URLs with trailing questionmark (?)

URLs with trailing questionmark (?) - If a page has internal and external outgoing links to redirecting URLs, it’s returning 3xx (301, 302, etc.) HTTP status codes standing for redirection. This issue means that the page does not exist on a permanent or temporary basis. It appears on most of the popular web browsers, usually caused by a misconfigured website. However, there are some steps you can take to ensure the issue isn’t on your side. You can find more details about redirecting URLs by reading the Google Search Central overview. In this article, we’ll go over how you can fix the URLs with trailing questionmark (?) error on your web browser. Problem :

I understand that URLs with or without trailing slash are considered two different resources and therefore we should use redirects to tell Google which one is the canonical one.

But what about trailing ? (and nothing else behind, so basically empty GET parameters). Do I need to care about them and should I redirect them to the same URL without a trailing ??

Solution :

If you are using WordPress as CMS you can install Yoast SEO and in that you can set permalink to overcome this issue.

If you are using PHP you will need code to set permalink.

There are two things you can/should do:

1. Search Console Settings

In Google Search Console, help Google understand how it should treat different get parameters. More often than not Google will get this right, but there's no harm in providing additional information, so long as it is accurate.

2. Canonicals

If the get variable is for tracking purposes and or doesn't affect the content on the page, set a canonical to the version of the page you would like Google to serve. If the content is paginated and the get parameter specifies page number or limit, set the canonical to point to the "All" page. If an all page doesn't exist, you can specify previous and or next as well as a canonical, but be sure to not set the canonical to just the first page of results. More on this can be found here.

We hope that this article has helped you resolve the redirects, url, canonical-url error in your web browsers. Enjoy browsing the internet uninterrupted!