What's the best SEO tactics when you have a dedicated web address pointing to a page on a different site?
-
Hope someone can help with a question I've got about sorting out some duplicate content issues.
To simplify the question, imagine there is a website a.com which has a page a.com/newslettersignup. In addition to the a.com domain, there is also a different web address, ashortcut.com, which points to a.com/newslettersignup.
ashortcut.com is the web address that is advertised in marketing material etc.
So what is the best way then to tell Google etc. that ashortcut.com is the preferred URL for the page which sits at a.com/newslettersignup?
The advice I've read about the canonical tag, for example, doesn't cover this exact scenario so although it can support cross-domain information, I'm not sure if that's the best route to follow.
Thanks!
-
Cheers Nick. It's more the SEO benefit rather than the stats that I'm interested in, but that's a handy reminder to bear in mind stats too!
-
Thanks Antonio. In this case. ashortcut.com has keywords in its domain name whilst a.com doesn't, so that's a shame but good to know there's nothing that can be done.
-
Hi Mark,
You could use a canonical tag on the shortcut URL but what I would really suggest you do is redirect the shortcut with a tracking parameter. This way all your traffic stays on your main site but you can still track your marketing efforts.
example: ashortcut.com --> 301 redirects --> a.com/newslettersignup?ashortscut.com
just make sure that the a.com/newslettersignup URL self canonicals so that any parameter based URLs don't get indexed as duplicate content.
-
If I understood, ashortcut.com always redirect to some a.com page. If this is correct, unfortunatelly Google will rank a.com page instead ashortcut.com, as the ashortcut.com page is a redirection pointing to a.com/newslettersignup.
If ashortcut.com isn't a redirection and you just duplicated the pages, yes, the option would be a rel canonical tag on both pages pointing to ashortcut.com. You should determine which domain/page has more relevancy from an SEO POV, so using Open Site Explorer from Moz will be helpful (maybe ashortcut.com doesn't have more Page Authority than a.com/newslettersignup
Let me know if I miss something.
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
-
Keyword ranking for different page than the page optimized
I have optimized "equipment trailer for rent" on this page: http://www.bigtrailerrentals.com/flatbed-trailer-rentals/equipment-deckover. I'm wondering if anyone can tell me why Google has chosen to rank the keyword phrase for this page: http://www.bigtrailerrentals.com/flatbed-trailer-rentals/equipment-24 This is just one example. It has happened on several of my pages / keywords.
On-Page Optimization | | BigTrailerRentals0 -
Does no-follow for pages affect site ranking?
Hey, I have a question. On my site, it's divided into the main site and the blog is in a subfolder of same domain. Within the main site (same domain), there are MANY checkout pages and other internal pages we use though all with "NO FOLLOW" on each. Despite it having "NO FOLLOW", will it affect our blog rankings in any way or domain ranking?"
On-Page Optimization | | Mirian0 -
PDF's - Dupe Content
Hi I have some pdfs linked to from a page with little content. Hence thinking best to extract the copy from the pdf and have on-page as body text, and the pdf will still be linked too. Will this count as dupe content ? Or is it best to use a pdf plugin so page opens pdf automatically and hence gives page content that way ? Cheers Dan
On-Page Optimization | | Dan-Lawrence0 -
SEO and multilanguage site
Hi all! I have used a wordpress plugin called WPML which translates a webpage into another language so that I have a webpage in two different languages (spanish (main market) and english). I'm just doing the seo for the spanish market and I'm gonna start with the seo for the english one. Should I do it just the same as I had a one-single-language page? just with english keywords, etc. I guessit would only differ in the way I do the linkbuilding strategy as the markets are different Thanks
On-Page Optimization | | juanmiguelcr0 -
Different pages for OS's vs 1 Page with Dynamic Content (user agent), what's the right approach?
We are creating a new homepage and the product are at different stages of development for different OS's. The value prop/messaging/some target keywords will be different for the various OS's for that reason. Question is, for SEO reasons, is it better to separate them into different pages or use 1 page and flip different content in based on the user agent?
On-Page Optimization | | JoeLin0 -
Pages that show in Open Site Explorer that show as 404's in search
When I use Site Explorer to find our Top Pages there are a whole series of pages like this: http://www.nile-cruises-4u.co.uk/mybestbets/mybestbets-culture.html which I think were created when we had a Bulletin Board on the site. Although they are showing in the Top Pages results when you visit the page you get the following error message: HTTP Error 404.0 - Not Found The resource you are looking for has been removed, had its name changed, or is temporarily unavailable. What implications result from these pages still showing in results and what action should we take without messing up our search rankings? Any advice would be gratefully received.
On-Page Optimization | | NileCruises0 -
Is there a report in SEOMoz that will show me what keywords each page ranks for on my site?
I would like to find all of the keywords not just the keywords that I specified in the tracking section.
On-Page Optimization | | Court_H0 -
Should H1s be used in the logo? If they are and it is dynamic on each page to relate to the page content, is this detrimental to the site rather than having it in the page content?
On some sites, the H1 is contained within the logo and remains consistent throughout the site (i.e. the company name is in the of the logo). If the h1 in a logo is dynamic for each page (i.e. on the homepage it is company name - homepage) is this better or worse to have it changed out on the logo rather than having it in the page content?
On-Page Optimization | | CabbageTree0