Drupal Path module SEO problem

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Z2222's picture

If using the Path Module (which is standard for SEO), the URLs become case insensitive even on *nix servers. That means you can get duplicate content if people accidentally link to versions of your URLs with different cases.

Example:

  • drupal.org/handbook
  • drupal.org/hAnDbOoK

Just something to watch out for until it's fixed.

I added an issue here:
http://drupal.org/node/276201

Comments

perhaps globalredirect can help

greggles's picture

Maybe we should add something to globalredirect so that it will do a 301 to the "right" version of the url...

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Open Prediction Markets | Drupal Dashboard

global redirect

Z2222's picture

Good idea... that way when the Path Module is updated, any incorrect links wouldn't break.

Right...

niklp's picture

So, I think I understand this, but what, if anything, is the temporary workaround?

Web Development in Nottingham, UK by Kineta Systems

path module workaround

Z2222's picture

To keep things simple for me and visitors, I generally only use lowercase letters in the URLs. The only problem would be if someone linked to different case URLs either in internal links or from external sites.

I think this would cause the most problem on larger sites.

I worked on one Drupal site where they had created views that had weird arguments something like example.com/page/Tag1+Tag2

There were a lot of users so imagine if users started creating links to
example.com/page/tag1+tag2

(or vice versa)

The paginated URLs keep the case of the first URL, so example.com/page/Tag1+Tag2 would have two URLs with different cases, and so would every paginated version:
example.com/page/Tag1+Tag2?page=25
example.com/page/tag1+tag2?page=25
etc.

on a large site with a lot of pagination that could be a significant SEO problem.

Well...

niklp's picture

I suppose this is only a problem if people are creating links manually, right? I would think that this does minimise the likelihood of these links being created, but I see where you're going with that.

Perhaps it's time to look at the linking system again? I have been told that Flexifilter can't handle inline-ing things like node references and image fields, which is a pain, but perhaps there is another way to achieve this? I think that would go a long way towards standardising any/all internal links?

Web Development in Nottingham, UK by Kineta Systems

I suppose this is only a

Z2222's picture

I suppose this is only a problem if people are creating links manually, right? I would think that this does minimise the likelihood of these links being created, but I see where you're going with that.

I think using all lowercase reduces the chance of people typing in URLs in the wrong case -- no need to remember which case to use.

I would tend to type in example.com/about from memory instead of example.com/About. Maybe that's just me though...

Well...

niklp's picture

... yeah of course I agree, but I had assumed we were talking about a scenario where "content editors" were not the main cause of the problem. On social sites, and indeed on any third party site, this is a potential issue (assuming you're correct in what you're saying - it's new to me but I'm not arguing) so I was really just referring to "users" as opposed to "editors", if you follow me? :)

Web Development in Nottingham, UK by Kineta Systems

experiment

Z2222's picture

I'm going to test something with Google and URLs. I'll post the results here in a few days if I find anything interesting.

Drupal and case sensitive URLs

Z2222's picture

Here are the results of my test on Drupal and case sensitive URLs.

Google does index more than one version based on the letter case in the URLs.

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My Drupal Tutorials

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

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