Many bloggers and website owners face duplicate content problem because of two query strings in the URL’s. The query strings “?ftr=vidpgurl” and “?replytocom” results in duplicate contents. These query string are added dynamically. If you use WordPress as blogging platform then the query string “?replytocom” will appear. This is added dynamically to handle comments. We have already discussed about how to Fix Duplicate Content To Avoid Drop in Google SERP and Website Positioning.
How to block ?ftr=vidpgurl and ?replytocom
Since these URLs are generated dynamically and are not under your control you cannot add rel=”canonical” to your tag. As we discussed here you can configure the .htaccess file to add 301 redirects. For example if you want to strip the “ftr=vidpgurl” query strin from URLs you can add the following Rewrite condition in .htaccess file.
1 2 3 4 5 | RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} ^[A-Z]{3,9} /([^?]*)?
RewriteCond %{query_string} ^ftr=vidpgurl
RewriteRule .html$ http://www.mysite.com/%1? [R=301,L] |
Don’t forget to replace “www.mysite.com” with your website name.
Use Google Webmaster Central Parameter handling Tool
If you have added your website to Google Webmaster Central you can use the Parameter Handling Tool and can specify Google to ignore these query string parameters. In Google Webmaster Central Parameter Handling Tool you can specify up to 15 parameters you’d like Google to ignore.
Follow the below steps to specify ftr=vidpgurl and replytocom query string parameters ,
Log in to Google Webmaster Central Tools
- On the Webmaster Central Dashboard, Select the required website.
- Under Site Configuration, click Settings.
- Click the Parameter handling tab.
- Find the parameters “replytocom” and “ftr”
- Click “edit” against each parameter and select “Ignore” from the drop down list. By default “Let Google Decide” option will be selected. See below.
- If the parameters are listed you can add parameters yourself.
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