-- HikaShop version -- : 5.1.6
-- Joomla version -- : 5.3.1
-- PHP version -- : 8.3.1
Hi HikaShop Team,
We are currently using HikaShop on our Joomla site and have encountered an issue with several types of URLs being generated and indexed by search engines, which causes SEO problems due to duplicate or non-relevant pages appearing in search results.
The problematic URL patterns include:
/product/download/
/product/contact/
/product/listing/
/product/waitlist/
/product/updatecart/
These URLs often appear under different category paths, resulting in duplicate content and cluttering the Google index with pages that do not provide meaningful value to users.
Additionally, it appears that categories and products can be accessed through multiple URL variants, for example:
/some-category/category/other-category
/some-category/category/manufacturer1
/some-category/product/some-product
In other words, it seems possible to view a category or product through any category alias, including categories designated as manufacturers. This causes URL duplication and makes it difficult to control which URLs should be indexed.
Could you please advise on the following:
Is there an official recommended way to prevent these URLs from being generated or crawled by search engines?
Are there settings or best practices in HikaShop to exclude these URLs from indexing (e.g., via robots.txt, meta tags, canonical URLs, or redirects)?
Any advice on how to handle these URL patterns to improve SEO and avoid duplicate content issues?
Thank you very much for your assistance!
Best regards,