Removing Extra Variables Within the URLs Listed in Search Results

Jun 21, 2006 - 7:40 am 2 by
Filed Under Dynamic Site SEO

Sometimes you may notice a URL listed in the search results page that may look like www.domain.com/?tracking=5 or something like that. You normally do not want to see your pages with URLs listed in the search indexes like that. It is bad for a few reasons, the two most obvious include (1) you are tracking results (clicks/conversions/etc) from a different source (Google is most likely the source you did not want to track those clicks from, in this case) and (2) the link popularity of that page is somewhat off according to the search engine.

This use to be a bigger issue with search engines, today it seems to be slightly not as big of an issue.

So what remedies do you have?

A WebmasterWorld thread discusses 301 redirecting the tracking "URL to the same page URL but without the parameter." The other solution given is to add a noindex meta tag to the page with the extra variables (make sure it is only on that page and not on the version without the extra variables (often harder to implement).

Best solution of the top two? 301 redirect.

Best solution? Get the main URL indexed.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

 

Popular Categories

The Pulse of the search community

Search Video Recaps

 
Video Details More Videos Subscribe to Videos

Most Recent Articles

Search Forum Recap

Daily Search Forum Recap: July 4, 2025

Jul 4, 2025 - 10:00 am
Search Video Recaps

Search News Buzz Video Recap: Google June 2025 Core Update, Search Volatility, Insights Report, Ads & More

Jul 4, 2025 - 8:01 am
Bing Search

Bing Search Tests Zoomable & Sticky Related Searches

Jul 4, 2025 - 7:51 am
Google

Google AI Mode Can Respond In Non-English Languages

Jul 4, 2025 - 7:41 am
Bing Search

Bing Tests Local Place Listings In Green

Jul 4, 2025 - 7:31 am
Google Ads

Google Merchant Center Gains Automatic Shipping Updates

Jul 4, 2025 - 7:21 am
Previous Story: Please Vote for Us: MarketingSherpa Reader's Choice Blog Awards 2006