Search engines use URL parameters to determine how they should crawl certain parts of your site based on the URLs you provide. You may see duplicate content in folder one compared to folder two, or content in folder one should not be shown in search results when looking up yoursite.com/folder-one/ or yousite.com/folder-two/.
It is common for site owners and marketers to use canonical tags on their site in order to avoid duplicate content or avoiding unintentional indexation of their site. When websites display content at different URLs, URL parameters are specifically used. Customer journeys on a shopping site are situations when this occurs frequently.
Their search information and unique session ID may be used to show content here. An example would be the following:
http://www.example.com/items/women/shorts/blue
http://www.example.com/items/women?category=shorts&color=blue
http://example.com/shop/index.php?product_id=71&highlight=shorts+blue&cat_id=4&sessionid=789&affid=123
Using URL parameters or a tool that identifies duplicate pages may cause the search engines to penalize a website that shows duplicate content without using URL parameters.
The URL parameters tool is available on the Google Search Console and can be accessed through it. Using this feature, you can select whether your site should crawl for certain parameters. Users can submit URL parameters that have been ignored to Bing as well.
When using URL parameters, you should be careful. Changing your site’s page titles may affect where your site appears in search results, so make changes only if you know what you’re doing. The best course of action for you will be determined by your marketing agency.
