A lot of non-SEO-friendly shopping cart programs run into dynamic URL problems. When you include different kinds of variables and parameters in your URL, the chances of duplication and wasted link value become endless.
For example, the following URLs can lead to the same page, And if we try to rearrange the parameters, the link will still lead to the same page and cause more wasted link value.
- http://www.aeserver.com/somepage.html?param1=abc
- http://www.aeserver.com/somepage.html?param1=abc&dest=goog
- http://www.aeserve.com/somepage.html?param1=abc&dest=goog&camp=111
- http://www.aeserve.com/somepage.html?param1=abc&dest=goog&camp=111&id=423
Another cause of dynamic URL problems is that many companies use parameters based URLs for statistical purposes, which is not a good practice for SEO. There are also many other causes for the dynamic URL problem. Now let’s see how we can avoid it.
- Make sure to use an SEO-friendly base URL that will lead to the content rather than to use URLs that rely on parameters.
- Set a canonical tag to tell the search engines to use the base version of the URL. While in this case, you can use parameters to get your data. The search engine will consider the base URL official.
- An excellent way to handle this problem is to capture your data to the server-side and redirect the visitor to the correct URL. The process basically goes like this: visitor clicks on the parameter base link -> visitor lands on the site, server records the parameters data and 301 redirects the visitor to the right landing page. The process happens very fast. The visitor barely notices the switch. But make sure to link the right page, so the visitors get what they were after.
