Hello,
Often in my Joomla! sites I use categories for organizational purposes.For example I create a category for each language of the site ('French' and 'English'). Or I create a category that groups the static content of the site.On the other hand, when I need to display lists, I prefer to use the Regular Labs Articles Anywhere plugin. It allows me to create the list directly in a Joomla! article and to manage the rendering as I wish. I find it more flexible and convenient than overriding a category view.For some reason, I often find in search engines indexes the technical url (index.php&com_content=article&view=category...) of a category.I do not want these utility categories to be referenced in search engines.What is the best strategy to adopt?Should I set Robots to noindex?Should I add a canonical url that points to the article that contains the Articles Anywhere list?Should I create a 301 redirect?Can 4SEO help me in these operations ?ThanksSimon
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#9057 – Noindex or canonical url or redirection?
Posted in ‘Pre-sale questions’
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wb_weeblr
Hi
For some reason, I often find in search engines indexes the technical url (index.php&com_content=article&view=category...) of a category.
This should not happen and you should definitely find why and prevent this to happen.
What is the best strategy to adopt?Should I set Robots to noindex?Should I add a canonical url that points to the article that contains the Articles Anywhere list?Should I create a 301 redirect?Can 4SEO help me in these operations ?
I cannot reply on what to do, this is the job an SEO specialist, after they look at your site. For instance, using noindex may be an issue if you do not have other links to that page, or if you have backlinks to that page (in that case, they would be lost).
So a redirect seem more natural, and a canonical seems ok as well. Most likely, 4SEO can add a proper canonical just by clicking one single check box ("Add canonical to self"), while redirect will likely require one redirect rule per URL. But canonical have less strength than redirect so in the end it's your call.
As mentioned above, you should definitely research why this happens and fix the problem first.
Best regards
Yannick Gaultier
weeblr.com / @weeblr
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