Duplication of all blog pages 
Author: John W.I like how Website X5 handles the blog section of a website. It is nice.
But on a technical SEO point of view, got a big question or questions for you.
On my blog: https://www.eclectic-ware.com/blog/ If it starts out like this, without the index.php after blog/, the the pages in the blog start with a question mark and then the blog title. That is good.
But if it starts with https://www.eclectic-ware.com/blog/index.php then every blog page comes up in the address bar with the blog/index.php?name of the blog post.
Thus, duplicate URLs, all with /index.php in them or not in them. Every blog page. Creating duplicate pages of every blog to confuse Google as to which to index.
I have created my own sitemap.xml for the blog pages only and I manually upload it into the /blog directory to keep from confusing it with the main sitemap.xml that the program creates. I do not include the /index.php in my URL's. I do see that the software creates a canonical tag for every blog, and DOES NOT add the index.php in the URL. That is good.
So one of the questions, very technical, is: Is there any code that can be added to the .htaccess file that will tell all /blog pages that have /index.php in them to redirect to the page that does not have that in the URL? Would that be the fix to this issue? I am not a coder, so I do not know. This is why i am asking you guys.
I really do not want to go line by line in the .htaccess file with REDIRECT 301 for every single blog entry.
And I was asked about the ? in the URL string on the blogs. I told my new SEO guys most likely that will never go away because it is a dynamic page, not a static page. But could the software be changed so blog pages could be created as static pages and not have the ? in the URL? Why not. Why not have them as any normal page we create in the software? That would seem to make more sense. We want our blog pages out there all the time and INDEXED BY GOOGLE. Why not make them static.
I know that is a big ask. I hope a big answer will follow.
The moderators and Incomedia employees will probably also comment on this.
Since the blog posts are tagged with a canonical tag, Google knows which link should be included in the index and which should not.
Many CMSs today generate URLs that look as if they were static pages. The SEO experts would have to explain whether this has any advantages for Google.
Author
Does Google index dynamic pages? Are dynamic pages always present or do they have to be called up? When I paste one of my links into the address bar, it comes up right away. But is the software creating it at that time for the request made? I don't know. I just write the pages. I do not know how all the code and behind the scenes stuff works.
Google indexes both types, regardless of whether there is a finished website on the server or whether the website still needs to be put together.
WebSiteX5 works with both types, i.e. with dynamic (file extension .php) and static pages (file extension .html), depending on the type of pages.
Author
Okay, thank you.
Hello John,
by default the blog main page is website/blog/index.php (although it can be reached even if index.php is omitted), so the articles are commonly reached at website/blog/index.php?name-of-the-article, but the URL that has been set in the SEO section of an article is the one that is set as the canonical for the article, usually website/blog/?name-of-the-article
Are you having warnings with the Search Console about the blog articles?
Even though the individual blog articles are not added to the sitemap, they are still indexed through the main blog page, as the crawlers are then able to reach them.
They are set as dynamic pages for technical reasons, but this does not influence whether or not Google indexes them.
Eric
Author
Hi Eric,
Thank you. I am aware of this. What I am trying to find an answer to, is my new SEO team is telling me that website/blog/index.php?name-of-the-article and website/blog/?name-of-the-article BOTH work and BOTH show the two ways in the address bar. If you start with /blog/index.php? in viewing the blog, every blog page selected to read has the index.php? in the URL string. But if it starts as /blog?, then the index.php does not carry over in all the URLs.
So when creating an internal link in the software, if you select web page, and then blog, when published and someone clicks on the blog anchor text, you get website/blog/index.php?name-of-the-article in the ADDRESS BAR.
But if you create an internal link and do it the long way, you do not select a web page, you manually insert the file or URL, such as: website/blog, then the index.php does not show up in all the blog pages.
So we have technically, two URL's for each page. These guys are hyped up that this causes duplicate content issues with google, even though the automated canonical tag on each blog page does NOT have the index.php in it.
I really do not think it is a problem, but they are having a hissy fit about it.
Is there any code beside one Redirect 301 after another for every blog page, is there a simple code to tell all the BOTs in the world that all /blog/index.php?blog-names redirect to all blog/?blog-names. That would appease them, I think.
And I am going to try to go through my whole site and any link to home or blog, I am going to manually insert URL's instead of just having a quickie link to a page. More work, but maybe a tinge more SEO friendly.
AND HEY, can you chime in on the thread I have about ALT tags for shopping cart images. Something really needs to be done there.
Thanks,
Maybe there is a good SEO professional here who can evaluate the matter.
I myself also think that the canonical tag is sufficient for Google, but unfortunately I am not an SEO professional.
Author
I would like to think that someone on the software writing team at Incomedia would be an SEO professional. Ears open?
Of course in the SEO world, 80 to 90% of the people doing it are ametuers. They send you their 10 count list of what is wrong with your site, of which, half of their list is a lie. It is just a form letter list. Or the guys wanting to write the more perfect website for you and have tons of experience, but most do not see to have a last name, company name, phone number, e-mail address in their signature, and their e-mails are always from GMail or Hotmail. How professional is that. You don't even have your own domain?
This group of guys I signed on with just over a month ago understood me and I understood them since I have done most of my own SEO since 2003. But of course, new things that you learn go obsolete in a year or two. Fundamentals are always the same with title and meta tags. AND ALT TAGS! And the fact that your title tag, URL string, H1 tag, opening body text, and page text in general all need to be near exact or very similar, and then Google's whole EAT and EATT things, there is a lot to keep on top of. I know Google overlooks various aspects of duplicate content. Our headers and footers are duplicate content. But the two URL's going to the same page, or worse, three or four, I can see that as an issue. I have known that static pages tend to rank better than dynamic pages. With the X5 blog, the dynamic page is created identically each time, so not a problem. But on sites where you pick a size, color, fill in all the blanks and a result comes up, that web page may not be there again in 10 minutes time. SEO is a wonderful thing when it works.
And what I tell all the fools who promise you the first page of Google, If there are 400 companies on-line all selling the same brand of cabinet knobs, only ten of them will be on the first page, and the other 390 will be on the other pages. There are no promises. But hard work can keep you on pages 1, 2, or 3. And how long are these pages now? I see some with 20 to 25 results on the first page. We can't even count on Google not to be flakey.
Hello John,
the canonical being set in the SEO section of the articles should be enough.
The software does not apply a redirect automatically for this situation as it is not considered necessary.
Eric