Filtering/Sorting using Session?

[DoubleDee]

Is it possible to do Filtering and Sorting on a page without placing Attributes in the URL?

Debbie

[fretburner]

It is, but why would you want to? Having filtering/sorting attributes in the URL allows specific views of the data to be bookmarked or shared with other users.

[DoubleDee]

@fretburner

It is, but why would you want to? Having filtering/sorting attributes in the URL allows specific views of the data to be bookmarked or shared with other users.

Because in another thread, people are telling me that it is bad to have FIltering and Sorting Attributes in the URL because you get penalized on SEO.

I busted my *ss this weekend to write some really kick-butt mod_rewrites to handle sorting, and then in a moment, someone trashed all of my work with their SEO comments… :mad:

Here is what I mean…

Over a year ago, I created this type of website structure…

[b]Sections:[/b]
/finance/
/legal/
/management/

and so on...


[b]Subsections:[/b]
/finance/economy/
/finance/markets/
/finance/tax-season/

and so on...

Then this weekend, I decided to allow for Filtering and Sorting on the Subsection pages because each is a listing of hundreds of Article summaries that is unmanageable.

So I came up with this pretty looking URL…

/<section>/<subsection>/<sort-field>/<sort-order>/<page-number>

/finance/economy/by-date/desc/1
/finance/economy/by-date/desc/2
/finance/economy/by-date/desc/3
/finance/economy/by-date/desc/4

/finance/economy/by-title/asc/1
/finance/economy/by-title/asc/2
/finance/economy/by-title/asc/3
/finance/economy/by-title/asc/4

and so on...

Unfortunately, I got slammed and was told that Google will crucify me for having duplicate content and I was like WTF?!

I am pretty set on having “Pretty URLs”…

And as an end user, I think my latest URL design is very easy to read.

And personally I do not see where there is “duplicate” content, because as you sort the entire list of 300+ Article summaries, you will never have the same Article summaries on the same page as you sort and filter, right?

So I am feeling very heartbroken, because I thought I was applying previously sound advice and was supposed to be done with this last night, and now I have others telling me that my entire scheme is wrong?!

I am very upset right now…

Sincerely,

Debbie

[fretburner]

Ah I see. When you said about filtering and sorting in the URL, I thought you meant as part of the query string.

I would have said that the section and subsection would want to be part of the url, whereas the sort field, sort order and page should be part of the query string (e.g. /finance/economy?sortby=date&order=desc&page=1).

I’m no SEO expert, so I’d definitely double-check that, but I was under the impression that doing it this way shouldn’t cause you any problems. After all, sites like Google Analytics and Webmaster Tools allow you to specify which query string variables are relevant to the page content and which should be ignored to deal with this sort of thing.

[DoubleDee]

@fretburner

Ah I see. When you said about filtering and sorting in the URL, I thought you meant as part of the query string.

I would have said that the section and subsection would want to be part of the url, whereas the sort field, sort order and page should be part of the query string (e.g. /finance/economy?sortby=date&order=desc&page=1).

I’m no SEO expert, so I’d definitely double-check that, but I was under the impression that doing it this way shouldn’t cause you any problems. After all, sites like Google Analytics and Webmaster Tools allow you to specify which query string variables are relevant to the page content and which should be ignored to deal with this sort of thing.

Don’t you think that looks ugly though?

And doesn’t it defeat the purpose of my “Pretty URL”?

Debbie

[Jeff_Mott]

@DoubleDee

Because in another thread, people are telling me that it is bad to have FIltering and Sorting Attributes in the URL because you get penalized on SEO.

Penalized is probably the wrong word.

If in doubt, follow the information to the source. https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/1663744?hl=en

EDIT: Also https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/66359?hl=en

[DoubleDee]

@Jeff_Mott

Penalized is probably the wrong word.

If in doubt, follow the information to the source. https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/1663744?hl=en

EDIT: Also https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/66359?hl=en

What is your opinion on what I am doing to my URLs, Jeff?

If I implement the canonical link thingy and use next and prev, can I still keep URLs like these…

/finance/economy/by-date/desc/1
/finance/economy/by-date/desc/2
/finance/economy/by-date/desc/3
/finance/economy/by-date/desc/4

/finance/economy/by-title/asc/1
/finance/economy/by-title/asc/2
/finance/economy/by-title/asc/3
/finance/economy/by-title/asc/4

More so, do you follow what I am doing? (I feel like people don’t follow exactly what I am encountering on my Subsection landing page…)

Sincerely,

Debbie

[Jeff_Mott]

Those URLs are probably fine. Regardless if you use path segments or query strings, Google will likely still see them as separate pages. Also, pagination and sorting are extremely common on the Web. It seems a safe bet that Google will interpret it as such and index appropriately. That being said, the “canonical”, “next”, and “prev” links can only help.

I try to make a point to use words such as “probably”, “likely”, and “safe bet”, because most of what anyone will ever tell you about SEO (me included) is most likely an educated guess. Realistically, Google’s search engine is a black box. We don’t get to see its internal wiring. Google’s webmaster blogs and videos are almost certainly our best insight into the engine’s inner workings.