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
-
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.
-
Hello Julian,
If you follow my advice above you should be fine.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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!
-
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.
-
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
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
-
Shifting target keyword to a new page, how do we rank the internal page?
I have been targeting one keyword for home page that was ranking between the postilion 6-7 but was never ranking on 1st as there were 2 highly competitive keywords targeted on the same page, I changed the keyword to an internal service page to rank it on 1st, I have optimized the content as well but the home page is still ranking on 11th, how do I get the internal page rank on that keyword
On-Page Optimization | Sep 12, 2019, 10:51 AM | GOMO-Gabriel0 -
Is it better to keep a glossary or terms on one page or break it up into multiple pages?
We have a very large glossary of over 1000 industry terms on our site with links to reference material, embedded video, etc. Is it better for SEO purposes to keep this on one page or should we break it up into multiple pages, a different page for each letter for example? Thanks.
On-Page Optimization | Dec 14, 2016, 2:14 PM | KenW0 -
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 | Aquatell1 -
Hiding body copy with a 'read more' drop down option
Hi I just want to confirm how potentially damaging using java script to hide lots of on page body copy with a 'read more' button is ? As per other moz Q&A threads i was told that best not to use Javascript to do this & instead "if you accomplish this with CSS and collapsible/expandable <DIV> tags it's totally fine" so thats what i advised my clients dev. However i recently noticed a big drop in rankings aprox 1 weeks after dev changing the body copy format (hiding alot of it behind a 'read more' button) so i asked them to confirm how they did implement it and they said: "done in javascript but on page load the text is defaulting to show" (which is contrary to my instructions) So how likely is it that this is causing problems ? since coincides with ranking drop OR if text is defaulting to show it should be ok/not cause probs ? And should i request that they redo as originally instructed (css & collapsible divs) asap ? All Best Dan
On-Page Optimization | Nov 25, 2014, 10:25 AM | Dan-Lawrence0 -
Will "internal 301s" have any effect on page rank or the way in which an SE see's our site interlinking?
We've been forced (for scalability) to completely restructure our website in terms of setting out a hierarchy. For example - the old structure : country / city / city area Where we had about 3500 nicely interlinked pages for relevant things like taxis, hotels, apartments etc in that city : We needed to change the structure to be : country / region / area / city / cityarea So as patr of the change we put in place lots of 301s for the permanent movement of pages to the new structure and then we tried to actually change the physical on-page links too. Unfortunately we have left a good 600 or 700 links that point to the old pages, but are picked up by the 301 redirect on page, so we're slowly going through them to ensure the links go to the new location directly (not via the 301). So my question is (sorry for long waffle) : Whilst it must surely be "best practice" for all on-page links to go directly to the 'right' page, are we harming our own interlinking and even 'page rank' by being tardy in working through them manually? Thanks for any help anyone can give.
On-Page Optimization | Sep 6, 2013, 10:50 AM | TinkyWinky0 -
Canonical URL, cornerstone page and categories
If I want to have a cornerstone "page", can I substitute an actual page with a category archive of posts "page" (that contains many posts containing the target key phrase)? This way, if I make blog posts about a certain topic/ key phrase (example "beach weddings") and add a canonical URL of the category archive page to the individual posts, am I right then to assume google will see the archive page as the cornerstone page (and thereby won't see the individual posts with the same key phrase as competing)?
On-Page Optimization | Aug 10, 2013, 2:24 PM | stephanwb0 -
Missing meta descriptions on indexed pages, portfolio, tags, author and archive pages. I am using SEO all in one, any advice?
I am having a few problems that I can't seem to work out.....I am fairly new to this and can't seem to work out the following: Any help would be greatly appreciated 🙂 1. I am missing alot of meta description tags. I have installed "All in One SEO" but there seems to be no options to add meta descriptions in portfolio posts. I have also written meta descriptions for 'tags' and whilst I can see them in WP they don't seem to be activated. 2. The blog has pages indexed by WP- called Part 2 (/page/2), Part 3 (/page/3) etc. How do I solve this issue of meta descriptions and indexed pages? 3. There is also a page for myself, the author, that has multiple indexes for all the blog posts I have written, and I can't edit these archives to add meta descriptions. This also applies to the month archives for the blog. 4. Also, SEOmoz tells me that I have too many links on my blog page (also indexed) and their consequent tags. This also applies to the author pages (myself ). How do I fix this? Thanks for your help 🙂 Regards Nadia
On-Page Optimization | Feb 28, 2012, 7:46 PM | PHDAustralia680 -
Page title getting cut off in SERPS even though it's under 70 characters?
I re-wrote the page title of a home page for a site I'm working on and made sure it's under 70 characters (68 to be exact) to comply with best practices and make sure it doesn't get cut-off in the SERPS. It's still getting cut-off though and right when it gets to the brand/website name. Does a "-" have anything to do with it? Does that translate to an elipsis? Format: keywords - website/brand.com Can anybody tell me why this would be happening?
On-Page Optimization | Sep 15, 2011, 1:16 PM | MichaelWeisbaum0