Duplicated meta descriptions and title tags coming from /component/virtuemart

[user_fra]

Hi,
(Joomla 3.8.3 | VirtueMart 3.2.12 | Search Engine Friendly URLs YES | Use URL Rewriting YES )
on Google Search Console HTML Improvements I've found hundreds of duplicated meta descriptions and duplicated title tags coming from /component/virtuemart.
Examples:
/component/virtuemart/by,mf_name/dirDesc/results...
/component/virtuemart/by, product_name...
component/virtuemart/manufacturer/...
/component/virtuemart/manufacturer/(MANUFACTURER NAME)/by,pc.ordering,product_name/dirDesc/results,1-20.html
I think all of them come from search and order Virtuemart tools (order by and so on).
In robots.txt I wrote
Disallow: /components/
Disallow: /component/
but it doesn't help
Please, is there a way to avoid all these duplicates?

Thank you
Best regards
Francesco

[Studio 42]

Have you set a menu item for root shop in Joomla menus (can be set in a hidden menu)?
It should prevent this cases

[user_fra]

Thank you Studio 42.
Please, do you mean Menus: New Item > Menu Item Type > System Links > URL An internal or external URL > components/com_virtuemart ?
Let's call this new item menu SHOP (alias shop)
For example if now on mysite/my_virtuemart_category_layout_item_menu.html I choose Sort By Product Name in
the link changes in
mysite/my_virtuemart_category_layout_item_menu/by,product_name.html?keyword=
Do you mean that creating the hiddend item menu SHOP, Google will not index anymore similar pages I indicated in my post (url+by,mf_name/dirDesc/results and so on)?

Thanks a lot
Francesco 

[Studio 42]

New Item > Menu Item Type > Virtuemart > Category
And dont change settings excluding the title and alias.

[user_fra]

Thanks again for your interest.
I suppose you mean New Item > Menu Item Type > Virtuemart > Category Layout
If so, I have this item menu since I created my online e-commerce and it is published in fornt-end.
Unfortunatly it doesn't help. By the way, this is not the main item menu for root shop, but a simple category.

Best regards
Francesco

[Studio 42]

How you have set your shop SEF settings?
If the menu exist, then this should have priority.
Or perhaps you use a SEF plugin ?

[user_fra]

Hi Studio 42,
in Virtuemart > Configuration > SEO > I have checked:
Use product link suffix
Seo Suffix -detail
Use full category tree for product links
SEF for cart links
all other boxes are unchecked.

I don't use sef plugin, let's say I think I'm using a standard SEO configuration (I hope so).

Thank you, regards
Francesco

[Studio 42]

If you know the real link add a .htaccess rule /component/virtuemart/  to /newfolder/

Code Select Expand

RewriteRule ^component/virtuemart/(.*)$ /newfolder/$1  [R=301,L]
To use base url

Code Select Expand

RewriteRule ^component/virtuemart/(.*)$ $1  [R=301,L]
I don't have tested the rules, but should work

[user_fra]

Hi,
don't you think the propblem of hundreds duplicated titles and descriptions are all these suffixes?
by,mf_name/dirDesc/results...
by, product_name....
by,pc.ordering,product_name/dirDesc/results,1-20.html

I don't know very well the .htaccess code you suggested to me, but isn't it a code to rewrite the beginning of the urls after the domain?

Maybe I better report some real example of pages indicated with duplicated title (I only changed the manufacturer names)

The Title in search console is (more or less): This is My Shop John Smith
/component/virtuemart/manufacturer/john-smith/by,mf_name/results,1-15.html?Itemid=101
/component/virtuemart/manufacturer/john-smith/by,pc.ordering,product_name.html
/component/virtuemart/manufacturer/john-smith/by,pc.ordering,product_name.html?Itemid=101
/component/virtuemart/manufacturer/john-smith/by,pc.ordering,product_name/dirDesc/results,1-15.html?Itemid=101
/component/virtuemart/manufacturer/john-smith/by,product_name/dirDesc/results,1-60.html?Itemid=101
/component/virtuemart/manufacturer/john-smith/results,1-10.html
/component/virtuemart/manufacturer/john-smith/results,1-60.html?Itemid=101

