Duplicate content issues with file download links (diff. versions of a downloadable application)

[jonmc]

I'm a little unsure how canonicalisation works with this case.

We have very regular updates to the application which is available as a download on our site. Obviously, with every update the version number of the file being downloaded changes; and along with it, the URL parameter included when people click the 'Download' button on our site.

e.g.

mysite.com/download/download.php?f=myapp.1.0.1.exe

mysite.com/download/download.php?f=myapp.1.0.2.exe

mysite.com/download/download.php?f=myapp.1.0.3.exe, etc

In the Moz Site Crawl report all of these links are registering as Duplicate Content. There's no content per se on these pages, all they do is trigger a download of the specified file from our servers.

Two questions:

• Are these links actually hurting our ranking/authority/etc?
• Would adding a canonical tag to the head of mysite.com/download/download.php solve the crawl issues? Would this catch all of the download.php URLs? i.e.

Thanks!

Jon
(not super up on php, btw. So if I'm saying something completely bogus here...be kind   )

[Tenlo]

Jon,

If there is no content and these pages are just the download link then instead of putting a canonical link on them, set them as noindex.  I assume you have a landing page that directs people to your downloads, this is where you should optimize your content to get organic traffic, the direct download pages (with 0 content) will have no real value from a search perspective.