Implementing strict rules for virtual hosts and friendly URLs

Issue

• Having the different URLs for the same content could potentially impact SEO by affecting how pages are indexed.
• Even when a virtual host is defined for a site, it is possible to access that site using the portal-wide virtual host and IPs as well as the virtual hosts for other sites:
  • liferay.com
  • liferay.com/web/example
  • liferay-other.com/web/example
• Also, multiple URLs redirect to the same page
  • liferay.com/home
  • liferay.com/en/home
  • liferay.com/web/example/home

Environment

• Liferay DXP, Quarterly Releases.

Resolution

1. The general recommendation is to apply any advanced configuration to enable these restrictions or permanent redirections directly in the web server, for example, Apache or Nginx.
2. By default, Liferay allows to access any page through the path regardless the domain being used.
   • Nevertheless, there is a Feature Request in the roadmap to modify this behavior by implementing more restricting rules.
3. There are some information to consider to try to avoid/minimize duplicated URLs within Liferay application:
   • Configure a virtual host for the site - Configuring Virtual Hosts Site URLs: It will help to consolidate URLs but won't avoid accessing pages by /web/<id>/page url. 
   • Manage the language prefix in URLs - Locale Prepend Friendly URL Style: Configure how language prefixes appear in URLs, including the option to omit them for the default language.
     • Also, If the default locale is still prepended to the site URL after configuring the friendly URL style, review this article and consider updating the Java environment variables -Duser.country and -Duser.language: The default locale is prepended to the site URL.
     • For additional context about language-related indexing issues, see Pages are indexed in the wrong language.
   • Set custom canonical URLs for pages if needed: Page Settings UI Reference: This ensures search engines understand the preferred URL for each page, further preventing duplication issues.
4. Always test any of these configurations in a non-production environment before applying them to production.

Additional Information

• LPD-1038 - Implement more strict access rules when using site virtual hosts.
• Configuring Virtual Hosts Site URLs
• Pages are indexed in the wrong language
• The default locale is prepended to the site URL
• Page Settings UI Reference
• Locale Prepend Friendly URL Style