: Multiple urls serving same content - how to handle better? Urls go like domain/approved/education/kids/female but I also have filter page in place that lets you do this domain/approved/education-entertainment-business/kids/femal

@Sue5673885

By default, Google will interpret the URLs listed in your sitemap as canonical.

However, Google suggests adding the rel=canonical link element into the head of each document that points to preferred version of the content. If it is not possible to add the rel=canonical markup to the document, e.g. PDF, the recommendation is to append a Link: in the HTTP headers.

LINK Element Syntax Example:

<link rel="canonical" href="http://www.example.com/product"/>


HTTP Header Syntax Example:

Link: www.example.com/product; rel="canonical"


Therefore in the specific examples from your question, I suggest choosing the top most level as the canonical version and adding a link element to the head in all other versions that point back to the top.

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@Kevin317

If you have the same content being pulled up by multiple URLs you will need to use canonical URLs so search engines will know which URL is the primary URL for that content
You should only list the primary URL in your XML sitemap as listing all of the duplicate URLs will not benefit you since you know only the primary URL will be listed in the search results anyway

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