undefined
Skip to content
Moz logo Menu open Menu close
  • Products
    • Moz Pro
    • Moz Pro Home
    • Moz Local
    • Moz Local Home
    • STAT
    • Moz API
    • Moz API Home
    • Compare SEO Products
    • Moz Data
  • Free SEO Tools
    • Domain Analysis
    • Keyword Explorer
    • Link Explorer
    • Competitive Research
    • MozBar
    • More Free SEO Tools
  • Learn SEO
    • Beginner's Guide to SEO
    • SEO Learning Center
    • Moz Academy
    • MozCon
    • Webinars, Whitepapers, & Guides
  • Blog
  • Why Moz
    • Digital Marketers
    • Agency Solutions
    • Enterprise Solutions
    • Small Business Solutions
    • The Moz Story
    • New Releases
  • Log in
  • Log out
  • Products
    • Moz Pro

      Your all-in-one suite of SEO essentials.

    • Moz Local

      Raise your local SEO visibility with complete local SEO management.

    • STAT

      SERP tracking and analytics for enterprise SEO experts.

    • Moz API

      Power your SEO with our index of over 44 trillion links.

    • Compare SEO Products

      See which Moz SEO solution best meets your business needs.

    • Moz Data

      Power your SEO strategy & AI models with custom data solutions.

    Track AI Overviews in Keyword Research
    Moz Pro

    Track AI Overviews in Keyword Research

    Try it free!
  • Free SEO Tools
    • Domain Analysis

      Get top competitive SEO metrics like DA, top pages and more.

    • Keyword Explorer

      Find traffic-driving keywords with our 1.25 billion+ keyword index.

    • Link Explorer

      Explore over 40 trillion links for powerful backlink data.

    • Competitive Research

      Uncover valuable insights on your organic search competitors.

    • MozBar

      See top SEO metrics for free as you browse the web.

    • More Free SEO Tools

      Explore all the free SEO tools Moz has to offer.

    NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic
    Moz Pro

    NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic

    Learn more
  • Learn SEO
    • Beginner's Guide to SEO

      The #1 most popular introduction to SEO, trusted by millions.

    • SEO Learning Center

      Broaden your knowledge with SEO resources for all skill levels.

    • On-Demand Webinars

      Learn modern SEO best practices from industry experts.

    • How-To Guides

      Step-by-step guides to search success from the authority on SEO.

    • Moz Academy

      Upskill and get certified with on-demand courses & certifications.

    • MozCon

      Save on Early Bird tickets and join us in London or New York City

    Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints
    Moz API

    Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints

    Find your plan
  • Blog
  • Why Moz
    • Digital Marketers

      Simplify SEO tasks to save time and grow your traffic.

    • Small Business Solutions

      Uncover insights to make smarter marketing decisions in less time.

    • Agency Solutions

      Earn & keep valuable clients with unparalleled data & insights.

    • Enterprise Solutions

      Gain a competitive edge in the ever-changing world of search.

    • The Moz Story

      Moz was the first & remains the most trusted SEO company.

    • New Releases

      Get the scoop on the latest and greatest from Moz.

    Surface actionable competitive intel
    New Feature

    Surface actionable competitive intel

    Learn More
  • Log in
    • Moz Pro
    • Moz Local
    • Moz Local Dashboard
    • Moz API
    • Moz API Dashboard
    • Moz Academy
  • Avatar
    • Moz Home
    • Notifications
    • Account & Billing
    • Manage Users
    • Community Profile
    • My Q&A
    • My Videos
    • Log Out

The Moz Q&A Forum

  • Forum
  • Questions
  • Users
  • Ask the Community

Welcome to the Q&A Forum

Browse the forum for helpful insights and fresh discussions about all things SEO.

  1. Home
  2. SEO Tactics
  3. On-Page Optimization
  4. Two URL's for the same page

Moz Q&A is closed.

After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.

Two URL's for the same page

On-Page Optimization
4
8
4.1k
Loading More Posts
  • Oldest to Newest
  • Newest to Oldest
  • Most Votes
Reply
  • Reply as question
Log in to reply
This topic has been deleted. Only users with question management privileges can see it.
  • Jaybeamer
    Jaybeamer last edited by May 19, 2014, 6:41 AM

    Hi, on our site we have two separate URL's for a page that has the same content. So, for example - 'www.domain.co.uk/stuff' and 'www.domain.co.uk/things/stuff' both have the same content on the page.

    We currently rank high in search for 'www.domain.co.uk/things/stuff' for our targeted keyword, but there are numerous links on the site to www.domain.co.uk/stuff and also potentially inbound links to this page. Ideally we want just the www.domain.co.uk/things/stuff URL to be present on the site, what would be the best course of action to take?

