title: Google Index: Using final URL or Link
body: <p>This may seem like a basic question (and I've searched for the answer), but I'm wondering if anyone knows whether Google indexes using the final URL displayed (in the address bar), or just the link it used to get there (or both).</p>
  <p>A client has a Drupal 7 website with product category links in friendly URL format, e.g.</p>
  <pre><code>website.com/product/cat/bedroom
  </code></pre>
  <p>...which is perfectly fine for the primary Menu, but when using the filtering menu I would like those links to be &quot;standard&quot; PHP Queries e.g.</p>
  <pre><code>/?q=product/cat/bedroom/cat/bathroom
  </code></pre>
  <p>This can be achieved quite easily as Drupal (and obviously PHP) already accept the query and just requires editing of the filter block's link.  However, when landing on that filtered page the URL will drop the query and revert to the friendly URL.  My question is, will Google index that URL, or the link's query URL - or both?</p>
  <p>The ultimate goal is to block Google from indexing the q parameter, meaning it won't dive deep into filtering, which has resulted in tens of thousands of useless indexes, and only have the pages linked directly to with friendly URLs.</p>