Technical SEO FAQ · Indexing, Canonicalization & Duplicate Content
How would you manage indexation on a large e-commerce website?
Create an indexation policy by URL class.
Example:
Product pages → index if valid/unique
Category pages → index
Internal search → usually exclude
Tracking parameters → consolidate
Sort parameters → control
Temporary filters → control
Out-of-stock products → business-specific policy
Expired products → redirect, 404/410 or retain depending on context
The policy should be implemented consistently across templates rather than manually page by page.
Then validate:
- index coverage;
- canonical selection;
- sitemap quality;
- internal links;
- crawl distribution.
Related questions
- How do you determine why an important page isn't indexed?
- How do you investigate "Crawled - currently not indexed"?
- How do you investigate "Discovered - currently not indexed"?
- How do you validate whether an indexation fix actually worked?
- How would you identify index bloat?
- What happens when canonical and noindex signals conflict?
- What is the difference between crawling, rendering, indexing, ranking and serving?
- What signals influence Google's canonical selection?
- When should a page be canonicalized instead of noindexed?
