| Parameter Handling - Now Updated on Webmaster Tools
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tedster
msg:4214989 | 5:26 am on Oct 11, 2010 (gmt 0) |
In addition to the old functionality, you now have the ability to choose a specific value among the known values for a given URL parameter. This is important when a parameter is relevant to the content, but different values of this parameter lead to similar pages. For example, consider a sorting parameter, like "sort-by" in the following URLs:
http://example.com/shop.php?category=candy&sort-by=asc-price&page=1
http://example.com/shop.php?category=candy&sort-by=desc-price&page=1
http://example.com/shop.php?category=candy&sort-by=asc-price&page=2
http://example.com/shop.php?category=candy&sort-by=desc-price&page=2
...To avoid duplicates but still keep our indexing consistent, you can simply select action "Use specific value" for parameter "sort-by" and choose one of the valid values, say "asc-price".
[googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com...] |
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tedster
msg:4214990 | 5:30 am on Oct 11, 2010 (gmt 0) |
I find this to be a thoughtful addition to the box of tricks offered in Webmaster Tools. Faceted navigation can quickly pile up a mass of URLs and a site can still want at least one of the parameter values to be crawled - but not all.
Up to now, it was a tricky situation. At least this gives you a fighting chance to re-allocate some of those spidering cycles.
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