How to Tell Google to Ignore a Side Parameter

The Google search engine crawls and analyzes your website for relevant information to best index your site in the search engine. Website pages that contain identical content can lower your ranking and therefore should be ignored by the search engine. Google Webmaster Tools allows you to manage the way your site is indexed and crawled by Google. Use it to edit and ignore certain parameters of a page, such as the side parameter, that may include duplicate content.

Instructions

1. Log in to your Google Webmaster Tools account at google.com/webmasters/tools.

2. Click the domain of the site you wish to configure under your list of available sites at the bottom of the page.

3. Click “Site Configuration” from the left navigation panel.

4. Click “URL parameter.”

5. Click “Edit” next to the side parameter you wish to ignore. If the parameter doesn’t currently exist, click “Add parameter” and enter a name for the new parameter.

6. Click “No URLs.”

7. Click “Save.”