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Thread: Query Strings + SEO

  1. 11-25-2010, 06:20 AM #1
    lindsay alford is offline Member
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    Question Query Strings + SEO

    Hi

    I wonder if anyone can help? My customer is using ML8 and wants to get rid of the querystrings on the category pages such as "pagenum" as they believe it harms their SEO and link juice potential. I have found many people say this is not the cause of SEO issues but my customer is insisting that I get rid of them.

    Is there a way of hiding the querystrings from the URL or modify the URL in a way that is more SEO friendly and is it really worth my while in doing this?

    Any help would be appreciated!

    Thanks in advance

    Lindsay
  2. 11-25-2010, 06:41 AM #2
    BFG 9000 is offline Senior Member
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    Hi Lindsay,

    It's really not an issue, but if you absolutely must get rid of them, then you could set page size to be a very large number - so you never have more than one page.


    TTFN

    BFG
    Blog - Random Blurb from BFG 9000
    Twitter - @BFG9000
  3. 11-25-2010, 08:25 AM #3
    lindsay alford is offline Member
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    Hi BFG,

    Thanks for the reply, wish my customer would see it like that! They don't want to increase the page size, they want to keep 20 products per page with paging.....

    Can you think of anything else I can do?

    It seems to be an absolute nightmare in ML8 to hide them from where I am sitting!

    Thanks

    Lindsay
  4. 11-25-2010, 08:56 AM #4
    esedirect is offline Senior Member
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    In Google Webmaster Tools > Site Configuration > Settings > Parameter handling they say this:

    If your site uses URL parameters, some of the parameters may be unnecessary for page navigation. Asking Google to ignore these parameters can reduce duplicate content in Google's index and make the site more crawlable.

    Try that, and add pagenum to the list
    http://www.esedirect.co.uk
    --------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Using MS 9.2.0.0 with the following customisations:

    Lightbox/Fancybox enlarged images;
    Auto-suggest searchbox;
    Extra product information shown only to our IP Address (such as supplier info, costs, etc.);
    Failed transactions emailed via trigger;
    Custom app to show basket contents when customer online;
    Orders pushed through to accounting systems.

    All the above without source!
  5. 11-25-2010, 09:00 AM #5
    lindsay alford is offline Member
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    Hi!

    Thanks, tried that and google didn't index them but my customer is fixated on the actual URL itself and think that because there is a ? and parameters in the URL that they are being limited in terms of SEO.

    Thanks

    Lindsay
  6. 11-25-2010, 10:39 AM #6
    BFG 9000 is offline Senior Member
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    I think this is one of those times when you need to educate the client.
    The bottom line is that yes - it's possible to do, but - it will come at a price.

    The extra processing needed to provide this completely unnecessary functionality will result in a longer page load time which WILL have a negative result on rankings.

    I'd be inclined to ask them who exactly their SEO consultant is...


    TTFN

    BFG
    Blog - Random Blurb from BFG 9000
    Twitter - @BFG9000
  7. 11-26-2010, 02:42 AM #7
    lindsay alford is offline Member
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    Hi BFG,

    Thanks just needed someone to confirm my thoughts before I go back to my client as they don't always believe me!

    Thanks for the info I will now go back to them armed and ready!

    They don't have an SEO consultant, they are doing it themselves which I think is the problem!

    Lindsay