: Webmaster Tools - URL Parameters Settings Do Not Work Google Webmaster Tools shows problems with duplicate title tags under Optimization -> HTML Improvements, for example: ราคาแอร์

@Michele947

Google Webmaster Tools is still reporting the issue, but are both URLs actually still in the index? GWT is a great tool, but it's far from infallible. It could be that the canonical link element or the parameters tool worked, but the change wasn't immediately reflected in GWT.

"… a rel-canonical tag is set…"

It's worth bearing in mind that Google regard the canonical link element as a hint, not a directive.

"… they are (no longer) linked to internally…"

They might be still be linked externally. And are they referenced from your XML Sitemap?

"…rankings dropped dramatically"

This could be explained by the fact that you're not linking to the page(s) anymore.

"What else can we do here?"

If you just want it/them out of the index, apply <meta name="robots" content="noindex">. But, I recommend (a) checking the index to see whether both versions are, in fact, indexed and, (b), if not, reinstating the internal links to see if that addresses the ranking issue.

Vote Up Vote Down

@Vandalay111

You could try 301 redirecting the URL with the parameter to the main URL.

Also, did you apply the parameter setting before or after adding the rel=canonical tag? I'm not certain about this, but I believe if you added the canonical tag after setting the parameter, Google will simply stop crawling the page (or at least do so much less frequently) and will not see the canonical tag.

Vote Up Vote Down