Overview
The issue involves multiple redirects caused by a language redirect in the Common.init.ftl file, affecting search engine crawlers and impacting SEO.
This is a configuration/customization issue, stemming from a Passive Authentication implementation and the fix involves updating the above file to detect bots and skip the language redirect, ensuring a direct 200 OK response for crawlers.
💡 Passive authentication means that if a user is already logged in on your main website, they will be automatically signed in when they visit any page under community.domain.com. They won’t need to click the sign-in button or enter their credentials again.
Solution
Follow the steps below to resolve the SEO issue caused by language redirects:
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Identify the Problem:
- Investigate the redirect behavior using curl commands with different user agents (Googlebot, Bingbot, normal browser), for example:
curl -I -A "Mozilla/5.0 AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko; compatible; bingbot/2.0; +http://www.bing.com/bingbot.htm) Chrome/" \https://your_community_url.com/ Result: HTTP/2 302 location: https://your_community_url.com/?profile.language=en
- The above example shows that bots are receiving unnecessary language redirects.
- Investigate the redirect behavior using curl commands with different user agents (Googlebot, Bingbot, normal browser), for example:
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Update
Common.init.ftl:- Modify the file to detect bot user agents and skip the language redirect for them.
- Ensure that real users still receive the language redirect as intended.
📌 Important: This is custom development work. The Support team cannot assist with implementing these changes. The updates must be handled by the team that originally developed your customization (either your internal developers or the Khoros Professional Services team).
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Deployment:
- Apply the changes to the staging environment and validate with test cases.
- Deploy the changes to the production environment after successful validation.
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Validation:
- Test with curl commands to ensure bots receive a direct 200 OK response without redirects.
- Confirm that normal users still experience the intended redirect behavior.
Frequently Asked Questions
- Q1: How do I know if this issue affects my site?
- A1: f you notice a decline in organic traffic and multiple redirects in your site's SEO analysis, this issue might be affecting your site. Use tools like curl to test redirect behavior for different user agents.
Q2: What was the root cause of the SEO issue?- A2: The root cause was a language redirect in the
Common.init.ftlfile that affected search engine crawlers, causing unnecessary redirects and impacting SEO. - Q3: What should I do if I encounter a similar issue?
- A3: Investigate the redirect behavior using tools like curl, identify any unnecessary redirects affecting crawlers, and update your configuration to ensure bots receive a direct response.
Ciprian Nastase
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