Categorized and Non-Categorized Product URLs Causing Duplicate Issues

[jdahlsynapse]

I am reviewing SEO for a website that my audit is giving me multiple duplicate content and title tag issues because the client has built the site with multiple subfolder variations for the same page content. It seems this was used to have top-level and categorized versions of the same product. Can someone help me with what would be my best approach to fix the site construction here to remove these duplicate issues? Should I have the client decide to just keep one URL version and redirect all traffic to this. Should I make canonical to the main version just for Google? Other solutions? Thanks.

Here is an example:

https:// clientsite.com/valves/vacuum-seal-off-valve/cvi-model-v-123-1-2-vacuum-seal-off-valve.html
2.
https:// clientsite.com/valves/cvi-model-v-123-1-2-vacuum-seal-off-valve.html

[edited by: goodroi at 4:58 pm (utc) on Mar 23, 2020]
[edit reason] fixed url [/edit]

[JayDub]

If they're really for visitor experience (useful to visitors) then <link rel=canonical> on page (or the header version) is a good way to go. If they're just an attempt to rank in multiple ways, then a 301 to a single canonical page (and changing all internal links to point to the consolidated page) is probably better.

[lammert]

Welcome to WebmasterWorld jdahlsynapse and JayDub!

I hope you enjoy your stay here!

[JS_Harris]

rel=canonical tells Google one version of the page is the version you want indexed. If you go this route make absolutely sure the content of the pages is near identical and that you point all the copies to the right place. If the difference is more than just a sorting order or url path you need to have an expert evaluate your setup.

An alternative, add a noindex meta tag or header response on duplicates, this has less potential to backfire catastrophicaly but is still not without challenges.

A sitemap with only one version of pages is also another indicator, but not a command.

Site design, it's possible to show one page sorted in many ways without actually changing the URL path using something like Ajax, It too has challenges.

Lastly Google used to allow you to suggest which url parameters could be ignored as duplicate. I'm not sure they still do but this would apply to Google only so is not your best option anymore.

Good luck