Marketplace SEO benefits of indexing FAQ pages

Currently the item FAQ pages have a <link rel="canonical"> meta tag which basically hides these pages from search engine results.

I noticed this when trying to search for a FAQ I created on one of my items (but I couldn’t remember which one) using Google. I could not find it using Google. If you Google Search for a string that appears on your FAQ page (even with the site:themeforest.net feature) the FAQ page does not appear.

Example FAQ page: click here Example Google Search: click here

What would be advantages and disadvantages of removing this canonical meta tag?

Advantages: Increase marketplace footprint on search engines, users can find answers to faq from google search.

Disadvantages: existing SEO effort put into an item page might get watered down when the FAQ page appears.

Can you think of any more?

I don’t see how the disadvantage listed would be the case unless you listed your file’s name repeatedly. But you could use that to your advantage—every time you use your file’s name, turn it into a link and then you’ve actually strengthened your main page’s SEO .

dtbaker said
Currently the item FAQ pages have a <link rel="canonical"> meta tag which basically hides these pages from search engine results.

How so?

Here’s what it actually does:

Generator said

dtbaker said
Currently the item FAQ pages have a <link rel="canonical"> meta tag which basically hides these pages from search engine results.

Here’s what it actually does: http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=139394

Yep, it basically tells google that the FAQ page is a duplicate of the item page, and this results in the FAQ page getting totally ignored. So basically hides these pages from google Sorry should have elaborated a bit more than just saying canonical hides the FAQ pages.

I tweeted support. I think canonical used on faq pages is probably an unintentional bug.

Submitted ticket #197764

Moving to site feedback.

dtbaker said

Generator said

dtbaker said
Currently the item FAQ pages have a <link rel="canonical"> meta tag which basically hides these pages from search engine results.

Here’s what it actually does: http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=139394

Yep, it basically tells google that the FAQ page is a duplicate of the item page, and this results in the FAQ page getting totally ignored. So basically hides these pages from google Sorry should have elaborated a bit more than just saying canonical hides the FAQ pages.

Yes. I see what you mean now.

Sweet. They just committed a fix for this and it should be rolled out today

Item FAQ pages will then begin to be indexed in search engines

dtbaker said
Sweet. They just committed a fix for this and it should be rolled out today Item FAQ pages will then begin to be indexed in search engines

^ Great job

-Jack