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  4. Diagnosing Canonical Errors Is Screaming frog reliable?

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Diagnosing Canonical Errors Is Screaming frog reliable?

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  • Nightwing
    Nightwing last edited by Aug 8, 2012, 5:26 AM

    Morning from suny & warm wetherby UK 🙂

    On this page http://www.goldsboroughestates.co.uk/how-we-care-for-you/right-to-manage/ screaming frog is citing a canonical error but I'm confused as this piece of code is in place:

    http://www.goldsboroughestates.co.uk/About/right-to-manage" />

    So my question is please - "Does this page  http://www.goldsboroughestates.co.uk/how-we-care-for-you/right-to-manage/ have a caninical error or is screaming frog useless?

    Other examples where screaming frog is picking up canonical errors include:
    http://www.goldsboroughestates.co.uk/what-our-customers-say/right-to-manage/
    http://www.goldsboroughestates.co.uk/buying-a-home/right-to-manage/

    Oh forgot to say the preffered version is http://www.goldsboroughestates.co.uk/About/right-to-manage/

    Any insights welcvome 🙂

    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
    • Keszi
      Keszi @Nightwing last edited by Dec 5, 2012, 6:57 PM Dec 5, 2012, 6:57 PM

      Hey,

      Long time since the Question, I was just wondering if you worked it out or not.

      Gr.,

      Istvan

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • topic:timeago_earlier,3 months
      • Dr-Pete
        Dr-Pete Staff @Nightwing last edited by Sep 13, 2012, 5:44 PM Sep 13, 2012, 5:44 PM

        I think Screaming Frog is just warning you that the canonical version doesn't seem to match the display URL. They can't really tell (we have the same problem in SEOmoz tools) what the "right" canonical is - they can just warn of a mismatch.

        I'm a bit confused as to the purpose of the dual URLs here. The best canonical implementation is to use one URL. The canonical tag can act as a band-aid, but  consistency is still the best defense. Having multiple paths to the same page is rarely beneficial.

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • Nightwing
          Nightwing @Nightwing last edited by Sep 13, 2012, 12:48 PM Sep 13, 2012, 12:48 PM

          Having spoke to oiur internal helpdesk (Who I trust & do know what theyre talking about) theyve taken a look at:

          http://www.goldsboroughestates.co.uk/footer-links/left/right-to-manage/

          http://www.goldsboroughestates.co.uk/how-we-care-for-you/right-to-manage/

          http://www.goldsboroughestates.co.uk/buying-a-home/right-to-manage/

          http://www.goldsboroughestates.co.uk/what-our-customers-say/right-to-manage/

          and I'm afraid they have a different perspective which is they see no canonical problem 😞 Hey ho think I'll just set my head on fire then maybe things will be more clearer 😉

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • Nightwing
            Nightwing @Nightwing last edited by Sep 13, 2012, 12:14 PM Sep 13, 2012, 12:14 PM

            Hi Istvan - your advice is good but ive just discovered its not been implemented! Time to kick some ass, I'll update you 🙂

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • topic:timeago_earlier,about a month
            • Keszi
              Keszi @Nightwing last edited by Aug 10, 2012, 5:49 AM Aug 10, 2012, 5:49 AM

              Hey,

              Any news on how it went? I am curious if that was the problem or not. 🙂

              Gr.,

              Istvan

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • Keszi
                Keszi @Nightwing last edited by Aug 8, 2012, 2:29 PM Aug 8, 2012, 2:29 PM

                Hey,

                Maybe this helps you a littlebit: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/an-seos-guide-to-http-status-codes

                Dr. Pete's article explains well how the status codes work.

                Gr.,

                Istvan

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote -1
                • Nightwing
                  Nightwing @Keszi last edited by Aug 8, 2012, 11:17 AM Aug 8, 2012, 11:17 AM

                  Wow great anser, I'm on to this now & will updat you with how things went 🙂

                  Keszi Nightwing Dr-Pete 6 Replies Last reply Dec 5, 2012, 6:57 PM Reply Quote 0
                  • Keszi
                    Keszi last edited by Aug 10, 2012, 3:13 PM Aug 8, 2012, 7:39 AM

                    Hey there!

                    I think I have found what your problem is with you canonical link 🙂

                    In your code you have:

                    And probably you are somewhere forcing the URls to have a / at the end.

                    So basically you are confusing browsers and search engine bots, because they now cannot tell which is the real version:

                    SE enters the page. Then it sees that the right version should be the one WITHOUT a "/" at the end, then that pages has a 301 redirect to the version which HAS a "/" at the end of the URL (but that has a canonical which points out that the preffered version should be ). So it is a non-ending circle.

                    So if you add a / to the end of your URl, your problem should be solved.

                    Final thought: Screaming Frog is working well.

                    I hope this was a solution.

                    Cheers,

                    Istvan

                    Nightwing 1 Reply Last reply Aug 8, 2012, 11:17 AM Reply Quote 2
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