Redirecting Canonical 301s and Magento Website

[ClifThompson]

I have an issue with a client's website where it has 3700+ pages, but roughly half of them are duplicates. Thankfully, the only difference between the original and the duplictes is the "?print" at the end of each URL (I suppose this is Magento's way of making a printable page version of the same page. I don't know, I didn't build it.)

My questions is, how can I get all the pages like this

http://www.mycompany.com/blah.html?print

to redirect to pages like this...

http://www.mycompany.com/blah.html

Also, do they NEED to be Canonical, or will a 301 redirect be sufficient.

Also, after having done this, if anybody knows, is there a way I can turn that feature off in Magento, because we're expanding our product line, and I don't want to have to keep chasing after these "?print" pages after the fact.

[THB]

Canonical will suffice as it is basically a 301 anyways.  Cleaner too as there is no actual redirect for the user, or bot, to endure.

You can also set it up in Google Webmaster Tools under 'Site Configuration > URL Parameters' to ignore that parameter; however, using the canonical tag will more than suffice in this case.

[ClifThompson]

Okay, so if I were in the htaccess file, what would it look like?

would it be a Query string rewrite?

RewriteEngine On

_ RewriteBase /_

RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} ^(*)$

RewriteRule ^(*)html?print$ http://www.mycompany.com/(*)html$ [R=301]

or just a straight one line redirect

_Redirect 301 /(*)html?print http://www.mycompany.com/(*).html_

[SEOKeith]

I would just add:

rel="canonical" href="http://www.mycompany.com/blah.html" />

No need to add 301's.

This might be useful it's Magento specific: http://www.magentocommerce.com/wiki/adding_canonical_url_to_cms_pages

[THB]

Ya, this is what I was talking about.  Just a standard canonical html tag inserted into the framework.

That will clear everything up for you (might take a wee bit, but Google will recognize it right away).

No need for .htaccess whatsoever since the content is identical.  If the content were different, ie. the ?print page showed a completely different style format, then sure, setup some 301's to get the user's to the right page.  But not needed for your situation.

[SEOKeith]

Agreed

[ClifThompson]

I guess my question is, if I use JUST the canonical, then the SEs will get around to changing the address, but will still go to the "?print" pages until that time.

Also, the Magento  help aide on that said I had to do it with EACH individual page. It's going to be especially time-consuming to have to go back out into the admin, go back into the admin, and check to see EVERY time the page that I'm canonizing is the right html version. I think this is where accessing the htaccess will save me a bunch of time (I still have to change the title tags on the remaining original 1500 pages, as well as find out from the Magento site, to access the H1 tags in the templates).

If I use the basic 301 redirect, I get the benefit of the immediate redirect, but I fail to see the downside of having to "endure" the 301 redirect other than additional rules for the browser to access the server. I eventually want to get RID of these "?print" pages because I'm getting the feeling that prices won't update as reliably on the ".html?print" version of the pages, update images (which we HAVE had trouble with in the past) etc. etc. And there's also the possibility that people may still access those ?print pages even if I did just do a canonical. It's just better to admin and SEO 1500+ pages as opposed to 1500+ pages and their duplicates.

I guess, what I'm looking for is, more than likely, the syntax command that's going to include a wildcard function to accomodate everything between "http://www.mycompany.com/" and ".html?print" or ".html". What would that look like?

[ClifThompson]

I was answering this Kjay's response while this one was coming down the pipeline. I get you on the fact if they were TRULY identical, but the reason I wanted to do the 301s is because more than likely, the Magento engine is faulty, and I've found situaitons where the prices are different between the two versions, or the images and text haven't been updated, etc. etc., hence, the need for a 301

[SEOKeith]

It looks like this plugin will add the rel="canonical" tag for you automatically: http://yoast.com/tools/magento/canonical/

View the source code after you have installed it to confirm it's working as expected.

[THB]

OK - I was basing my answers on what you said, "the only difference between the original and the duplictes is the "?print" at the end of each URL"

If there is in fact different content on each page, and the ?print page is the one with the errors, then you should remove the ability for ?print pages to even be generated in the first place instead of having them constantly redirecting user/bots.  Forever 301 re-directions can hurt you down the road.

