed!!! None of which were products :/

Any directions would be very appreciated. I would like to keep USU5.

you are jumping the gun a bit .. you have only just installed USU5 which will cure at least one of your problems.

http://www.13thgreen.com/index.php?manufacturers_id=20

correctly 301 redirects to

http://www.13thgreen.com/oakley-m-20.html

So the index.php?manufacturers_id=20 problem will disappear over time. you only a few days ago corrected your multiple hardcoded links to correct USU5 links so you'll just have to wait until Google catches up.

Re:: the sitemap .. usually google gives indicators as to why those links were rejected.

GemRock · November 2, 2009

UPDATE: 11/2/2009

This are terrible. My google web masters account is dinging me a lot and subsequently my traffic went down 11%. ...I would like to keep USU5.

sorry to have to say you are asking for it. only suggestion is wait for version 500 that is futuristic (sounds good), flexible that can be bended 360° yet still not broken (assuming you are lucky), efficient that is 500 milliseconds (hence the version number) faster (if you care), bloat (dont worry for you have unlimited space as well as cpu memory).:D

Ken

November 3, 2009

Robert,

Jumping the gun may be the case for duplicate content. Please tell me how you are able to verify the 301 redirect?

Also no site map information is given. I resubmitedd the products site map after posting. Here are the results

sitemapproducts.xml

Total: 683, Indexed: 0

Submitted: Nov 2, 2009

Crawler Access: (Robots.txt)

# 13th Green Standard Robots.txt
# Last Updated 11/02/2009

Sitemap: http://www.13thgreen.com/sitemapindex.xml

User-Agent: *
Disallow: /includes
Disallow: /cgi-bin
Disallow: /account.php
Disallow: /account_edit.php
Disallow: /account_history.php
Disallow: /account_history_info.php
Disallow: /account_password.php
Disallow: /add_checkout_success.php
Disallow: /address_book.php
Disallow: /address_book_process.php
Disallow: /advanced_search.php
Disallow: /checkout_confirmation.php
Disallow: /checkout_payment.php
Disallow: /checkout_payment_address.php
Disallow: /checkout_process.php
Disallow: /checkout_shipping.php
Disallow: /checkout_shipping_address.php
Disallow: /checkout_success.php
Disallow: /contact_bean.php
Disallow: /cookie_usage.php
Disallow: /create_account.php
Disallow: /create_account_success.php
Disallow: /login.php
Disallow: /password_forgotten.php
Disallow: /popup_image.php
Disallow: /shopping_cart.php
Disallow: /product_reviews_write.php
Disallow: /product_reviews.php
Disallow: /product_reviews_info.php
Disallow: /product_reviews_info.php
Disallow: /test

Disallow: /*osCsid=*
Disallow: /*action=*
Disallow: /*manufacturers_id=*products_id=*

Crawl Errors: 0

I will admit I am really stressing about this.

♥FWR Media · November 3, 2009

the other u seo urls addons would work beautifully - i dont see thers a need to upgrade and i never do as i dont want to introduce anything that is useless as far as a particular site is concerned.
Ken

sorry to have to say you are asking for it. only suggestion is wait for version 500 that is futuristic (sounds good), flexible that can be bended 360° yet still not broken (assuming you are lucky), efficient that is 500 milliseconds (hence the version number) faster (if you care), bloat (dont worry for you have unlimited space as well as cpu memory).:D

Ken

Gemrock I ignored your previous comment because it was childish, irrelevant and uncalled for.

You have now chosen to comment further, I don't know where you get off slagging me off.

You obviously have nothing intelligent to say about USU5 so why comment at all?

Whatever you may say or think about USU5 I used to support series 2 ultimate seo urls and it is old, inefficient, inflexible and annoying for users trying to wade through the "hacked about versions". I chose to try to help the community with a fresh fully supported version using modern code, easy upgrade and modular add ons.

You seem to find this offensive, well ok, I'm not bothered what you think either way as you are something of an irrelevance yourself but it would be rather pleasant if you managed to keep your childish digs to yourself.

GemRock · November 3, 2009

Gemrock I ignored your previous comment because it was childish,..

likewise, i ignore 99.9% of all your posts/addons because they are baby-ish and you tend to going out everywhere to utter some baby noise to try to attract attention. but now it seems you are also over intelligent to think the futuristic version 500 got to belong to you for you are the best no one else would be able to do such futuristic stuff. you would be regarded as more intelligent or mature if you first verify what the others say.

and btw, i stand by what i said about 32 degrees problems, ie, they do not simply exist if he does it the right way.

Ken

November 3, 2009

I hope this does not turn into a " A never ending battle!" as the subtopic of this topic implies. I'm still stressing out a lot about the products not being indexed. Were a live shop and this is really killing business. I started comparing the two different sitemaps I have. The old (the one that indexed great) compared with the new (the not so great).

Old:

Structure:

<url>

<loc>http://www.13thgreen.com/product_info.php?products_id=75</loc>

</url>

New:

Structure:

<url>

<loc>http://www.13thgreen.com/pahr-golf-scramble-shorts-black-p-110.html</loc>

<changefreq>weekly</changefreq>

</url>

The new site map as you can see includes change frequency and priority. As far as products go they seldom change. Once we enter a product it stays that way unless we need to add notes to it. i.e. "Shirt runs small, size up for looser fit." Can the change frequency be hurting me? Currently none of my products are being indexed. What about priority? Again this was non existent before. I'm not an expert and can only speculate what is going wrong! I'm desperate for help and will openly admit it. I can do most changes myself.

Another thing I started thinking about is my google feed. All my google feed products are indexed with the old URLS because a modification does not exist yet to convert them to USU5 urls. Could this have anything to do with it?

Thanks

Ryan

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