Cross reference entries - use tags or playa field?

Question

I'm working on Exp-resso store and now I'm at the stage where I need to cross reference a product, which already belongs to categories (like Furniture -> Chairs) under same channel 'Products'. Now I need to have same product to be in 'XYZ Collection' and 'Gifts Under $500' list, and as a final URL displayed it as it was in the Furniture->Chairs (avoid multiple URLs for same product from SEO perspective).

Which way will be the best to go - use tags (add-on like http://devot-ee.com/add-ons/tag or http://devot-ee.com/add-ons/tagger) or playa field?

Thanks

Answer 1

This is a fairly common problem in EE sites, and I haven't seen an elegant way to solve it yet.

It stems from the fact that EE doesn't have any sort of notion of a "primary" category for each entry. So if you want to use categories in the URL, or display breadcrumbs for each entry, you need to either have the entry sit under two different URLs, or remove the categories from the URL altogether.

If SEO is your primary concern, then one possible solution is to make each product under a master URL (say /products/show/product-url-title) and also under category URLs (/products/categories/books/product-url-title). You can then put a canonical link in your page header to ensure only one version appears in search results.

Answer 2

Solspace has a Primary Category add-on, which does allow you to select one of the entry's categories as primary. Then you can always use the primary category in the URL, but the entry is still assigned to other categories as well. This seams simpler than having to resort to tags or some form of relationships for what is essentially assigning multiple categories.