3 replies to this topic

[digitalcoffee]

Hi All,

I'm just looking for some help (or reassurance!) on my knowledge of duplicate URLs (which is currently being tested and I'm self doubting!).

The Problem
Our e-commerce website uses the Magento platform. I've been doing some research this morning, and I believe that Magento isn't great at supporting products which are assigned to multiple categories, and therefore duplicates a URL.

As an example: A kettle is in the category 'kettles' and the category 'premium kettle collection' and therefore we have the following URLs:

www.website.com/products/premium-collection/white-kettle
and
www.website.com/products/kettles/white-kettle

Incidentally, those products which have duplicate URL's rank poorly (or not at all) on Google. Those products which don't have duplicate URL's and belong to only one category incidentally rank very well on Google.

The Question
Will Google class these two URL's and duplicate URL's with the same content and therefore continue to penalise us for it?
How do I fix this?

We can use Canonical tags – but it’s currently not possible as even though we pose a risk of “duplicate content” being crawled, there is only one page on the admin side. I've read about Mageworx Magento SEO extension to help with canonical URL's and re-directs, does anybody have any experience of this software?

Many Thanks in advance

[Jill]

It's duplicate content, yes. But there's no penalty.

It should be fixed, however, as you're splitting the PageRank between both URLs so neither may end up ranking.

Canonical would work if you can do it. If not, you'll need to figure out out to better configure your system so it only creates one URL for any product regardless of how one gets to it.

[digitalcoffee]

Thanks Jill.

I can't canonicalise because there is only one page created for this product in Magento but each assigned category creates a duplicate path
.
I'll look a little further into extension packages and see what can be done!

[Jill]

Good luck! I'm sure magneto offers some fix.