?srsltid parameter in URL's. How to deal with them?

[Ilia]

Hey mates.

Almost all the pages on my website are being displayed in Google with URLs like domain.com/?srsltid=AfmBOooWgw8kNKrO1uxXSa3QM7uqwubqPvcDGxl3JwS-ibeKVyFEvVoU. I understand this is a Google bug, but it severely affects my rankings. All my pages have canonical tags, and I've configured my robots.txt file to block pages with the /?srsltid parameter. However, these pages continue to appear in the SERPs. Although Google Search Console doesn't show these pages as indexed, I can still see them in the search results. How can I prevent them from appearing in Google?

 

[OnlineProxy]

Ensure canonical tags point to clean URLs, block parameterized URLs using a wildcard in your robots.txt file, and use the URL Parameters tool in Google Search Console to manage the `srsltid` parameter. Consider adding a noindex meta tag to these URLs and implementing 301 redirects to their clean versions. Use Google Search Console’s URL Removal tool to expedite their removal from the search index.

 

[4440]

See this post.

TLDR. it does not affect ranking.

https://www.seroundtable.com/google-search-srsltid-url-parameters-37875.html

 

[Ilia]

See this post.

TLDR. it does not affect ranking.

https://www.seroundtable.com/google-search-srsltid-url-parameters-37875.html

Thanks, but in reality, my keywords have started ranking for pages with the /?srsltid parameter. The canonical tags aren't working, and this mess has made it difficult to manage my website.

 

[4440]

Thanks, but in reality, my keywords have started ranking for pages with the /?srsltid parameter. The canonical tags aren't working, and this mess has made it difficult to manage my website.

This happened to my sites as well. I just leave it as it is.

So if you are worried, you can do as what John Mu suggested in the posts to turn if off.

 

[teqtop786]

Ensure canonical tags point to clean URLs, block parameterized URLs using a wildcard in your robots.txt file, and use the URL Parameters tool in Google Search Console to manage the `srsltid` parameter. Consider adding a noindex meta tag to these URLs and implementing 301 redirects to their clean versions. Use Google Search Console’s URL Removal tool to expedite their removal from the search index.

That is a great answer. You've covered all the critical aspects, including the use of wildcards in robots.txt and implementing 301 redirects, which are often overlooked.

 

[Gogol]

I have had similar problem with a client before. Even after having canonical tags, some urls with query strings were getting indexed. To solve that, we added some robots rule and after another recrawl, the problem was solved.

In your case, add the following to the end of your robots.txt:

Disallow: /*?srsltid=*

Let google recrawl your robots. After that, googlebot should not crawl those urls anymore.

 

[hideath]

I believe you're using shopify,
I've seen some random youtube video recently adressing the exact same problem & solution,
And indeed it was a key change for them to recover the traffic & rankings,

You might want to check youtube,
Best of luck!

 

[Roger Marquez]

Almost all the pages on my website are being displayed in Google with URLs like domain.com/?

This parameter is added when a user clicks on a product within shopping listings within Google Merchant.

So your products are appearing in the Shopping list on SERPs. A user clicks on your listing and Google appends this parameter.

I understand this is a Google bug

It´s not a bug

, but it severely affects my rankings. All my pages have canonical tags,

If you´re using canonical how they are affecting your rankings?

and I've configured my robots.txt file to block pages with the /?srsltid parameter.

Do you mean, implementing a disallow directive as @Gogol is showing below? If that´s the case, you´re good!

However, these pages continue to appear in the SERPs. Although Google Search Console doesn't show these pages as indexed, I can still see them in the search results. How can I prevent them from appearing in Google?

If GSC you´re fine, the fact they are still showing in the index, there´s nothing you can do.

I have had similar problem with a client before. Even after having canonical tags, some urls with query strings were getting indexed. To solve that, we added some robots rule and after another recrawl, the problem was solved.

In your case, add the following to the end of your robots.txt:

Disallow: /*?srsltid=*

Let google recrawl your robots. After that, googlebot should not crawl those urls anymore.

 

[NeedMyLink]

Google sometimes takes its time to respect the robots.txt and canonical tags, especially with parameters like /?srsltid. One thing that’s worked for me in a similar case was to create a URL removal request in Google Search Console for the /?srsltid parameter.