# The «Tagging» core functionality adds multiple pages with the same human content (but different to Google) to SERP

**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/the-tagging-core-functionality-adds-multiple-pages-with-the-same-human-content-but-different-to-google-to-serp/56787
**Category:** Bug
**Created:** [2017年二月2日 12:29 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/the-tagging-core-functionality-adds-multiple-pages-with-the-same-human-content-but-different-to-google-to-serp/56787 "2017-02-02T12:29:51Z")
**Posts on this page:** 16
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![dmitry\_fedyuk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/dmitry_fedyuk/32/293153_2.png) [@dmitry\_fedyuk](https://meta.discourse.org/u/dmitry_fedyuk)
#### Post date: [2017年二月2日 12:29 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/the-tagging-core-functionality-adds-multiple-pages-with-the-same-human-content-but-different-to-google-to-serp/56787/1 "2017-02-02T12:29:51Z")

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![](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/meta/original/3X/5/9/59b2f8dc59f3694c05da3d92548efe180bf9559d.png)

The first link when JavaScript is disabled:

 ![](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/meta/original/3X/3/e/3e77c1cb24a62c5700703e73b9bc2a6e45c34dda.png)

The second link when JavaScript is disabled:

 ![](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/meta/original/3X/7/f/7f3b57ea8b9a17ed8909947bad7eef7b6404a891.png)

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### Author: ![vinothkannans](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/vinothkannans/32/86465_2.png) [@vinothkannans](https://meta.discourse.org/u/vinothkannans)
#### Post date: [2017年二月2日 12:39 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/the-tagging-core-functionality-adds-multiple-pages-with-the-same-human-content-but-different-to-google-to-serp/56787/2 "2017-02-02T12:39:42Z")

