Example.com/?ref

[atlantis76]

Hello everyone

I wonder: assuming my site is indexed in G:

www.mysite.com

And I have quite a few links from other sites with some "id" parameter:

www.mysite.com/?ref=othersite

Which are indexed too in G.

This itself obviously leads to a situation where the very same page is listed several time - technically creating duplicate content.

1. Do you think that this presents a problem?
2. I'm not sure I can avoid it anyway. What would you suggest?

I believe this topic is relevant to many sites. After all, it's not uncommon that a site links to another add a referrer to the link, just to say: "It was my to send you this visitor".

I'd appreciate your thoughts and comments
Assaf

[tedster]

Yes, this can create duplicate content and also keep the PageRank from going direcetly to the principle url. The best way to deal with it is to use a server side script that issues a 301 redirect to the url without any query string.

[atlantis76]

Would any kind of redirection do the trick (as long as it actually redirects)?

[tedster]

Nothing is as certain as the 301 - that's the best practice. Google tries to accomodate other kinds of redirects, but you can still end up with trouble.