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.
Adding Rel Canonical to multiple pages
-
Hi,
Our CMS generates a lot of duplicate content, (Different versions of every page for 3 different font sizes). There are many other reasons why we should drop this current CMS and go with something else, and we are in the process of doing that. But for now, does anyone know how would I do the following:
I've created a spreadsheet that contains the following:
Column 1: rel="canonical" tag for URL
Column 2: Duplicate Content URL # 1
Column 3: Duplicate Content URL # 2
Column 4: Duplicate Content URL # 3
I want to add the tag from column 1 into the head of every page from column 2,3, and 4.
What would be a fast way to do this considering that I have around 1800 rows.
Check the screenshot of the builtwith.com result to see more information about the website if that helps.
Farris
-
Yeah, wish I could give you a simpler answer, but I'm afraid it might end up being a little tricky. Hit the biggest problems first, and at least you can manage time/money a bit. The one bright side is that the rules should be no harder to code in ColdFusion than anything else (PHP, ASP, whatever). It's just the core logic that's tricky.
-
That's what I thought. I need to find someone in the company who knows cold fusion and go through it.
Thanks for your help though. I appreciate it.
Farris
-
Unfortunately, the rules may differ from page to page and will be entirely dependent on how your pages are generated. If it's just a matter of the "index.cfm" version vs. root ("/") versions of pages, those canonical should be straightforward. For the other parameters, though (like "i", "fs", etc.), it depends entirely on the function of those parameters.
I know ColdFusion reasonably well, and even given that, I couldn't give you a one-size-fits-all rule that would solve the problem. It really has to be guided by your site structure and code/data logic. Personally, I'd start with the pattern that generates the most problems and solve that one first. In other words, if one template (like "/press-releases") generates dozens or hundreds of duplicates, deal with that first. If you solve the top 3-4 problems, you may clean up quite a bit. That could be more effective than trying to fix everything at once.
-
Here's a spreadsheet sample. I did what Roberto suggested. I have a column with the ready for every duplicate content URL.
The site is dynamic. That was the main problem I was facing, I'm not sure how to set the canonicals on each page without having to go into the html and copy the tag from the spreadsheet to the manually.
I added the screenshot of builtwith.com in the main question hoping it would give anyone insight as to how I would code rules to set the canonicals.
-
Could you provide an approximate example that matches your real situation (a fake domain is fine, but with the same basic format)? This is a situation where fake examples that don't match the real situation probably won't help us (or you) much.
Once you have the spreadsheet, how are you going to translate that into tags? If this is a dynamic site, it would be better to be able to code rules to set the canonicals - and potentially much easier.
-
Following the same concept:
- Create a column (Column E) with the following information "then another column (Column F) with ""/>"
- In column G enter the following formula: =CONCATENATE(E1,Cell of Duplicate URL, F3).
The end result will have Column A with the Domain in it. Follow steps 6 & 7 to complete the process.
Feel free to send me a sample spreadsheet with some info and I can set it up for you.
-
Roberto, Thank you for your answer. I just realized that I was unclear when I asked the question. I already have the link containing the canonical tag for each of the URLs ready. That is what column A already contains. I need to add that into the section of the pages in column 2,3, and 4. I'm just unsure how to do this for 1800 rows each containing the correct URL in column A, and in column 2,3, and 4 the URLs of the duplicate content pages that need the link added to the section. Check the image below to see what I mean. I appreciate the effort though Farris
-
Farris,
This is the way I would do it.
You have the following columns created:
- Column A: "canonical" tag for UR
- Column B: Duplicate Content URL # 1
- Column
Duplicate Content URL # 2
- Column
Duplicate Content URL # 1
Follow the next steps:
- Create three more columns with to duplicate columns B, C, D
- Use the following formula on column B "**=CONCATENATE(A1,B1)" **
- Copy the same formula for columns C & D
- Replace the “B1” in your formula for the respective columns (i.e. Column C should have C1.)
- Copy & Paste the content of columns E, F, G (The copied columns with formulas) to all the rows.
- Once copied, the information in columns E, F, G should look like the end result that you want.
- if data is correct, copy columns E, F, G and paste in the same location but use Paste Special and paste values only. This will remove your formulas.
I hope this helps.
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
-
Canonical tag use for ecommerce product page detail
Hi, I have a category page I want to rank. This page has 24 different products quite similar but not exactly the same.
