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#1643 – dupicate URLs problem

Posted in ‘sh404SEF’

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Monday, 11 January 2016 15:57 UTC

CatfishTPA

I used to have problems with Joomla 3.4.x creating duplicate URLs like
http://www.xxxx.de/turnier-strategie/gap-konzept-im-poker-turnier/21-strategie-artikel/226-die-phasen-eines-turniers
as well as
http://www.xxxx.de/turnier-strategie/gap-konzept-im-poker-turnier

and other duplicates. I think that my site took a bad hit in visitor numbers because of this.

After some research, I found sh404SEF recommended in the Joomla forum, so I decided to buy the extension. I tried it and after the most simple setup (activating the three options shown in the control panel, it seems that the problem is fixed because those duplicate URLs now throw a 404 page with some recommendations of other pages, which include the URL of the page that the article should correctly be shown under. Good job!!!
Also, I have checked the "404 requests" part and manually redirected all problematic URLs showing there to the correct ones.

Question 1: Is there anything else I need to do to get rid of the above main problem?

Question 2: My Google Analytics UA code is set in my Rockettheme template, why does sh404sef tell me that Google Analytics is not properly configured? Do I have to enter the GA code manually?

Question 3: I have a couple of multilingual sites, set up with the Joomla method (duplicate templates, language categories etc). Does sh404SEF work in the same simple way for those sites?

Thank you for your help!
Juergen

Monday, 11 January 2016 16:11 UTC

wb_weeblr

Hi

What you have to understand very well is that, in pretty much all cases, installing sh404SEF will change your URLs from what they were before. This is something to consider when switching an existing site, because most of the times, having 404s on old URL (even if you redirect them to new ones) is probably not worth the switch is your only problem is a handful of duplicates.

That said:

1 - No. Make sure you redirect your 404s, as said above. Or manually customize (in URL manager) your most commonly visited URLs, so that they are exactly the same as the old ones.

2 -

why does sh404sef tell me that Google Analytics is not properly configured

Because sh404SEF Google Analytics is probably not well configrued. sh404SEF also provides inclusion of GA snippet - in a much more advanced way that what you can find in any template. And on top of that, it can also displays GA results in your backend.
We have no way to know that you are also using another extension to handle GA.
If you still want to use your template to insert your js, you can disable "Display reports" under the "Analytics" section of sh404SEF config, that's probably why you have a message.

3 - Yes, sh404SEF will work the same with ML sites, as long as they are Joomla ML sites (ie not using a ML 3rd-party extension)

Rgds

Monday, 11 January 2016 16:47 UTC

CatfishTPA

1. well I already have set it up so that the URLs are now handled by sh404SEF. All URLs are new/different now. From my experience there is no point in setting redirects from all old URLs to the new URLs, at least as far as Google is concerned - they will pick the new URLs up pretty quickly, especially after resubmitting the sitemap with the new URLs.
2. yes I found the function where I enter the UA code in your extension, and I entered a tags manager ID as well and disabled the handling of the Google Analytics ID, but I am still getting an error message:
Error connecting to Google Analytics: Not authenticated yet. Please finish Analytics configuration.

Monday, 11 January 2016 16:53 UTC

wb_weeblr

Hi

1 - URLs being picked up is one thing, authority and ranking is another. But it all depends on how mmany backlinks you have, etc so your mileage may vary.

2 - Like I said, this is about displaying analytics reports in the backend, so you should disable report display (unless you actually complete the configuration for that). Please see this documentation page for the background and details (there's even a video).

Rgds

Tuesday, 12 January 2016 12:25 UTC

CatfishTPA

Originally, my URLs are usually bulit like this: mydomain.com/1stlevel_menu_item_alias/2ndlevel_menu_item_alias
I tried to replicate those settings with sh404SEF, but I was unsuccessful.
For my other websites, I would definitely like to keep the old URLs intact as above.
What exactly do the settings have to look like in sh404SEF?
I saw the part in the component where you can make some choice, but maybe I am a little confused with the names you are using for the aliases?

Tuesday, 12 January 2016 13:21 UTC

CatfishTPA

I mean right now, in the configuration, I have activated the "Use menu alias" option, but the URLs are being built only from the lowest menu item's alias.
Before it was built from the top level menu alias plus the second level menu alias.
Before: www.xxxx.de/test/bester-bet365-poker-bonus-code
Now: www.xxxx.de/bester-bet365-poker-bonus-code
But I could not find an option to include both menu aliases in the configuration.

Tuesday, 12 January 2016 13:33 UTC

wb_weeblr

Hi

We never use menu items to build URLs. As simple as that. Instead we use the actual article, categories, ... to build the URLs.

but the URLs are being built only from the lowest menu item's alias.

Nope, the URL is built as per the above (assuming this is Joomla regular content - some extensions may use menu items, but we try to avoid it as much as can be).

I have activated the "Use menu alias" option,

Read the tooltips for that option: the key point is "... every time that title is required.". We make sure to almost never have to require a menu item to build a URL, so this setting is almost never use.

Rgds

Tuesday, 12 January 2016 13:42 UTC

CatfishTPA

Ok, I get it. So I will need to make a list of the old URLs before activating sh404SEF and redirect the old URLs to the new ones.

Tuesday, 12 January 2016 13:45 UTC

wb_weeblr

Hi

Yes. Or you can also simply customize the URLs created by sh404SEF so that they look exactly the same as the old ones. It's even better, because no redirect happens.
If you have too many URLs, you can select the top 10, 30 or 100 and only customize those for instance.

Rgds

Tuesday, 12 January 2016 14:05 UTC

CatfishTPA

Yes that would definitely be simpler. Thanks for the tip!

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