Canonical tags
-
Hi there,
I have just noticed that SEOmoz picked up some duplicates links that I would like to resolve but not sure how.
For example, the "Finding work in the arts" article has two links:
- http://www.creative-choices.co.uk/develop-your-career/article/finding-work-in-the-arts
- http://www.creative-choices.co.uk/develop-your-career/article/finding-work-in-the-arts?utm_source=Website&utm_medium=Website&utm_content=Finding+work+in+the+arts&utm_campaign=Footer+Links
Both links can be found on this page http://www.creative-choices.co.uk/industry-news-views/article/what-employers-are-looking-for (see attachment).
Would automatically generated canonical tags by the CMS solve this issue?
-
Thanks for you reply Alan.
-
Yes, I would recommend having the field available so you can add it when needed, but not on every page automatically.
Also, all of Alan's advise is very good, as well as irving's. Hope it helps!
-Dan
-
No really, in robots you can block one of them, but that does not stop people from linking to both.
By far the best is not to have 2 urls
next is a 301,
then a canonical
and last would be to use robots.txt
-
Hi
I am having the same issue at the moment but mine is one page with a friendly url and the other has the CMS page id.
From looking into this I think a canonical tag is needed but I think you can do the robots.txt as well.
-
I can not tell you, as i dont use a cms.
but this is the format
-
Also go into google webmster tools and add the parameters to the parameter handling tool and set the instructions for how you want Google to deal with the specific parameters in your URLs
-
Hi Alan,
Yes, one page, 2 urls (to test which link placement generates more clicks).
How do I place the canonical tag in a CMS driven website? Should we ask the developer to automatically generate canonical tags for pages or perhaps an extra text field to be used when a canonical tags needs to be added?
-
you mean one page 2 urls. then put the tag in the one page, point to the one original url
-
Hi Alan,
Thanks for the reply and explanation.
There is only one entry in the CMS for the article in question (http://www.creative-choices.co.uk/develop-your-career/article/finding-work-in-the-arts).
The other longer URL (http://www.creative-choices.co.uk/develop-your-career/article/finding-work-in-the-arts?utm_source=Website&utm_medium=Website&utm_content=Finding+work+in+the+arts&utm_campaign=Footer+Links) just has google analytic tracking appended to it.
-
Hi Dan,
We are using Expression Engine CMS.
Would you then recommend asking the developer to make an extra field available to capture the canonical url to be used when needed?
-
3 things you could do, in order or preference
1. Correct urls to be the same
2. 301 1 to the other
3 canonical tag one to the other.
I want to make sure you understand how to make the canonical tags. you need to decided what url is tyhe original.(that would be the shorter of the 2) then the other page should have a canonical tag pointing to the original
-
Hi
You should definitely be using the canonical tag for that page. As far as site wide, I wouldn't recommend to just add it automatically on every page. What CMS are you using? There should be a way to control what pages it gets added to, you wouldn't want it applied when it shouldn't be.
-Dan
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Hidden H1 Tag on Image
Hi, In the page I'm working on, I encountered an tag in an image, rather than in a text form. Do you think it's an issue when it comes to SEO?
Technical SEO | | nerdieb
What do you suggest I should do if there is an issue? Keen to hear from you!0 -
Alt Tags - how important for SEO?
Hi I know alt tags should be on an image, however at the moment I have 23,741 missing on the site, how important are these? It's a big project for someone to update & I need some justification Thanks Mozzers 🙂
Technical SEO | | BeckyKey0 -
Does Canonical Tag Syntax Matter?
Does anyone know definitively if the format of the canonical tag matters? Silly question I know. vs
Technical SEO | | Healio0 -
Is it ok to use H1 tags in breadcrumbs?
A client has an e-commerce site and she doesn't want a page title on the products page. She has breadcrumbs though. Her website developer suggests putting the H1 on the breadcrumbs. So: products> Gifts > picture frame with h1 tags round the word "picture frame". Is this ok to do? Or is it a bad thing for SEO purposes? Thanks
Technical SEO | | AL123al0 -
Is a canonical tag the best solution for multiple search listing pages in a site?
I have a site where dozens of page listings are showing in my report with a parameter showing the page number for the listings. Is the best solution to canonical these page listings back a core page (all-products)? Or, do I change my site configuration in Webmasters to ignore "page" parameters? What's the solution? Example URL 1- http://mydomain.com/products/all-products?page=84 Example URL 2- http://mydomain.com/products/all-products?page=85 Example URL 3- http://mydomain.com/products/all-products?page=86 Thanks in advance for your direction.
Technical SEO | | JoshKimber0 -
Canoical tags how do i use them
Hi i have this coming up on the report for my url www.in2town.co.uk but i am not sure how to use the canonical tag. I am using joomla and would be grateful if anyone could please give me advice on how to use this. Canonical URL Tag Usage Moderate fix <dl> <dt>Number of Canonical tags</dt> <dd>0</dd> <dt>Explanation</dt> <dd>Although the canonical URL tag is generally thought of as a way to solve duplicate content problems, it can be extremely wise to use it on every (unique) page of a site to help prevent any query strings, session IDs, scraped versions, licensing deals or future developments to potentially create a secondary version and pull link juice or other metrics away from the original. We believe the canonical URL tag is a best practice to help prevent future problems, even if nothing is specifically duplicate/problematic today.</dd> <dt>Recommendation</dt> <dd>Add a canonical URL tag referencing this URL to the header of the page.</dd> <dd>many thanks for your help
Technical SEO | | ClaireH-184886
</dd> </dl>0 -
Rel=Canonical
Any downsides to adding the rel=canonical tag to the canonical page itself? It will make it easier for us to implement based on the way our site's templates work. For example, we would add to the page http://www.mysite.com/original-page.aspx The canonical tag would also appear on other dupe pages like: http://www.mysite.com/original-page.aspx?ref=93929299 http://www.mysite.com/original-page.aspx?ref=view29199292 etc
Technical SEO | | SoulSurfer80 -
How do you add a description to the Meta Description area to Tag Pages in Wordpress? This way I do not get the errors: "Missing Meta Description Tag" from SEOMoz Bot? Thanks!
I tried to add descriptions to my tags in Wordpress (well actually one to test), but I still keep getting the "Missing Meta Description Tag" error. Any suggestions on how to fix this in Wordpress? Thanks!
Technical SEO | | jhblogger0