Technical SEO | | amastone
I want to use canonical tag in any product to the parent category.
Is this a right use of the canonical?
Category page I'm talking about is : Finger bits If I understand how to use canonical tags I can improve all my category pages. thanks marco0 -
Canonical for duplicate pages in ecommerce site and the product out of stock
I’m an SEO for an ecommerce site that sells shoes I have duplicate pages for different colors of the same product (unique URL for each color), Conventionally I have added canonical tags for each page, which direct to a specific product URL My question is what happens when a product which the googlbot is direct to, is out of stock but is still listed in the canonical tag ?
Technical SEO | | shoesonline0 -
Rel=canonical on Godaddy Website builder
Hey crew! First off this is a last resort asking this question here. Godaddy has not been able to help so I need my Moz Fam on this one. So common problem My crawl report is showing I have duplicate home pages www.answer2cancer.org and www.answer2cancer.org/home.html I understand this is a common issue with apache webservers which is why the wonderful rel=canonical tag was created! I don't want to go through the hassle of a 301 redirect of course for such a simple issue. Now here's the issue. Godaddy website builder does not make any sense to me. In wordpress I could just go add the tag to the head in the back end. But no such thing exist in godaddy. You have to do this weird drag and drop html block and drag it somewhere on the site and plug in the code. I think putting before the code instead of just putting it in there. So I did that but when I publish and inspect in chrome I cannot see the tag in the head! This is confusing I know. the guy at godaddy didn't stand a chance lol. Anyway much love for any replies!
Technical SEO | | Answer2cancer0 -
When creating parent and child pages should key words be repeated in url and page title?
We are in the direct mail advertising business: PrintLabelAndMail.com Example: Parent:
Technical SEO | | JimDirectMailCoach
Postcard Direct Mail Children:
Postcard Mailings
Postcard Design
Postcard Samples
Postcard Pricing
Postcard Advantages should "postcard" be repeated in the URL and Page Title? and in this example should each of the 5 children link back directly to the parent or would it be better to "daisy chain" them using each as parent for the next?0 -
Use webmaster tools "change of address" when doing rel=canonical
We are doing a "soft migration" of a website. (Actually it is a merger of two websites). We are doing cross site rel=canonical tags instead of 301's for the first 60-90 days. These have been done on a page by page basis for an entire site. Google states that a "change of address" should be done in webmaster tools for a site migration with 301's. Should this also be done when we are doing this soft move?
Technical SEO | | EugeneF0 -
Do I need to add canonical link tags to pages that I promote & track w/ UTM tags?
New to SEOmoz, loving it so far. I promote content on my site a lot and am diligent about using UTM tags to track conversions & attribute data properly. I was reading earlier about the use of link rel=canonical in the case of duplicate page content and can't find a conclusive answer whether or not I need to add the canonical tag to these pages. Do I need the canonical tag in this case? If so, can the canonical tag live in the HEAD section of the original / base page itself as well as any other URLs that call that content (that have UTM tags, etc)? Thank you.
Technical SEO | | askotzko1 -
Should there be a canonical tag on my 404 error page?
In my crawl diagnostics, I notice some 4xx client errors. They are appearing for pages that no longer exist, so I'm not sure what the problem is. Shouldn't they just be dealt as 404's? Anyway, on closer inspection I noticed that my 404 error page contains a canonical tag which points to the missing page. Could this be the issue? Is it a good idea to remove the canonical tag from this error page? Thanks.
Technical SEO | | Leighm0 -
What SEO considerations for multiple languages on a single page?
I am working on a language teaching site for Chinese speakers learning English. I consider myself above average when it comes to basic SEO issues, but all I know here is that Google doesn't like multiple languages on a single page. Without getting into too many details, both Chinese and English text will appear on the same page with links, tags, phonetic spellings, etc. I'm hoping someone here knows the science about using the lang="zh" xml:lang="zh" attributes within text and the effects on ranking for text within the declarations. And it'd be great if there was clarification on the link juice passed using the hreflang attribute for both internal and external links. Also, of course, any info on using both English and Chinese characters in the URL would be most helpful. A heads up on any other language specific SEO issues would also be much appreciated. My goal is to get the most out of both languages per page in terms of ranking.
Technical SEO | | kwoolf0