CG BLog - Duplicate Title and Description Issues

[Bilmartech]

I am trying to figure out a way to get rid of Duplicate meta descriptions and Duplicate title tags from the Blog Module.

Because you can assign multiple categories to a blog, Google grabs each URL as a different page. The problem is, it also looks at them as problems because it's the same description and title on everyone of them.

What I "THINK" would work is something like this but I am not sure how to write it:

Code: Select all

{capture name='blogtitle' assign="blogtitle"}
If category ID exist
then blogtitle = title |category name
ELSE
blogtitle = $entry->title {/capture}

This way, when multiple categories are assigned to a post, the title can then be amended at the end to create a unique title to get rid of the duplicate issue.

This then could also be applied in the same way to the description thus getting rid of that issue as well.

To consider...
In Google Webmaster Tools I have a blog post that has 4 URLS:
/index.php/blog/57/187/Blogname.html
/index.php/blog/57/24/Blogname.html
/index.php/blog/57/77/Blogname.html
/index.php/blog/57/Blogname.html

Since all the blog post are the same content and the same post date just being accessed by different URLS depending on category ect, - the only unique item left would be the individual category.

Hopefully that makes sense...

[Bilmartech]

Is there a way to isolate what category a particular URL is posting from?

In the sample above, the 57 is the blog iD and the second set of numbers are the category Id's. They are represented in the URL by "cid". How can I get the cid number so I can use it to create a unique title based on the category?

[Bilmartech]

This is killing me.. anyone have any ideas or can give me some direction to try and look in?

[uniqu3]

For your meta tags question you could look here http://www.i-do-this.com/blog/48/Put-yo ... -autopilot

[Bilmartech]

Thanks for the reply! Believe me i am using your stuff on my site already!

The problem I am having is that there are still duplicate title and meta issues because Google picks up each URL for each category a blog is assigned to as a unique URL.

For Example:

Code: Select all

In Google Webmaster Tools I have a blog post that has 4 URLS:
/index.php/blog/57/187/Blogname.html
/index.php/blog/57/24/Blogname.html
/index.php/blog/57/77/Blogname.html
/index.php/blog/57/Blogname.html

Each one of those has the same title and description because it's the same blog post. What I am trying to do is isolate the category ID from the blog so that the revised URL will include the category name in it, thus making it unique to the other blog post in the other categories even though it's the same post.

Then Google will identify it as having a different title and description.

I just can't figure out how to do something like this:

Code: Select all

{capture name='blogtitle' assign="blogtitle"}
If category ID exist
then blogtitle = title |category name
ELSE
blogtitle = $entry->title {/capture}

Thanks again for the help!

[uniqu3]

Your problem should be solved by defining a detailpage parameter to all your CGBlog calls. At least i have no issues, or none were reported by google in Webmaster tools.

But to answer your question you would do something like {assign var='my_title' value='$entry->title'} for title and something similar for category you should probably do a capture on foreach of $entry->categories
{capture assign='my_cateogires'}{foreach from=$entry->categories item='category'}{$category.name}, {/foreach}{/capture}
then in your page template you could simply use {$my_title} {$my_categories} or something.

[Bilmartech]

I have both a detail and summary page defined. The problem is that when it's the general blog URL then it's fine..

When it comes up like it is in the example above and all 4 of those URLs point to the same blog, then Google looks at it as duplicate title and meta issues because it thinks all 4 URLs are unique pages..

I am going to continue to play with it and see if I can't figure out how to isolate the CID # based on the URL so that the category assigned to it can be placed at the end of the title and description, thus making it unique.

This:

Code: Select all

{capture assign='my_cateogires'}{foreach from=$entry->categories item='category'}{$category.name}, {/foreach}{/capture}
then in your page template you could simply use {$my_title} {$my_categories} 

won't work because it will select all the categories that are assigned to that blog post instead of a single unique one based on whatever URL Google webmaster tools picks up..

Maybe, i should be trying to figure out how to stop Google from getting all the different URLs for each blog post and that would solve the problem as well.

[fearmydesign]

For your meta tags question you could look here http://www.i-do-this.com/blog/48/Put-yo ... -autopilot

Thank you, this worked perfect!