Do I need canonical link on target page?
-
I've placed in my head tag on duplicate content pages, but do i need to place it on the target page such as http://www.example.com/index.html too?
-
It's not instantaneous, but yes, you should see that number drop over time.
-
After implementing my canonical links, I should see my duplicate page warnings go down in the Errors section of Crawl Diagnostics correct? SEOMOZ parses these correct?
-
Ah yes, I could have been more clear with this. Thanks for the help.
-
I'm a little confused, because you gave different URLs for the target of your canonical tag and your "target page", so I just want to make sure we're referring to the same thing here. You don't typically need a canonical tag on the canonical version of the URL. Technically, you shouldn't put one there (Bing has specifically said they don't want that, but Google has eased up on it), but practically, I've rarely seen it cause any problems.
In other words, I wouldn't lose sleep over it
Just make sure that the "target page" doesn't actually represent multiple URLs. I've seen some people get confused on that. Typically, having a canonical tag on your home-page can help sweep up variants you might not think about, so I think it can make sense to have one, even on the target. In most cases, though, it's not necessary.
-
Yes you should if you are not using 301 redirection for "non www" with "www" domain.
-
Nope, not as far as I know. Just add the tag in the head of the non-canonical URLs:
This is from Google's Webmaster Tools Support section:
If you want http://www.example.com/dresses/greendress.html to
be the canonical URL for your listing, you can indicate this to search
engines by adding a element with the attribute
rel="canonical"
_ to the section of the non-canonical pages. To do this, create a_
link as follows:
_```
href="http://www.example.com/dresses/greendress.html">_Add this extra information to the section of non-canonical URLs._
http://example.com/dresses/greendress.html?gclid=ABCDh
_This tells Google that these URLs all refer to the canonical page at **http://www.example.com/dresses/greendress.html**. _ _**Note**: We recommend __using a link with the attribute `rel="canonical"` to_ _indicate your preferred __URL, but we can't guarantee to follow that preference_ _in all cases._ _[More information about rel="canonical".](http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=139394)_ Hope this helps. Thanks, Anthony_
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
-
Area pages
As area pages are seen as trying to game google (see link below) is their a 'better way' to target multipe areas (100 odd)? https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/2721311?hl=en Cheers
On-Page Optimization | | webguru20140 -
Home page and category page target same keyword
Hi there, Several of our websites have a common problem - our main target keyword for the homepage is also the name of a product category we have within the website. There are seemingly two solutions to this problem, both of which not ideal: Do not target the keyword with the homepage. However, the homepage has the most authority and is our best shot at getting ranked for the main keyword. Reword and "de-optimise" the category page, so it doesn't target the keyword. This doesn't work well from UX point of view as the category needs to describe what it is and enable visitors to navigate to it. Anybody else gone through a similar conundrum? How did you end up going about it? Thanks Julian
On-Page Optimization | | tprg0 -
PANDA Attack: Too many on page links
Hey guys! I have a bit of a dilemma...one of my sites got hit by Panda 😞 The content itself contains about 10 links, however since the site is a process directory, at the bottom of the page you will find that the visitor can also browse process directory by name or page and then beneath this there are 80 links :s My concern is that if i remove this I will lose internal link juice! HELP! What approach should I take? I was thinking of either reducing the number of links OR hiding it by using Java ORRRR removing the links entirely. Advice anyone? This is a page as an example: http://www.processlibrary.com/directory/files/csrsc/25349/ All pages are like this!
On-Page Optimization | | OrangeGuys0 -
Why would my homepage be ranked lower (Page Rank 2) than my other pages on the site (PR3) ?
Why would my homepage be ranked lower (Page Rank 2) than my other pages on the site (PR3) ?
On-Page Optimization | | dmurtagh0 -
Optimise duplicate products or canonical link
We exist in a niche market with a good % of products that sell well at specific times of the year. Lets say for example a red cup can be sold as a christmas red cup and a valentine red cup or just a red cup. Would we be best to optimize each specific product specifically for those seasons/events on different pages or keep google pointed to just one page using a canonical link.
On-Page Optimization | | LadyApollo0 -
100 links on one page
we're recommended 100 links or less on one page. is the 100 links including header and footer links?
On-Page Optimization | | jallenyang0 -
Links from my homepage
I am redesigning my homepage completely. What criteria should I use to decide which pages to link to from the homepage?
On-Page Optimization | | mascotmike0 -
SEO Value of Within-Page Links vs. Separate Pages
Title says it all. Assuming that you're talking about similar content (let's say, widgets), which is better: using within-page links for variations or using separate pages? I.e., do we have a widget page and then do in-page links to describe green, blue, and red widgets, or separate pages for each type of widget? In-page pro: more content on a single page, thus more keywords, key phrases, and general appearance of real content. In-page con: Jakob Neilsen says they're confusing. Also, for SEO, you only get one page title, rather than a separate page title for each. My personal bias is for in-page, since I hate creating dozens of short pages for what could be on one page, but my suspicion is that separate pages are better for SEO.
On-Page Optimization | | maxkennerly0