funny urls

Google creates utls

[night707]

Wondering why Goodle WMT complains about duplicate meta tags for
whatevername.html
and something like
whatevername.html?r=1&l=ri&fst=0

Why does Google ad such endings ?r=1&l=ri&fst=0

[not2easy]

Are these funny endings added to static html pages or are these pages that exist when you search or sort using the CMS or a script? If you paste that funny url in your browser's address bar do you see a page? If it exists, it can be indexed as a duplicate and devalue the non-funny url page. If you can't noindex the duplicate versions, you can add URL Parameters in "WMT" and disallow crawling of other versions.

[night707]

Thanks a lot for your reply. Well, these funny urls have never been created, but they show up in a browser. And Google seems to be adding something like ?r=1&l=ri&fst=0 to these urls,. All pages are static on that site. Where can such versions come from?

And adding them to WMT might be a hell of a regular job after each crawl as the site has nearly 8000 pages.

[lucy24]

And adding them to WMT might be a hell of a regular job

No, no, you don't have to add each individual URL! Just go to the "parameters" area of WMT, or GSC or whatever they're calling it this week. Any parameters that they know about should already be listed. All you have to do is pick out all the ones you don't really use, and select one of the Ignore options. (There are three or four different settings. You'll figure it out.)

It's worth checking this area periodically to make sure they don't show any parameters that aren't supposed to be there-- or any parameters at all, if you have static URLs.

[night707]

Thank you Lucy. That seems to explain it ... However, none of these parameters are used, but it is unclear, if any of them have to be there.

A bit of search showed, that there are folks looking for a solution to deactivate that feature. Would you have perhaps any idea?

[phranque]

Use a 301 status code to redirect the requested URLs with query strings to their canonical URLs.

[night707]

301? The site has over 8000 urls ... How to get a rid of these unwanted WMT parameters that are causing these weird duplicates ?

[not2easy]

You will not have any duplicate issues if you simply add URL Parameters in "WMT" and disallow that unwanted parameter. You can also rewrite the URLs as suggested but since they have been crawled, you'll probably see 404s when they are gone. That's why Parameters was suggested. URL Parameters tell Google to ignore other forms of the same page, no matter the reason.

[lucy24]

How to get a rid of these unwanted WMT parameters that are causing these weird duplicates ?

The exact rule will depend on whether you use queries in URLs at all. If you don't, the rule is simply: "If a request contains a query string, then redirect to the identical request minus the query". If you do use queries, you have to pick out the ones you want to keep. But really it's easier to do this at the WMT/GSC level.

If you're looking more closely at the Parameters area, be careful with the "affects page content" descriptor. It includes things like "sortby" or "listorder" that you might not think of as changing page content, because all the same stuff is still there, just in a different arrangement. Last time I looked, you couldn't tell Google to use some specific value; you could only let them pick one at random.

[night707]

thanks a lot for your replies.

The site is not using queries in URLs at all and I just want WMT to stop creating those duplicates that cause warnings about duplicate meta tags. Is there no simple way to stop these unwanted parameters?

On the parameters page I could not find any switch off function.

[tangor]

I will probably be the odd voice in this conversation.

Do nothing.

The dupes are not your making or intention. G does their thing from different points and creates many of these problems for themselves.

I have never addressed any of this BS. Period. And never saw a drop or loss over the years.

Having said that, do what you think needs be done.

I don't live by what GWT or whatever they call it these days. The info is too conflicting to real life etc. Also (and this is not a rant), I do not depend on G solely for traffic, though I do appreciate whatever I get. YMMV.

[not2easy]

On the parameters page I could not find any switch off function.

On the Parameters page, look for where it says "Add a Parameter" then add the endings they are sticking on, the ones shown as duplicates such as "?r=1&l=ri&fst=0" and then you can choose the settings for that URL parameter. Until you add them, they aren't there.

[night707]

thanks lads! Just followed not2easy's suggestion and added that parameter ?r=1&l=ri&fst=0 that google is adding to urls with a request not to crawl any of these dupes that they are creating for whatever purpose ... anyway, what a bogus ...

[lucy24]

added that parameter ?r=1&l=ri&fst=0

I hope you didn't mean that literally.

"r" is one parameter.
"l" is a second.
"fst" is a third.

[keyplyr]

I used to keep up adding all those ignores for parameters. Then I stopped doing it. I saw no difference either way.

[raseone]

@night707

Since the site is entirely static & not using URL parameters at all you can actually strip off any and all such urls in the future by making simple edits to your htaccess file. This will remove all those urls that start with a "?" You should search BING for a phrase like "Strip unwanted query strings" to verify the exact incantation but I believe you will want to add the following to your .htaccess file.

### Eliminate Unwanted Query Strings##
RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} ^[A-Z]{3,9}\ /([^?]*)\?
RewriteRule (.*) /$1? [R=301,L]

This will stop any such urls from working in the future & thus stop them from being indexed & showing up in gwt.

You may still want to "clean out" the Google cache or records in WMT but personally I wouldn't bother.

I agree that these mysterious URLS pop up for no reason in GWT and in the Google cache & I do believe that they could potentially be damaging. I have never been able to figure out where they come from but like "bad incoming links" they are a potential SEO attack, a deliberate attempt to harm your sites rank. Personally I ignore all this sort of stuff because like Tangor said, it is Googles problem & it's suspicious.

[raseone]

Here's a pretty good link.

[sites.google.com...]