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
-
How long does it take for canonical tags to work
How long on average does it take for a canonical tag to work? Understand that canonicals are just a suggestion, but after adding a canonical tag and submitting the page via Google fetch, assuming Google follows the canonical, would you expect it to work after a day or two or does it take longer? We added canonicals to old PPC landing pages that are ranking organically, though our new landing pages (which we want to rank organically) are not identical and have a bit more content/features. They are similar though. Canonicals were added to the old pages (pointing to new pages) and requested indexing via search console. Old pages are still ranking and new pages not so much. FYI we are unable to 301 old PPC pages due to other non negotiable reasons unfortunately. Thanks.
Technical SEO | | SoulSurfer80 -
Duplicate Title Tag
We are getting a Duplicate Title Tag error on our pages but we have different titles and the differences are being seen by Google. We are using the code <%@ Page Title="School Lunch Software Pricing || EZ School Apps"%> Any ideas?
Technical SEO | | EZParentCenter0 -
Title Tags in 2013
For blog posts do you think it is better to use something like "Atlanta Plumbing Company" or "Choosing an Atlanta Plumbing Company" (article title). I have been using the article titles but I think it might be hindering rankings a bit. I use to use the keyword but it seems a bit spammy now. I want to create titles for the readers but rank well too. Any suggestions? Thanks!
Technical SEO | | SeattleJoe0 -
IP canonization
Hi, I need your opinions about IP canonization. Site www.peoplemaps.com is on 78.136.30.112 IP. Now we redirect that IP to the main page (because of possible duplicate content). But, we have more sites on the same IP address. How can that affect on their SEO? Before redirecting, when we visit that IP address, the browser showed mainpage of www.peoplemaps.com, not any other site. Thanks, Milan edit: We have used 301 redirect.
Technical SEO | | MilanB.0 -
Why are these pages duplicates when canonical is defined?
The SEOmoz reports indicate that the following pages are duplicates even though the canonical tag has been added. http://www.designquotes.com.au/dq/web/get-quotes/quotes http://www.designquotes.com.au/dq/web/get-quotes/brief Is this normal?
Technical SEO | | designquotes0 -
How do I properly use the canonical tag to avoid negative effect from having identical content on 2 url’s?
To illustrate… I have same website uploaded at 2 locations (url’s). Only the domain extensions are different. www.myexample.com
Technical SEO | | swiftseo
www.myexample.org The benefit is that I may run some promos on one location and not the other to help in product surveys/testing. The website content is 98% identical and I understand this content duplication may cause SEO problems. The domain I wish to use for rankings etc is www.myexample.com 1) How do I go about avoiding seo problem? Do I need to place the canonical tag at www.myexample.org ie 2) Do I also place the exact same tag at the .com location or not necessary there? Is there an alternative or more effective option to resolving the problem?0 -
Blank Canonical URL
So my devs have the canonical URL loaded up on pages automatically, and in most cases this gets done correctly. However we ran across a bug that left some of these blank like so: Does anyone know what effect that would have? I am trying to provide a priority for this so I can say "FIX IT NOW" or "Fix it after the other 'FIX IT NOW' type of items". Let me know if you have any ideas. I just want to be sure I am not telling google that all of these pages are like the home page. Thanks!
Technical SEO | | SL_SEM0 -
Meta tags - better NOT to have?
OK ok . . . the SEOMox report card told me it's actually better NOT to have meta tag keywords on my page, because my competitors can then look at my page to see what words I am trying to target . . . That makes since, but is also painfully counter intuitive. I thought I would just double check and make sure . .. NO META TAGS KEYWORDS? and if so . . .. what (if anything) should I have in the meta tags?
Technical SEO | | damon12120