Menus & SEO

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10 months 3 weeks ago #354812

-- url of the page with the problem -- : dewidevelopment.co.uk/training/swansea-t...-3-outdoor-first-aid
-- HikaShop version -- : 4.7.5
-- Joomla version -- : 3.10.12
-- PHP version -- : 8.1.22
-- Browser(s) name and version -- : Edge

I have set up menus for the categories. When I click a category it is resolving the menu.
I have set up a menu for a product, but when you click a product in the category listing, it does not resolve the menu option. Instead it returns /product/level-3-outdoor-first-aid as per the link provided. The menu option is /outdoor-first-aid-swansea
What would be preventing it resolving to the corresponding menu?

I had set up my product categories up as:
Training Courses | First Aid Courses | Outdoor First Aid Courses
Training Courses | First Aid Courses | First Aid at Work Courses
Training Courses | First Aid Courses | Paediatric Courses
Training Courses | Health and Safety Courses

However this was not helping me get noticed locally. I am trying to improve my local rankings, so I started to set up categories for each of the towns where the course takes place. I have then set each product to multiple categories.
Swansea Training Courses | First Aid Courses Swansea | Outdoor First Aid Courses Swansea
Llanelli Training Courses | First Aid Courses Llanelli | Outdoor First Aid Courses Llanelli
Newport Training Courses | First Aid Courses Newport | Outdoor First Aid Courses Newport
The menu option link to the main categories, but I hoped Google/Bing would find the town lists

This however appears to have made a mess of my Google Search Console. I was hoping for product to be listed for each town, but I have multiple listings, also due to the related product modules also on the page.
I have tried to set the canonical field. This would probably tidy up Google, however, when a user clicks a product it takes them to main category, losing their visit linked to the town they searched. This might not be issue as at least they have been brought to the site, as long as Google still indexes all the towns and doesn't ignore them due to the Canonical being entered.

The other issue, Google is currently indexing pages due to the related module. For example the module provides other courses available in Swansea, helping the page be different to other pages, so Google doesn't ignore them as they are to similar. However, if you click a product in related module, it builds an incorrect breadcrumb e.g. dewidevelopment.co.uk/training/swansea-t...ric-first-aid-course
Emergency Paediatric First Aid course is not part of the Outdoor First Aid category. Setting the canonical resolves this, but will it break my aim of Google find each town.

Please advise on the best way to set up a product that gets indexed form different towns to improve Google/Bing indexing.
How do I resolve the product menu option? Do I even need to setup menu options for products? I didn't plan to, but my site map doesn't list them and I hoped to speed up Google indexing by listing them on the Site Map. (I do not have the pro version of OSMap).

Look forward to your advise

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10 months 3 weeks ago #354828

Hi,

I have tried to set the canonical field. This would probably tidy up Google, however, when a user clicks a product it takes them to main category, losing their visit linked to the town they searched.

If you set the canonical URL of the product while you keep the "force canonical URLs on listings" setting turned off, you can do both:
- search engines will still register the canonical URL and won't penalize you for having several URLs going to your product
- users will be able to access the product page from different URLs.

Setting the canonical resolves this, but will it break my aim of Google find each town.

In any case, you want to set a canonical URL for SEO. Regarding the indexing of products to be linked to searches of towns, I think you want to use a different approach. Like for example adding the town name(s) in the keywords setting of your products and their description.

I didn't plan to, but my site map doesn't list them and I hoped to speed up Google indexing by listing them on the Site Map.

If you're using OSMap four your site map, you can use the integration plugin we provide to add the products to the site map. I don't think it requires the Pro version of OSMap:
www.hikashop.com/support/documentation/8...ation-with-xmap.html

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