P2Issue #26
URL : Parameters
❓ What does it mean?
❓ What does it mean?
A parameterized URL is a URL that includes query strings after a ? symbol, often used for:
Tracking (?utm_source=google)
Filtering (?color=red&size=large)
Sorting (?sort=price_asc)
Pagination (?page=2)
Example:
https://example.com/products?category=shoes&color=red
🚨 Why is it important for SEO?
🚨 Why is it bad for SEO (if unmanaged)?
Duplicate Content Issues
Different parameter combinations can show the same content.
Example:
/products?color=red
/products?size=large
Both might show the same "Shoes" category page → duplicates confuse Google.
Diluted Link Equity
Backlinks may point to parameterized versions, splitting PageRank across many variations.
Crawl Budget Waste
Search engines may crawl endless parameter combinations (?color=red&sort=price&size=large), wasting resources.
Index Bloat
Too many parameterized pages in Google’s index can reduce visibility of your key pages.
✅ How to Fix It
✅ How to Fix It
Use Canonical Tags
Point parameterized URLs to the main version.
<link rel="canonical" href="https://example.com/products/shoes" />
Parameter Handling in Google Search Console
Configure how Google should treat URL parameters (ignore vs. crawl).
Prefer Clean URLs
Instead of:
/products?category=shoes&color=red
Use:
/products/shoes/red
Robots.txt (carefully)
Block crawling of unnecessary parameters (e.g., session IDs, tracking).
Disallow: /*?sessionid=
Disallow: /*?utm_source=
Internal Linking Best Practices
Always link to the clean, canonical version, not parameterized URLs.
❌ Bad Example
📌 Example
❌ Bad (parameter duplicates):
https://example.com/products?category=shoes&sort=price_asc
https://example.com/products?sort=price_asc&category=shoes
(Both URLs show the same content → duplicate issue.)
✅ Good Example
✅ Good (clean + canonicalized):
https://example.com/products/shoes
(Tracking and sorting handled via canonical or JS, not indexable URLs.)
⚡ Result
⚡ Result of Fixing
Cleaner index in Google
No duplicate content penalties
Better link equity consolidation
Improved crawl efficiency