I’ve been building Joomla extensions for years, giving them away free at RicheyWeb.com because I can—and because I’m tired of seeing good sites stumble over the same problems I’ve wrestled with. Joomla’s a beast: powerful, flexible, but prone to chaos if you don’t tame it. One mess I keep running into? Duplicate URLs and lazy extensions that can't build a good canonical url. They’re sneaky little gremlins—spawning from components, query strings, and core quirks—and they’ll tank your SEO faster than you can say "Google Search Console." I’m done watching site owners suffer for it. This is personal.
Content Gets Buried Behind a Bad Canonical URL
Open up Search Console, and you’ll see the warnings staring back: "Alternate page with proper canonical tag," "Duplicate without user-selected canonical," "Duplicate, Google chose different canonical than user." Sounds technical, right? It’s not. It’s a death sentence for your content. Pages go unindexed, rankings slide, and suddenly your "good" URL—the one you poured hours into—is buried under some ugly, parameter-riddled doppelgänger Google decided to crown instead - they say as much in their article Demystifying the "duplicate content penalty": 'We select what we think is the "best" URL to represent the cluster in search results.'
Google says the “duplicate content penalty” is a myth, but here’s the real kicker: they admit to picking the “best” URL for a cluster of duplicates. That’s the rub—Google choosing isn’t you choosing. If they spotlight a lousy version, your authority dilutes, your SERP position tanks, and your hard work fades. I’ve seen it too many times: great articles, killer ideas, whole businesses fading because Joomla’s URL mess got the better of them. That’s not a glitch; that’s a crime.
No Band-Aids, Just Solutions
When I set out to fix something, I don’t mess around with band-aids. I want it done for good—like Rose Tyler wielding Bad Wolf power, rewriting reality so Captain Jack lives forever. Canonical URL issues aren’t a one-off annoyance; they’re a systemic nightmare that keeps coming back unless you hit them hard. I build tools I’d want to use—free, no strings—because if I’m fed up with duplicate content screwing over my sites, I know others are too. They might not even realize it until they see their SERP position drop and wonder why. I’m here to point it out—and to kill it dead.
The Half-Measure Hall of Shame
But here’s the rub: the tools out there? They’re half-measures at best, lazy or greedy at worst. Some slap a one-size-fits-all rule on the problem—toss out every query string and call it a day. Brilliant, except now your paginated articles are broken, your filters don’t work, and duplicates still lurk. Worse, they leave you exposed to SERP poisoning—some jerk links your pristine good-url as good-url?junkparameter, and if Google picks that trash, your site’s toast. Others dangle a real fix but lock it behind a paywall—want redirects to the right canonical URL? Open your wallet. That’s not a solution; that’s a racket. I can’t stand it. If I’m solving a problem, it’s not to squeeze anyone for cash—it’s to make sure unindexed pages, diluted authority, SERP drops, and malicious poisoning stop haunting Joomla users for good.
My Line in the Sand
That’s why I started building something new. Not to sell, not to flex, but to settle a score with this canonical chaos—internal duplicates and external poison alike. I’m letting Joomla’s own logic call the shots—its components know what their URLs should be, so why guess? No lazy exclusions, no premium upsells—just a tool that works because it has to, locking down the right URL before some clown can turn it into SERP garbage. I’m not here to half-ass it. This isn’t about one plugin; it’s about proving we don’t have to settle for less. If I can do it for free, the rest of the ecosystem can step up too.
A Perfect Canonical URL Lasts For All Time
Canonical URL issues won’t die easy—they’re like Daleks, relentless and multiplying. But I’m not here for a quick patch that peels off with the next Joomla update. I want this solved—fully, freely, forever. Call it my Bad Wolf moment: rewriting the rules so site owners don’t have to keep fighting the same fight.
I AM GOING TO BURY THIS PROBLEM!
Because when I fix something, I fix it for all time. And pursuant to my pledge - I will gift it to the Joomla community, for free. A good canonical URL plugin for all.
Update 2025-03-22:
The results are not only amazing, I would classify this new extension as an unparalleled success. IT WORKS GREAT!