    Would a simple Canonical tag from the '/stuff' URL which points to the '/things/stuff' page be wise? If we were to scrap the '/stuff' URL totally and redirect it to the 'things/stuff' URL and change all our on site links, would this be beneficial and not harm our current ranking for '/things/stuff'?

    We only want 1 URL for this page for numerous reasons (i.e, easier to track in Analytics), but I'm a bit cautious that changing the page that doesn't rank may have an affect on the page that does rank!

    Thanks.

    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
    • Everett
      Everett @Jaybeamer last edited by May 26, 2014, 1:25 PM May 26, 2014, 1:25 PM

      Hello Julian,

      If you follow my advice above you should be fine.

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • Jaybeamer
        Jaybeamer last edited by May 20, 2014, 5:13 AM May 20, 2014, 5:13 AM

        Thank you for the long and detailed answer, theres some great advice there.

        Basically both URL's have the right keywords in, it's just the URL was changed a while back so both still remain on the site. The newer URL is the one that ranks high on Google, the old one doesn't appear at all. There is no need for the old one, it serves no purpose that the new one doesn't. So surely getting rid of the old one won't affect the new ones ranking?

        I see you put I should have full rankings back within 3-6 weeks, but there would be no reason why the URL that currently ranks high would lose any ranking surely?

        Thanks again.

        Everett 1 Reply Last reply May 26, 2014, 1:25 PM Reply Quote 0
        • Everett
          Everett last edited by May 19, 2014, 5:55 PM May 19, 2014, 5:52 PM

          I'm going to weigh in here with a slightly different opinion. I wouldn't just go with whichever one ranks best because I think he can do this without long-term damage to rankings and it would be best to go with whichever one he wants from a usability/branding perspective barring any major technological issues/costs.

          Though he didn't say why, he did say "Ideally we want just the www.domain.co.uk/things/stuff URL to be present on the site..." and I'm going to assume they have reasons for this.

          In that case, I'd follow this course of action:

          #1 Apply a rel = "canonical" tag to both pages and reference the /things/stuff URL as canonical. Make this an absolute path (i.e. include http://www.domain.com)

          #2 While waiting for search engines to see this tag go ahead and begin updating all internal links to /stuff/* and point them to /things/stuff* instead. You may need to do some mod URL rewrites to change the URLs used within the system. The point here is to change everything you can instead of relying on the redirects as a band-aid for a problem you can mostly fix.

          #2.5 Do not change the links in the XML sitemap yet. You want search engines to have a crawl-path to the old URLs for awhile longer so they can find their way back to the page and see the redirect faster than they would by relying on their database of URLs to randomly crawl.

          #3 Because there may be external links you do not have the ability to update, apply the 301 redirect from /stuff/* URLs to the counterpart /things/stuff* URLs.

          #3.5 Resubmit the old XML sitemap. Google may reject it because of the redirects, but it does usually spark a fresh crawl of the site.

          #4 Update the XML sitemap and submit with the new URLs.

          #5 Monitor closely. Keep an eye on new 404 errors, as you may have to add additional redirects that fell through the cracks. Crawl the site with Screaming Frog, looking for redirect loops, redirect chains, 301s that could be updated to link directly to the destination, 404 errors, 500 errors, non-canonical URLs... Keep an eye on rankings and traffic from search. If all went well you should have full rankings back within 3-6 weeks. If you do not have it back by 6 weeks you may have a technical issue to deal with that is out of the norm, in my experience. At that point I'd start taking a close look at log files with Splunk.

          Note: In this case I would NOT use Google's "URL Removal Tool" as it could possibly cause some of the external links from the URL you're removing to move over via the redirect to the new URL. The 301 and the fact that you are updating all internal links (and external links you have direct control of) to the new URL should get the old one out of the index in due time.

          Note: This advice is for moving from one directory to another with the exact same page and structure on the same domain. There are important differences between that and moving to a new domain, or redirecting to content that isn't an exact replica of that on the original URL.

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
          • David-Kley
            David-Kley last edited by May 19, 2014, 12:48 PM May 19, 2014, 12:48 PM

            Since you have links pointing at them both, I would just redirect the lower ranking one to the higher ranking one. 301

            The one that ranks better woud be the one I would keep. Sometimes redirects and url changes can take a while for search engines to find, even if you fetch as Google.

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • GPainter
              GPainter @Jaybeamer last edited by May 19, 2014, 10:08 AM May 19, 2014, 10:08 AM

              Hi,

              it wouldn't harm the page no, having said that for site navigation purposes it might be a bit confusing having 301 redirects all over the place instead of the tag. It may help but there is never a guarantee essentially the canonical tag works the same as a 301 for link juice so you can always give that a go first and if nothing happens then 301 it but its up to you.

