: Is it correct to redirect useless "?" URLs to cleaner URLs This is not about redirecting /index.php?id=6252 to /category-name. It's about redirecting: /category-name?ref=blabla&something=useless-stuff
This is not about redirecting /index.php?id=6252 to /category-name.
It's about redirecting:
/category-name?ref=blabla&something=useless-stuff
/category-name?
/category-name????????
to:
/category-name
in a small website that does not use GET methods at all.
I have never seen this technique used (or discussed) anywhere, even Google allows you to visit:
www.google.com/????? (PR=0)
instead of:
www.google.com/ (PR=9)
I don't like adding extra HTML tags (i.e. canonical) or HTTP headers to my website, so I thought why not this?
My biggest fears though is that search engines wouldn't appreciate it.
I just came to this question but it doesn't add much, I'm not planning to share URLs with extra parameters: Google adds useless parameters to my URL
Update: I'm starting to believe there's nothing wrong with this technique.
Videos from Matt Cutts:
What are the advantages of 301 redirects over rel="canonical"?
Is there an advantage to using rel="canonical" over a 301 redirect?
And an image picked from a moz article (look at that ?ref=123 example!):
More posts by @Voss4911412
4 Comments
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I think you can use the Webmaster Tools parameter handling function here and not worry too much about 301 interception. Or, if you can, instigate an absolute URL, case sensitive canonical tag and don't worry too much about redirecting rogue query strings as you may require in the future i) detailed analytics tagging, b) advertising / PPC and c) may have internal links with querystring. Don't worry too much about it - your time is much better spent on making a great page & content which would convert a customer
Firstly, you should try and avoid those parameters wherever possible. Don't link to these types of URL yourself. Of course it's often outside your control.
If there are certain parameters in the URLs, for example a "ref" parameter that came from a known source (like some advertising or tracking you did) it can be beneficial to redirect to the canonical page.
However, I would not bother trying to catch every single variation of URL parameters like multiple question marks. Just make sure to use rel=canonical and the search engines will know the correct page. Avoiding redirects will also be a little faster for users and provide a better experience.
Google recommends that you trim unnecessary query parameters from your URLs whenever possible. Overuse of query parameters can cause some of your content to not be indexed, or for you to suffer the duplicate content penalty.
On a related note, if you haven't done so already, read Google's SEO Starter Guide which addresses this and many other SEO issues.
If a URL points to a non existing page, the correct thing to do is send a 404 status code and serve up up a useful 404 page for your users.
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