Once you've removed the ability for users/bots to find and access the ?print pages, then setup the 301's and insert the canonical tags.

[THB]

Just to clarify.  If there is in fact no difference between the pages (as you originally stated), then please just use the canonical tag.  As much as you might want to setup 301 redirects, they would not be the way to go in this case.  Trust me.

Otherwise, here is what I would do, honestly: find out why the ?print is causing information to be displayed improperly in some cases.  If it's accessing the same db tables using the same queries, then that shouldn't be happening.  I'd fix that, and implement the canonical tags, and wait it out.  That would be the easiest approach and most beneficial with the least impact to your site and any rankings.

If this is something your not capable of fixing (not sure if you're proficient with coding, etc), then you can setup 301's as a 'hack', but they should not be left in permanently as the process in which I stated just above is the best way to resolve the issue.

In order to assist you with any .htaccess markup, you'll need to provide some examples of your URL's, and whether they have any common identifiers.

[ClifThompson]

So, assuming this works, can I eventually remove the ".html?print" versions of the pages after the SEs have changed the URLs in their indices?

also, I'm not getting the impression it's going to save me time on specifying different pages (it may save time, I'm not sure), but in the chance it doesn't or the plugin fails to do as advertised, what is the htaccess option for this? Because at least, in this case, I can see the immediacy in it AND you can do canonical rewrites FROM the htaccess.

My situation is, I'm not  THAT advanced in wildcards to make this happen (otherwise, I'd do it myself via just trial and error until it works) AND I myself don't have access to the site (the webmaster does, whose part time) and I have a choice between "Hey, here's several (or one line) of code to put into htaccess to resolve this problem" OR "can you go through and implement this plug to do the Canonical redirects on every page, oh and by the way, please back up first."

So it's not merely JUST a technical problem or a know-how problem, it's also a bureaucratic problem that can mean the difference between getting it done in a few minutes, and it could take two weeks to make happen depending on this person's perception.

[ClifThompson]

Yeah, I know, right. The problem is, I found this out only AFTER I bought the PRO version and mapped out the entirety of the site. Some of those ?print URLs are now indexed in the SEs. So I agree with nipping this problem in the bud (or the root, whichever one prefers), but I still need to know how to do it via the htaccess. In other words, I have to go backwards and take care of the rankings, THEN figure out how to turn it off (and I can go to the Magento forums for that).

[SEOKeith]

I agree with THB on this, use rel="canonical" you simply want to say to the search engines "Hey this is the preferred URL for my content".

301's are for saying "Hey this page has permanently moved to a new page/site"

I would use the rel="canonical" plugin I posted for you above, it will automatically add the canonical tag for you, job done.

[ClifThompson]

I guess my question now is, just doing the htaccess route is a bad idea? in both 301s AND canonicals or just 301s? I guess I'm not looking for easy, but economical. Thanks for your responses.

[THB]

Yes to your first questions.  Here's the process for each (as I see it):

1. Fix/remove the ability for system to generate ?print URL's and implement canonical tags; open beer and wait 'til search engines sort things out.  Nothing more you can do here.

2. No fix to system so we still have ?print URL's.  In this case, setup the 301's in your .htaccess file; however, as long as the system is still generating these ?print URLs, you will have to keep the redirects in the .htaccess in tact, permanently.

Untested:

RewriteEngine On

RewriteBase /

RewriteRule ^([^/]*).html?print$ /$1.html [L,NC,R=301]

[ClifThompson]

Yeah I guess this is the only way to go. Now I just got to get the webmaster to get around to it. (sigh)...

[ClifThompson]

thank you sir....I'll try to avoid the htaccess route then.

[SEOKeith]

I don't understand why you don't just use the rel="canonical" plugin I mentioned above... ?

[ClifThompson]

like I said, I will email your solution concerning the plugin to my web admin guy, but the reason why I'm kind of reticent to do that is it's more a matter of bureacracy (to be sensitive to his time constraints) rather than technical or lack of know-how. I want to get it done right, but I also want to get it done in a timely manner. But I will forward this to him. Thanks you sir.