Multiple URLs but same page - duplicate content??!

I have recently noticed that I have different urls pointing to the same page. I suspect that this may be an issue affecting pretty much all Joomla users.

Lets say that I have a website about fruit.

I have the main category called "Fruit" and subcategories, such as "Apples" and "Oranges" etc.

Within the Apples section I have a page called "Golden Delicious".

Now if i browse the site and go into the main Fruit category (which lists all items from all sub categories), i can see on the list a link to the page for Golden Delicious. When I click that link the url shows something like this:

www.mydomain.com/fruit/golden-delicious.html

now if i browse the fruit section of the website and go into the apples sub-category, i can see the link for Golden Delicious within there, which is what you would expect as it falls under that subcategory too. But when i click on the link from there not only do I also reach the same page as before (everything looks and is the same)but the URL itself is different:

www.mydomain.com/fruit/apples/golden-delicious.html

Now I have not created duplicate content myself, but it seems that the way the URLS are generated via SH404SEF (or Joomlas own SEF urls) then it works via links/menus (also modules as in latest articles etc) to create these urls. This causes a problem whereby the search engines along with social bookmarking sites see different urls for the same pages, and thus either think it is duplicate content, or they do not score the pages in full and the score is split between these pages.

Is this a Flexicontent issue or a Joomla issue? Is there any way to resolve this?

This seems very serious to me. Does anybody have an opinion of this? (have you checked your own website for this issue?)

I should point out that I'm using Joomla 1.5.20, Flexicontent 1.5.3c, SH404SEF v2

Possibly both. Joomla does not create its magic URLs based on the resource, but based on the menu. Even when you have a menu, there are still many ways to get the same resource (e.g, article).

In regular Joomla, you should always create internal link at [index.php....] and then if there is a menu Joomla will replace it. However, there are sometimes links generated by extensions that will go directly to the article, you will get duplicate content. I have found Flexicontent complicates the problem because if you put an item into multiple categories, they will each have their own version of the page. I have previously suggested that all links should be to the primary article. Again, if you have menus setup in Joomla this will create even more menus. I tried to hack at flexicontent's router.php file and put in a bug request, but I wasn't able to come up with a solution and my bug was closed out as not a bug.

Would also like to know some good suggestions to reduce duplicate pages in Joomla and Flexi

I came across something new for this:

While with Joomla itself and with Flexi you are S.O.L. when it comes to duplicate URLS, there is a way to tell google which content pieces have the same source.

Read:
googlewebmastercentral.blogspot . ... nical.html

So you can specify a canonical url, which is the 1 true version.

There are some core Joomla com_content solutions, but nothing for flexi yet.

A flexi canonical URL would be: something link yoursite.com/component/flexicontent/item/10, not pretty - but who cares for the search engine? They will still index all your other SEF urls, but know what this is. Actual humans searching are more concerned with the title and the part of the page that matched there search, better to get the SEO boost I would think.

The problem though, is that if you load the base SEF canonical URL it will break some of the links. For example, the default category field will produce a dead link. This is going to produce 404 errors when clicked, since this is the page Google will actually present.

I have posted a bug on the SEF router before, but it was closed as not a bug. So I am not sure what to do on this regard. The canonical URL logic could be integrated for categories, items, tags, etc natively in flexi. This would really help push it above other CCK and the core.

This still does not alleviate the problem with some external services such as commenting systems which look at the actual URL. Better to just deliver the page at one location all the time, but this would definitely help us with SEO. I encourage others to open up bugs so this can be integrated.

also interesting in this theme.
i think solution of google is good, but other search engines have not this logic.
may be just add the "nofallow" for automatic links what lead to any items but to item in MAIN category?
(the main category is chosen then you create the article).
is it possible to hack router this way?

I am using sh404sef 2.1.4.734 Joomla 1.5.20 and flexi 1.5.3c.

I have in the sh404sef settings gone to sh404sef and clicked on the config tab, selected sh404sef configuration and then the by component tab.

for flexicontent in the fourth column selected to use the component or core plugin.

My urls for items in multiple category's are now

www.mysite.co.uk/item/itemid-page-title.html

not perfect, however no duplicate content.

Menu links still have the complete rewrite in the url sef wise, just the addition of the item/itemid to mess up the pure sef url. Its a compromise, however it is more preferable than duplicate urls pointing to the same content.