              It comes down the the user would it benefit the user 301 or would it add to page load times or get confusing? If its a permanent site resign go for it though.

              it is just telling search engines "this (the page) is the new home/location of the page you're looking for" then they will update their records to reflect it - a bit like when you move house and tell the postman you moved.

              Good luck!

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
              • Jaybeamer
                Jaybeamer last edited by May 19, 2014, 9:29 AM May 19, 2014, 9:29 AM

                Thanks for your reply Chris. The thing is I don't need / want the page that isn't ranking in Google anymore, it serves no purpose other than to confuse things when looking at the Analytics! If I were to do a redirect from the page that doesn't rank to the page that does, that wouldn't harm the page that does rank would it?

                The page that doesn't rank is linked to from the main navigation, but the page that does rank isn't! Would I be right in thinking a redirect may actually help the page that does rank, even more?

                Thanks again.

                GPainter 1 Reply Last reply May 19, 2014, 10:08 AM Reply Quote 0
                • GPainter
                  GPainter last edited by May 19, 2014, 7:24 AM May 19, 2014, 7:24 AM

                  Hi there,

                  the canonical sounds perfect! Personally I tend to put it on the link closer to the homepage but its preference really logically make the page that's stronger to start with the "original". No need to scrap, the tag will let you keep your layout but give the SEO benefit to just one page.

                  in short canonical is the perfect match for your needs!

                  More info - https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/139066?hl=en

                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                  • 1 / 1
                  1 out of 8
                  • First post
                    1/8
                    Last post

                  Got a burning SEO question?

                  Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.


                  Start my free trial


                  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.

                  • See all categories

                  Related Questions

                  • viatrading1

                    URL Structure on Category Pages

                    Hi, Currently, we having the following URL Structure o our product pages: All Products Pages: www.viatrading.com/wholesale/283/All_Products.html Category Page: www.viatrading.com/wholesale/4/Clothing.html Product Page: www.viatrading.com/wholesale/product/LOAD-HE-WOM/Assorted-High-End-Women-Clothing-Lots.html?cid=4 Since we are going to use another frontend system, we are thinking about re-working on this URL Structure, using something like this: All Products Pages: www.viatrading.com/wholesale-products/ Category Page: www.viatrading.com/wholesale-products/category/ Product Page: www.viatrading.com/wholesale-products/category/product-title/ I understand this is better for SEO and user experience. However, we already have good traffic on the current URL Structure. Should we use same left-side filters on Category Pages as in All Products Page? Since we are using Faceted Navigation, when users filter the Category (e.g. Clothing) they will see same page as Clothing Category Page. Is that an issue for Duplicate Content? Since we are a wholesale company - I understand is using "/wholesale/products/" in URL for all product pages a good idea? If so, should we avoid word "wholesale" in product-title to avoid repeated word in URL? For us, SKU in URL helps the company employees and maybe some clients identify the link. However, what do you think of using the SEO-friendly product-title, and 301 redirect it to www.viatrading.com/BRTA-LN-DISHRACKS/, so 1st link is only used by company members and Canonicalized 2nd is the only one seen by general public? Thank you,

                    On-Page Optimization | Jan 9, 2017, 9:35 PM | viatrading1
                    0
                  • Aquatell

                    Why are http and https pages showing different domain/page authorities?

                    My website www.aquatell.com was recently moved to the Shopify platform.  We chose to use the http domain, because we didn't want to change too much, too quickly by moving to https.  Only our shopping cart is using https protocol.  We noticed however, that https versions of our non-cart pages were being indexed, so we created canonical tags to point the https version of a page to the http version.  What's got me puzzled though, is when I use open site explorer to look at domain/page authority values, I get different scores for the http vs. https version.  And the https version is always better.  Example:  http://www.aquatell.com DA = 21 and https://www.aquatell.com DA = 27.  Can somebody please help me make sense of this?  Thanks,

                    On-Page Optimization | Apr 1, 2016, 7:19 AM | Aquatell
                    1
                  • Luciana_BAH

                    Duplicate URL's in Sitemap? Is that a problem?

                    I submitted a sitemap to on Search Console - but noticed that there are duplicate URLs, is that a problem for Google?

                    On-Page Optimization | Mar 7, 2016, 8:59 PM | Luciana_BAH
                    0
                  • Webrevolve

                    Using phrases like 'NO 1' or 'Best' int he title tag

                    Hi All, Quick question - is it illegal, against any rule etc  to use phrases such as 'The No 1 rest of the title tag | Brand Name' on a site?

                    On-Page Optimization | May 16, 2013, 10:49 AM | Webrevolve
                    0
                  • Adam-Perlman

                    What's the best practice for handling duplicate content of product descriptions with a drop-shipper?

