Issue with URL Parameters
Hi,
I was wondering if someone could help me with an issue on our staging site regarding URL parameters. I only used one URL in the link we need help with but in truth there are multiple instances of this.
Our website is using Art Galleria to fetch data for the art fairs and exhibitions occurring at our gallery.
On every page, there is a link that leads to another page that showcases the art made by an artist that will be on display in that event.
Example (placeholders, not sure if I can post the actual URLs yet): Event URL:
https://domainname.com/event-type/event-name/Participating Artists:
https://domainname.com/event-type/event-name/artist/artist-nameAccording to our web developer, he used PHP to "beautify" the URLs for the participating artists. Otherwise, it would have looked something like this:
https://domainname.com/event-type/event-name/?artist=artist-nameNow they insist that these pages (participating artists) should be indexed. But the problem is that the page titles & meta descriptions for the "participating artist" pages is the same as the event URL which would introduce some SEO issues. If I try editing the page titles and meta description of "https://domainname.com/event-type/event-name/artist/artist-name" for example using Yoast SEO, the changes would be mirrored across the other two pages because it's a URL parameter. A URL parameter that radically alters the content on the page to the point where it would be better off being a static URL.
I'm at a loss at what course of action we should take. Also, if there is a way I can privately send an example of a set of URLs from the staging site if needed, let me know.
Looks to me like a dynamic link, generated after f.e. a search. This generates the query string.
@jaap (595) There's no way to edit the meta data for a dynamic link, right? If it was possible, I imagine it would be beyond what I can do in Yoast or the Wordpress admin panel, right?
There's no way to edit the meta data for a dynamic link, right?
Right!
@jaap Here's the thing though: Even though the page titles and meta descriptions are the same, each one has unique content.
Is Google smart enough to look past that and focus on the content?
Sorry don't understand the question.
Is it about dynamic links or content?
@jaap The content in the dynamic links. Can Google look past the duplicate titles and meta descriptions in the dynamic links and look at the content within the pages in said dynamic links to see that each one is unique?
The question do you want and even more important, your visitors duplicate titles and meta descriptions? UX is to impotant to ignore.
Google will index the best result, so probably only 1.
It's very bad practice to keep your current situation.
@jaap Good point. Our web developer was able to implement page titles and meta descriptions for the participating artist pages. Those are the pages that I couldn't edit myself so I'm just checking if it has been implemented properly.