Redirecting Canonical 301s and Magento Website

[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.

[THB]

Hehe, hey now, not all us developers are lazy

You know your system better than any of us do.  My 1. and 2. are just the best-case order in which to get things done.  Do what works for you and your site.

[Jeremy_FP]

Late to this game, but just in case you're still waiting on your dev...

Magento has an automated add-on system called Magento Connect, and you can access it from your admin (unless the original installer disabled it on your account). You can just use that to install Yoast's plugin. Check out http://www.magentocommerce.com/magento-connect/canonical-url-for-magento.html

Aside from that, if you are using something after 1.4, you should have canonical built into your store (it's in the config section).

If you're not using something after 1.4, consider upgrading. It's not painless, but anything prior to 1.4.1 is pretty rough to use. I'm not surprised you've got bugs and general sadness.