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```plaintext
<link rel="canonical" href="https://mage2.pro/tags/tax" />

```

both links having the above canonical URL. So I guess it is not a problem of Discourse.

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### Author: ![dmitry\_fedyuk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/dmitry_fedyuk/32/293153_2.png) [@dmitry\_fedyuk](https://meta.discourse.org/u/dmitry_fedyuk)
#### Post date: [2017年二月2日 12:45 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/the-tagging-core-functionality-adds-multiple-pages-with-the-same-human-content-but-different-to-google-to-serp/56787/3 "2017-02-02T12:45:31Z")

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It is a problem for my customers: when they search in Google, it would be better for them to see different pages from my site instead the same with duplicated content.

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### Author: ![vinothkannans](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/vinothkannans/32/86465_2.png) [@vinothkannans](https://meta.discourse.org/u/vinothkannans)
#### Post date: [2017年二月2日 12:59 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/the-tagging-core-functionality-adds-multiple-pages-with-the-same-human-content-but-different-to-google-to-serp/56787/4 "2017-02-02T12:59:00Z")

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I mean one of the uses of `canonical` tag is to prevent duplicate search results. Your site having `canonical` tags on all `tags` related pages. That’s why I told it’s not the problem of Discourse.

I guess Google will take some time before excluding the URLs by `canonical` tag. Let’s wait to see what Discourse team thinks about it.

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### Author: ![pfaffman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/pfaffman/32/120154_2.png) [@pfaffman](https://meta.discourse.org/u/pfaffman)
#### Post date: [2017年二月2日 13:05 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/the-tagging-core-functionality-adds-multiple-pages-with-the-same-human-content-but-different-to-google-to-serp/56787/5 "2017-02-02T13:05:33Z")

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What version of Discourse are you using? Do you really mean the tagging plugin? Tags we moved into core long ago.

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### Author: ![dmitry\_fedyuk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/dmitry_fedyuk/32/293153_2.png) [@dmitry\_fedyuk](https://meta.discourse.org/u/dmitry_fedyuk)
#### Post date: [2017年二月2日 13:32 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/the-tagging-core-functionality-adds-multiple-pages-with-the-same-human-content-but-different-to-google-to-serp/56787/6 "2017-02-02T13:32:05Z")

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I use the latest version and mean the tagging functionality in the core.  
I have edited the title.

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### Author: ![cpradio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/cpradio/32/4970_2.png) [@cpradio](https://meta.discourse.org/u/cpradio)
#### Post date: [2017年二月2日 13:52 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/the-tagging-core-functionality-adds-multiple-pages-with-the-same-human-content-but-different-to-google-to-serp/56787/7 "2017-02-02T13:52:52Z")

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Is this topic related?  
[https://meta.discourse.org/t/noindex-follow-in-tags-meta-robots-avoid-duplicate-content/56564](https://meta.discourse.org/t/noindex-follow-in-tags-meta-robots-avoid-duplicate-content/56564)

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### Author: ![dmitry\_fedyuk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/dmitry_fedyuk/32/293153_2.png) [@dmitry\_fedyuk](https://meta.discourse.org/u/dmitry_fedyuk)
#### Post date: [2017年二月2日 14:27 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/the-tagging-core-functionality-adds-multiple-pages-with-the-same-human-content-but-different-to-google-to-serp/56787/8 "2017-02-02T14:27:06Z")

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No, I surely want the tags to be indexed, but do not want them to be included twice in the SERP.

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### Author: ![sam](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/sam/32/102149_2.png) [@sam](https://meta.discourse.org/u/sam)
#### Post date: [2017年二月2日 14:27 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/the-tagging-core-functionality-adds-multiple-pages-with-the-same-human-content-but-different-to-google-to-serp/56787/9 "2017-02-02T14:27:43Z")

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I mentioned this before, @codinghorror should we even be allowing google to index the various “tag” pages, seems to me like a waste of server resources.

Thinking about it, I am not sure top or categories should be indexed as well, but as we creep along that way we reach the logical conclusion which is site maps.

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### Author: ![dmitry\_fedyuk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/dmitry_fedyuk/32/293153_2.png) [@dmitry\_fedyuk](https://meta.discourse.org/u/dmitry_fedyuk)
#### Post date: [2017年二月2日 16:21 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/the-tagging-core-functionality-adds-multiple-pages-with-the-same-human-content-but-different-to-google-to-serp/56787/10 "2017-02-02T16:21:24Z")

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Indexing of the tags is very-very important to my traffic: as you can see, the tag pages are on the top of SERP. I just do not want a single tag to be included twice in SERP.

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### Author: ![dmitry\_fedyuk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/dmitry_fedyuk/32/293153_2.png) [@dmitry\_fedyuk](https://meta.discourse.org/u/dmitry_fedyuk)
#### Post date: [2017年二月2日 16:41 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/the-tagging-core-functionality-adds-multiple-pages-with-the-same-human-content-but-different-to-google-to-serp/56787/11 "2017-02-02T16:41:01Z")

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[The data from Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Search_engine_results_page#Organic_results):

> According to a 2013 study, the CTR’s for the first page goes as:  
> TOP 1: 32.5%  
> TOP 2: 17.6%  
> TOP 3: 11.4%  
> TOP 4: 8.1%  
> TOP 5: 6.1%  
> TOP 6: 4.4%  
> TOP 7: 3.5%  
> TOP 8: 3.1%  
> TOP 9: 2.6%  
> TOP 10: 2.4%

So when TOP 2 and TOP 5 shows the same page - I just loss my traffic for other pages.  
What is why the @vinothkannans answer about `canonical` is not a solution.  
And excluding tag pages from SERP would be crazy at all: a huge traffic loss.

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### Author: ![codinghorror](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/codinghorror/32/110067_2.png) [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [2017年二月2日 22:12 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/the-tagging-core-functionality-adds-multiple-pages-with-the-same-human-content-but-different-to-google-to-serp/56787/12 "2017-02-02T22:12:12Z")

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Yes I mentioned this to @neil. I support these changes.

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### Author: ![neil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/neil/32/102150_2.png) [@neil](https://meta.discourse.org/u/neil)
#### Post date: [2017年二月2日 22:49 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/the-tagging-core-functionality-adds-multiple-pages-with-the-same-human-content-but-different-to-google-to-serp/56787/13 "2017-02-02T22:49:54Z")

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I don’t follow why there is a page indexed with `match_all_tags=true`… @dmitry_fedyuk Did you figure out where Google is finding that link? It’s not a valid query parameter, so it’s thrown away. Is it from a plugin?

> [@dmitry\_fedyuk](#):
>
> And excluding tag pages from SERP would be crazy at all: a huge traffic loss.

Ok we need to merge the discussion from [the other topic](https://meta.discourse.org/t/noindex-follow-in-tags-meta-robots-avoid-duplicate-content/56564?source_topic_id=56787) then.

Google does seem to rank category pages (like `/c/envato-announcements`) very highly, and tag topic lists are basically the same thing. So… removing them would be a huge traffic loss or good for SEO? Or it depends and needs to be customizable?

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### Author: ![codinghorror](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/codinghorror/32/110067_2.png) [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [2017年二月3日 00:35 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/the-tagging-core-functionality-adds-multiple-pages-with-the-same-human-content-but-different-to-google-to-serp/56787/14 "2017-02-03T00:35:53Z")

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I would say no. Categories are strong walls with distinct groupings, and there “should” never be more than, say 40 of them total. Furthermore there is zero duplication in categories. You are either in a category, or you are not.

There could be thousands of tags, and they duplicate each other! So tags should just be excluded.

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### Author: ![neil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/neil/32/102150_2.png) [@neil](https://meta.discourse.org/u/neil)
#### Post date: [2017年二月3日 21:16 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/the-tagging-core-functionality-adds-multiple-pages-with-the-same-human-content-but-different-to-google-to-serp/56787/15 "2017-02-03T21:16:44Z")

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I committed the change today.

> <https://github.com/discourse/discourse/commit/ae671355da1db07dedd4a1c927282ce7ce8ecc33>

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### Author: ![codinghorror](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/codinghorror/32/110067_2.png) [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [2017年二月3日 23:05 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/the-tagging-core-functionality-adds-multiple-pages-with-the-same-human-content-but-different-to-google-to-serp/56787/16 "2017-02-03T23:05:13Z")

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