                    We write our own product descriptions for merchandise we sell on our website.  However, we also work with drop-shippers, and some of them simply take our content and post it on their site (same photos, exact ad copy, etc...).  I'm concerned that we'll loose the value of our content because Google will consider it duplicated. We don't want the value of our content undermined... What's the best practice for avoiding any problems with Google? Thanks, Adam

                    On-Page Optimization | Oct 25, 2012, 1:10 PM | Adam-Perlman
                    0
                  • VinceWicks

                    How to properly remove pages and a category from Google's index

                    I want to remove this category http://www.webdesign.org/web-design-news-all/ and all the pages in that category (e.g. http://www.webdesign.org/web-design-news-all/7386.html ) from Google's index. I used the following string in the "Reomval URS" section in Google Webmaster Tools: http://www.webdesign.org/web-design-news-all/* is that correct or I better use http://www.webdesign.org/web-design-news-all/ ? Thanks in advance.

                    On-Page Optimization | Sep 20, 2012, 9:43 AM | VinceWicks
                    0
                  • daveupton

                    Is there a SEO penalty for multi links on same page going to same destination page?

                    Hi, Just a quick note. I hope you are able to assist. To cut a long story short, on the page below http://www.bookbluemountains.com.au/ -> Features Specials & Packages (middle column) we have 3 links per special going to the same page.
                    1. Header is linked
                    2. Click on image link - currently with a no follow
                    3. 'More info' under the description paragraph is linked too - currently with a no follow Two arguments are as follows:
                    1. The reason we do not follow all 3 links is to reduce too many links which may appear spammy to Google. 2. Counter argument:
                    The point above has some validity, However, using no follow is basically telling the search engines that the webmaster “does not trust or doesn’t take responsibility” for what is behind the link, something you don’t want to do within your own website.   There is no penalty as such for having too many links, the search engines will generally not worry after a certain number.. nothing that would concern this business though.  I would suggest changing the no follow links a.s.a.p. Could you please advise thoughts. Many thanks Dave Upton [long signature removed by staff]

                    On-Page Optimization | Oct 8, 2011, 4:21 AM | daveupton
                    0
                  • CommercePundit

                    How to Define Best URL Structure for Product Pages?

                    I am working on my website to edit structure with help of Google's search engine optimization starter guide. There is really good instruction to define URL structure which help us to perform well over Google's organic search. I have resolved issues regarding category pages but, I have confusion to define best URL structure for product pages. My website's product page URL structure is as follow. http://www.vistastores.com/marketumbrellas-californiaumbrella-slpt758-f13-red.html http://www.vistastores.com/homefurniture-winsomewood-93630.html URL structure is constructed with following terms. 1. Root Category Name (Market Umbrellas or Home Furniture or ....) 2. Brand Name 3. Manufacturer Part Number I am not happy with this structure and also not performing well over Google's organic search. I am thinking to include product name or title tag in URL after root domain. But, it may create very long URL and create issues in organic search display. Does it really matter to perform well over Google's organic search? How can I define best URL structure for product pages?

                    On-Page Optimization | Jul 2, 2012, 8:36 AM | CommercePundit
                    0

                  Get started with Moz Pro!

                  Unlock the power of advanced SEO tools and data-driven insights.

                  Start my free trial
                  Products
                  • Moz Pro
                  • Moz Local
                  • Moz API
                  • Moz Data
                  • STAT
                  • Product Updates
                  Moz Solutions
                  • SMB Solutions
                  • Agency Solutions
                  • Enterprise Solutions
                  • Digital Marketers
                  Free SEO Tools
                  • Domain Authority Checker
                  • Link Explorer
                  • Keyword Explorer
                  • Competitive Research
                  • Brand Authority Checker
                  • Local Citation Checker
                  • MozBar Extension
                  • MozCast
                  Resources
                  • Blog
                  • SEO Learning Center
                  • Help Hub
                  • Beginner's Guide to SEO
                  • How-to Guides
                  • Moz Academy
                  • API Docs
                  About Moz
                  • About
                  • Team
                  • Careers
                  • Contact
                  Why Moz
                  • Case Studies
                  • Testimonials
                  Get Involved
                  • Become an Affiliate
                  • MozCon
                  • Webinars
                  • Practical Marketer Series
                  • MozPod
                  Connect with us

                  Contact the Help team

                  Join our newsletter
                  Moz logo
                  © 2021 - 2025 SEOMoz, Inc., a Ziff Davis company. All rights reserved. Moz is a registered trademark of SEOMoz, Inc.
                  • Accessibility
                  • Terms of Use
                  • Privacy

                  Looks like your connection to Moz was lost, please wait while we try to reconnect.