another example of duplicated titles

My Main Category Thomas White 
/my-shop-category-layout/manufacturer/thomas-white/products/by,mf_name/dirDesc/results,21-25.html?keyword=
/my-shop-category-layout/manufacturer/thomas-white/products/by,mf_name/results,1-50.html?keyword=
/my-shop-category-layout/manufacturer/thomas-white/products/by,pc.ordering,product_name.html?keyword=
/my-shop-category-layout/manufacturer/thomas-white/products/by,pc.ordering,product_name/dirDesc/results,21-25.html?keyword=
/my-shop-category-layout/manufacturer/thomas-white/products/by,pc.ordering,product_name/results,1-50.html?keyword=
/my-shop-category-layout/manufacturer/thomas-white/products/by,product_name/results,1-50.html?keyword=
/my-shop-category-layout/manufacturer/thomas-white/products/by,product_name/results,21-25.html
/my-shop-category-layout/manufacturer/thomas-white/products/by,product_price/results,21-25.html

Would your .htaccess code solve this problem?

Thank you
Best reagards
Francesco

[Studio 42]

I think you have a problem, the ?Itemid=101 should be changed by the real link, does the  menu item id 101 exist in joomla ?

[user_fra]

Hi,
item menu id 101 is for my home page, a normal Joomla article.

3 months ago in search console I only had few duplicated titles and descriptions, nothing to do with Virtuemart. In my shop I had few products so, using css, I hided all VM sort by tools, paginations, desabled search tool in VM configuration and desabled show manufacturers. All these tools were useless for few products. 2 month ago I had 35 products so I enabled all these useful tools, and here it is the situation: hundreds of duplicated titles and descriptions. 
The most curious urls I've found in duplicates titles (in google search console) are:

John Smith - MY SHOP Thomas White
/john-smith/manufacturer/thomas-white/by,mf_name/dirDesc/results,1-15.html?keyword=
/john-smith/manufacturer/thomas-white/by,pc.ordering,product_name.html?keyword=

There are many similar situations in duplicates titles, I mean with 2 manufacturer names in the same url.

That's why I'm here to ask support, my site is surely penalized by Google with all these duplicates and I'm very grateful to you and to whom would help me to solve this problem. 

Best regards
Francesco

[jenkinhill]

There is usually no Google penalty for multiple urls leading to the same page - the Gbot tries to follow all possible links on a website. What is important is the canonical url - this should be the same no matter how a page is found.

[Studio 42]

DO you use Joomla finder or other search tools?
I mean that the route is not set correctly and the problem is not from internal Virtuemart links.
Another problem can if you use Breakdesign Custom Filters or such tools generating other URLS, perhaps the item_id is in this case not right(google do not use session) or if you have product without categories.
Most time when i have to solve such problems, it's because 3th party extensions or sitemap extension.

[user_fra]

There is usually no Google penalty for multiple urls leading to the same page - the Gbot tries to follow all possible links on a website. What is important is the canonical url - this should be the same no matter how a page is found.

Hi jenkinhill, thanks for your interest!
I think if Google marked on  Search Console HTML Improvements hundreds (400) of Titles and Desciptions duplicated it could affect in some way the score of my shop. Maybe not, but in any case I'd like to have, as in all other websites I made, Search Console HTML Improvements complitly clean.

I suspect there is a problem, as Studio 42 supposes. Maybe I made something wrong, maybe in my database, maybe I don't know... That's why I'm here 
I was looking in this forum and around the web for some similar issues, but I didn't find anything.

I also asked help to a Joomla developer close to my town, but after some hours of study he told me to open a ticket here. He is not a Virtuemart developer, but still he should know the cms logic.

So, here I am.

Thank you, my best regards.
Francesco

[Studio 42]

Your site need to be inspected by a speshitpillt and have access to back-end as super user, this can be fixed in 10 minutes or 1 hours, it's not easy to find a solution for this problem without any real test.
You should contact me or a VM speshitpillt to fix this(vm team, break design, ...).