Canonical Confusion

[moon-boots]

So I have products appearing in several categories, all of which have the correct canonical url. But Moz is flagging up pages I never knew existed, and I don't understand why they exist at all and more so why my canonical fix isn't occurring for them, as below:

SEO Friendly URL: http://thespacecollective.com/nasa-pin-sets/nasa-shuttle-mission-pin-set-no2

Weird URL to same product: http://thespacecollective.com/index.php?route=themecontrol/product&product_id=159

Is this a developer problem rather than an SEO problem?

[Vijay-Gaur]

Hi There,

I checked your website, it uses Opencart as a platform for e-commerce. You can search and use an extension from here http://www.opencart.com/index.php?route=extension/extension&filter_search=product canonical url seo

Or this can help you through https://isenselabs.com/posts/how-to-solve-the-duplicate-content-issue-in-opencart

I hope this helps, please feel free to ask further questions.

Regards,

Vijay

[davebuts]

Hi spacecollective,

Firstly, I love the site and I'll be buying a gift for my dad's birthday from here!

There are definitely some issues with canonical tag and redirect chains here. I'd say it's an issue with the development of the site that is now causing SEO issues - so it's an issue for both!

I'll use the product you mentioned in my example:

http://thespacecollective.com/index.php?route=themecontrol/product&product_id=159
canonicalizes to
http://thespacecollective.com/nasa-shuttle-mission-pin-set-no2/
which redirects to
http://thespacecollective.com/nasa-pin-sets/nasa-shuttle-mission-pin-set-no2
which canonicalizes to
http://thespacecollective.com/space-memorabilia/nasa-pin-sets/nasa-shuttle-mission-pin-set-no2/

All of these URLs should have the same canonical URL. I always prefer to canonicalize products that appear under multiple categories to the root level (it's also what Magento does by default and it works very well).

So, in this example, all variations would have a canonical tag pointing to
http://thespacecollective.com/nasa-shuttle-mission-pin-set-no2/

However, in your OpenCart CMS, it may be easier to canonicalize these to the final URL in the chain (http://thespacecollective.com/space-memorabilia/nasa-pin-sets/nasa-shuttle-mission-pin-set-no2/) as this is also the URL that is listed in the XML sitemap.

If you choose to canonicalize to the root level, you will need to make sure that the sitemap is updated to only include this new canonical URLs.

Hope this helps. Feel free to send me a PM if you have any further questions

Cheers,

David

[MoosaHemani]

THIs is the common issue with all open cart sites, if you discuss this issue with the developer, he will be able to fix it… no big deal!

[moon-boots]

Hello Vijay,

As discussed previously I already use an extension and the problem is still occurring. I was hopeful with the solution in your 2nd link, tried it, and as with most things gave me an error and took down my site. I'm sure this error is a problem that a good developer could fix but alas I don't have one.

[Vijay-Gaur]

I understand , you may need an opencart professional to fix the problem.