Duplicate title/meta description WT

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10 years 2 weeks ago #204115

-- HikaShop version -- : 2.4.0
-- Joomla version -- : 3.x.x

Hi, so I have fixed alot of my duplicate content issues thanks to reading the forum etcetera.

However I am now getting duplicate title tags report in webmaster tools (google) for my hikashop.

Example:
Duplicate meta description:

/index.php?option=com_hikashop&ctrl=product&task=show&cid=128&name=vali-rakblad&Itemid=930&category_pathway=42
/kop-nu/product/128-vali-rakblad (this is the canonical of course)

I think the issue is because I published a new module on the site called "related products". However I have set the canonical URL in all the product pages and checking my site all the links are fine. In hika option I have also turned on the option: "Force canonical URLs on listings: Use canonical URL if specified".

For this URL: /index.php?option=com_hikashop&ctrl=product&task=show&cid=128&name=vali-rakblad&Itemid=930&category_pathway=42 , when I check the HTML in <head> tags, the canonical URL is not specified to the correct one... Where is google finding this link? Cuz I cannot see it in the shop.

In the related products module I just right now changed the option (associated category) to the sub-category of the items I want to list. Can this solve the issue???

Again thanks for a great product.

Best Regards,

Azar

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10 years 2 weeks ago #204175

Hi,

In the two links you gave, I couldn't find a duplicate meta description or a duplicate "title".
The element is in the page but just once.

For the last link, I was able to find the "canonical" twice in the source code, the first one with an ItemId and the second one without.

So for the moment it looks like that I'm not able to see the same thing than you for the page content.

Regards,

Jerome - Obsidev.com
HikaMarket & HikaSerial developer / HikaShop core dev team.

Also helping the HikaShop support team when having some time or couldn't sleep.
By the way, do not send me private message, use the "contact us" form instead.

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10 years 2 weeks ago #204218

I don't know if we understood each other.

I don't mean that there are duplicate meta description in the source code. But google is reporting this as duplicate meta desc. because there are 2 links to the same product.

Why do I have 2 urls to the same product? (or why is google finding this 2nd link?) Despite when clicking on my site I see no duplicate url.

And why, when I enter this link: ' index.php?option=com_hikashop&ctrl=product&task=show&cid=128&name=vali-rakblad&Itemid=930&category_pathway=42 ' Why do I not see the same canonical I set in the prouduct page?

ANd why is there 2 canonical in the source code?

The canonical in product page is set to this: " /kop-nu/product/128-vali-rakblad "

*EDIT:

Do you think updating joomla to 3.4.1 will solve this or make it worse? I currently have 3.3.6

Last edit: 10 years 2 weeks ago by madjedo.

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10 years 2 weeks ago #204271

Hi,

It's not duplicate meta description then, it's "duplicate content" that google tells you.

Having two URLs to go to the same page is quite normal and not really a problem.

The issue is that in that case, you want to have a canonical URL in your meta data in order to tell google which one is the main one. If you don't, or if you have several canonical URLs for a page, you'll get that error.
HikaShop adds its own (correct) canonical URL if you tell it to.
However, on some websites, it seems that there is a bug with the system SEF plugin of Joomla which adds its own (incorrect) canonical URL to HikaShop pages and thus you get that error.
The simplest in that case is to deactivate that system SEF plugin. It should not impact the rest of the website and should fix that issue with google seeing two canonical URLs for the product pages.

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10 years 1 week ago #204485

Ok thanks. But turning off the system sef plugin is not an option. I would like to keep the sef url that I have on the bottom of the page. (I also seemed to get issue with my K2 blog on localhost site).

So the issue is that joomla canonical tag is broken.

Well lets remove it then.

So I did.

I added this code to my template index.php file:

$doc = JFactory::getDocument();
foreach ( $doc->_links as $k => $array ) {
if ( $array == 'canonical' ) {
unset($doc->_links[$k]);
break;
}
}

And that seems to have done the trick. Only see one canonical URL and that is the correct one.
Lets now wait and see.

Reference for code: www.robertwent.com/blog/joomla/87-how-to...out-hacking-the-core

The following user(s) said Thank You: Bobwales

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