Google's srsltid= parameter is breaking links

[lesliekirk]

A store owner pointed out to be that when he searched for a term related to his store is was coming up with a link that included what I have learned to be Google's srsltid= parameter. That parameter is breaking the link it's been tagged to resulting in something similar to this

Page 'HOME?SRSLTID=AFMBOOPAB2QLTCRRYCNUFHH4JJAJTLGRWDF3 WPZRARI12-BNSVOS0KNP' no longer exists.

The fix on the Google end is to turn off the auto-tagging in the Google Merchant Center...but...what is it breaking the link?

[ILoveHostasaurus]

Sounds like a bad rewrite rule that is internally rewriting things in a way that is adding a query string. The result is a link that appears to have no query string is having one appended, which doesn't work in this case because additional question marks are treated as part of the variable value.

[lesliekirk]

Sounds like a bad rewrite rule that is internally rewriting things in a way that is adding a query string. The result is a link that appears to have no query string is having one appended, which doesn't work in this case because additional question marks are treated as part of the variable value.

I think you are saying the "bad rewrite"is the "HOME?" portion of the link? That is indeed incorrect, it should be home.html - How do I even figure out where that is coming from within the Miva Admin or I guess the .htaccess file?

Now if you are saying the rewrite is adding all of that - no, it's not. I turned off the auto-tagging in the Google Merchant Center and now the "tag" is not being added.

[ILoveHostasaurus]

No, I'm saying that something in the htaccess file is placing a query string into request behind the scenes. If you take an otherwise valid URI of /HOME and make it an equally valid URI of /HOME?anything, the site apparently breaks. /HOME and /HOME?var=value are both completely correct. Publicly, no one knows that internal to the site something is likely saying /HOME really equals /somethingelse?$1 or similar, so when that becomes /somethingelse?var?SRSLTID it creates an invalid broken URI.

[lesliekirk]

No, I'm saying that something in the htaccess file is placing a query string into request behind the scenes. If you take an otherwise valid URI of /HOME and make it an equally valid URI of /HOME?anything, the site apparently breaks. /HOME and /HOME?var=value are both completely correct. Publicly, no one knows that internal to the site something is likely saying /HOME really equals /somethingelse?$1 or similar, so when that becomes /somethingelse?var?SRSLTID it creates an invalid broken URI.

Okay, I am so confused. All I now is turning off the auto-tagging in the Google Merchant Center - the ?SRSLTID=yadayadyayadayada is no longer being added. In the .htaccess file this line could be where it's finding "home":

DirectoryIndex /mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=home

[ILoveHostasaurus]

Yep, that's the problem, if home is intended to be the storefront, just set it as the store's default page and get that query string off of there.

[lesliekirk]

Yep, that's the problem, if home is intended to be the storefront, just set it as the store's default page and get that query string off of there.

Yeah, I was wondering why that needed to be added to the .htaccess file but I think I had to open a support ticket because the URI Management wasn't doing the job.