SEO problem : urls with parameters indexed

[Durango]

Hi  @bfarber @Matt

This a an urgent SEO problem

We detected that multiple urls like this : 

community.com?app=core&module=system&section=notifications&do=followers&follow_app=forums&follow_area=topic&follow_id=11671

community.com/index.php?app=core&module=system&controller=notifications&do=followers&follow_app=videos&follow_area=video&follow_id=161.

community.com/index.php?app=core&module=system&controller=notifications&do=followers&follow_app=forums&follow_area=topic&follow_id=11219

community.com/index.php?do=findComment&comment=11756

 

etc etc are indexed

its a great risk for Google Panda algorithms

 

There should be a noindex on those pages

 

How can we exclude those urls (thousands and thousands) from crawl & indexation

tx

[Charles]

I'm not sure it's an "urgent SEO issue" but we can add a nofollow there (or you can in your own theme) 🙂 

We had an SEO audit in 4.4 from some well-known SEO processionals and they did not flag this as a priority problem but there's always small things we can do.

 

 

[opentype]

Just hide the links from guests altogether. I was sure (but wrong) this is already the case, since that came up many times before. 

 

[Durango]

Hi Charles

We are SEO too

Nofollow on those links would be nice tx 🙂

For the problem i mentionned, the point is to avoid to give Google thousands of pages with thin or inexistant content to crawl AND index

this could result in SEO penalty (Google Panda algorithms)

You also want to avoid to spend your crawl budget on those pages

So we have to make sure those pages wont be crawled AND wont get indexed (noindex)

 

Edit : Tx @opentype nice plugin from Adriano

but we still have thousands of similar links indexed and we need to remove them from Google, one solution would work : (and solve the problem for all) : add a NOINDEX in those pages code (other solution would be to send 403 or 404 error code to guests)

 

[opentype]

4 minutes ago, Durango said:

but we still have thousands of links like this indexed and we need to remove them from Google

Says who? 
It’s the kind of stuff Google usually puts in the “crawled, but currently not indexed bin” now. I do not buy the claim of “severe SEO penalties” so easily. 

[Matt]

Yes, Google is smart enough to figure it out. It's not going to punish you for having useful UI elements on the page.

[Durango]

Hi

@opentype : say most SEO

Google himself says so : https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/35769

If you have thin content pages, you are advised not to let them be indexed, otherwise it could harm your SEO

If you have only 4 or 5, not a problem, but if you have hundreds or thousands, it starts to be a problem

Large number of thin content pages on a website are bad for the whole website

It also has a negative impact on your crawl budget : you want googlebots to crawl your quality pages, not the others

@Matt : Unfortunately Google is not always able to figure it out, otherwise there would be no need to do SEO on high quality websites 🙂

the point is to avoid UX/UI to penalize SEO

in this case : prevent those links to be crawled and indexed is the solution

For instance, for invisioncommunity.com a quick check for one type of those links gives +700 indexed urls that should not :

https://www.google.com/search?biw=1920&bih=979&ei=UAxfXKiODMONlwTmi7bYCw&q=site%3Ahttps%3A%2F%2Finvisioncommunity.com+inurl%3Afollow_area&oq=site%3Ahttps%3A%2F%2Finvisioncommunity.com+inurl%3Afollow_area&gs_l=psy-ab.12...0.0..2244...0.0..0.0.0.......0......gws-wiz.-G-JueZ69JI

[opentype]

11 minutes ago, Durango said:

Hi

@opentype : say most SEO

Google himself says so

If you have thin content pages, you are advised not to let them be indexed, otherwise it could harm your SEO

Sorry, I should have been clearer. The point of my question was to ask you to substantiate your claim, not add more claims without any demonstration. 

[Durango]

@opentype : i tried to substantiate my claims but if you need more, i would suggest you read about this problem on SEO professionnal websites like this article : 

https://yoast.com/fix-low-quality-pages/

 

[opentype]

Well, we finally got 1(!) article. Not “most SEO”, not “Google himself say so”, not “severe SEO penalty” …
By the way: it’s not that I don’t keep track of these things or even disagree with your suggestion. I suggested to just hide these pages from guests by default in the stock theme. Doesn’t even need a setting. Guests don’t need to see such member details. Crawler don’t need to crawl that.
But as I said: I just don’t buy claims so easily and no one should. Especially not in the field of SEO. 😉 

[Durango]

@opentype i gave you one article explaining the problem, but there are thousands, just help yourself here

i understand you are not SEO yourself, but we are a SEO agency and i can assure you most SEO would advise to remove hundreds (thousands) of thin content pages from index

This can result into severe SEO penalties related to Google Panda algorithm

the plugin from Adriano solves part of the problem (about this kind of indexed pages) but we are still investigating with our crawlers to inspect large invision communities (including this one invisioncommunity.com) to detect all thin content & duplicate content pages, i will post soon about what we might have noticed

 

[opentype]

40 minutes ago, Durango said:

but we are a SEO agency

Sorry, but that doesn’t mean anything. Everyone can open a SEO agency or call oneself a SEO expert. It’s not a protected professional title and there is no acknowledged degree in it. And you’re not even using the word SEO in the right way when you say stuff like “we are SEO” or “you are not SEO”. Not a good start to be trustworthy. 😉 

[Durango]

@opentype :

English is not my first language, thank you for your understanding

Indeed anyone can call oneself a SEO expert, "expert" is a wrong word in my opinion, there are no experts in SEO, (only Google could be considered as an expert of its own algorithm) there are SEO professionals, i would call a SEO professional someone who works full time in SEO with hundreds of clients since +5 years at least (10 years preferably)

So as a SEO professional, i give my opinion and my recommendations based on my experience and my knowledge, i cannot prove it to you, as no one knows for sure the secrets of Google's algorithm, i can only redirect you to hundreds of SEO websites describing the problem i am pointing at, so please don't ask for proof, but those are my recommendations

Have a nice day

 

[asigno]

@Durango There's an easy solution for this, setup Google Search Console and block the unwanted parameters from being indexed.

https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/6080550?hl=en

Quote

• No URLs: Use this option to tell Google not to crawl any URLs with a specific parameter. Google won't crawl any URLs containing the parameter you entered. For example, you can tell Google not to crawl URLs with parameters such as pricefrom and priceto (like http://www.examples.com/search?category=shoe&brand=nike&color=red&size=5&pricefrom=10&priceto=1000) to prevent unnecessary crawling of duplicated content already available from http://www.examples.com/search?category=shoe&brand=nike&color=red&size=5.

 

[Durango]

Hi

Tx @asigno

as far as i know, this tells Google not to crawl, but it doesnt block Google indexing

but thanks for the suggestion 🙂 it can be helpful in somes cases

 

[beats23]

Is it any page that is hidden from guest will not be indexed by google?

[opentype]

11 minutes ago, beats23 said:

Is it any page that is hidden from guest will not be indexed by google?

yes, of course.