Should I redirect pages/categories/products that have numbers in them?

Why do some of my URLs have numbers in them? 

If your products, categories, pages or blogs have not been SEO optimised with a custom SEO filename, then every page still needs a unique URL. The URLs that have numbers in them are the default URL. 

How can i remove the numbers from the URLS?

In the SEO area, or the SEO tab, you can find a few different ways to add SEO filenames to your pages, products, categories and blogs. 

You should use a unique filename for each item, irrespective of it being a page or product etc. The filename needs to be unique across your whole website.

I have set the SEO filenames, but still i see numbers in the URLS?

Generally speaking, you should not see the numerical URLs after you give a page or product a unique SEO filename. Ensure you have clicked publish and cleared your cache.  

If you still see the numerical URLs, please check to see if you have created any custom links/buttons in your content using the link wizard. The link wizard remembers the link as it was when the item was linked. These links to do change unless you go back and use the link wizard again to update the link.

In some cases, our system deliberately uses the numerical URLs, when it wants to be sure it is fetching the latest information from the database. Such might happen if a user is logged in, a shopping cart is underway, the default currency has changed, or the user is navigating to additional pages in a pagination. 

Should i be worried about numerical URLs and what is called duplicate content?

You do not need to worry about the perception of duplicate content.

If a page has a custom SEO filename, it will be included as the canonical URL in a meta tag. The search robots will not index the URL if the page has specified the correct canonical URL. It is common to have more that one URL, as the content may change based on language, currency, or discounts for an active cart.

The search robot will understand, that only the canonical URL specified in the page meta html is the only URL it should index. The canonical URL is the authoriative way that a website tells a search robot what is the most appropriate page to index. 

A website still needs the ability to display more than one variation of a page based on session, currency etc.

Should I redirect pages, categories, or products that appear to have numbers in them?

No you should not. If you do this, you will likely create alot of work for yourself, and alot of problems with circular redirects and server errors. 

If your URL appears to have numbers in it, (e.g. https://www.mywebsite.com/product/733136) make sure you have specified the SEO filename. If you have done this,  your issue should go away. 

We advise against redirecting system generated URLs, because they may be used for dynamic display of a product/category during a login session, during a cart, for advanced category searches etc. 
The canonical URL is all that Google cares about, and so long as a URL and canonical match, it will be indexed, and other URL variants will be ignored so long as they state the correct canonical URL.

Google Search Tools Identifies A Non Indexable URL

If Google search tools finds a new URL, and that page has a cononical URL to identify the correct URL, then google search may report this in it's indexing report as a failed index, but that is OK, it's just acknowledging that there is a URL, but it is ignoring it correctly. This is good outcome. 
Other URLs that exist on your website, that google should not index include the following.
  • Shopping cart
  • Checkout pages
  • thankyou pages behind forms
  • members only pages
  • secure password protected pages
  • pages marked as hidden from all
Such pages as above may not specify an alternative canonical URL, but we may also use the "noindex" or "nofollow" tags to remind search bots of the right behaviour. 

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