Canonicalization
-
Having been a member of SEOmoz Pro tools for only a couple of months, I'm now at a point where there are certain issues with our recently overhauled site:
On my latest "Open Site Explorer Report" I am seeing a number of external links going to the HTTP://Domainname.com and a number pointing at HTTP://wwwDomainname.com.
This only appears when I pull the report from the Root Domain. If I pull a report from the Sub-domain all URL's are the same.
Does this matter too much?
Would best practice be to put a rel=canonical on the Non www ?
Thanks for any help in advance
Sean
-
Well, thats what this q&a is for, isn't it?
Glad I could help
-
Wow, Thanks Thomas. I wasn't quite expecting such a thorough and precise answer so quickly.
Many Thanks for your expertise, greatly appreciated
Sean
-
The Rel canonical tag is always a good thing to implement. My preferred solution is to do a .htaccess 301 redirect from non-www to www by this code:
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^domain.com [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.domain.com/$1 [L,R=301]By doing the 301, all users are sent to www url. This means all future links to your site will be to the same URL. Hereby, you avoid the small link juice loss which occurs whenever you use the rel cnonical url to direct from non-www to www (or the other way around).
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
-
Should I canonicalize URLs with no query params even though query params are always automatically appended?
There's a section of my client's website that presents quarterly government financial data. Users can filter results to see different years and quarters of financial info. If a user navigates to those pages, the URLs automatically append the latest query parameters. It's not a redirect...when I asked a developer what the mechanism was for this happening, he said "magic." He honestly didn't know how to describe it. So my question is, is it ok to canonicalize the URL without any query parameters, knowing that the user will always be served a page that does have query parameters? I need to figure out how to manage all of the various versions of these URLs.
Technical SEO | | LeahH0 -
Canonicalize or Block?
Hi Mozers, We have staff profile pages w/ one main URL and then URLs with query parameters and jump links to take you to different parts of the page. The longer URLs with parameters canonicalize to the main pages but should they also be nonidexed? Thanks, Yael
Technical SEO | | yaelslater0 -
Do I still need to fix duplicate titles even though they have canonicalized?
Well, what can I say question is on the title 😛
Technical SEO | | atakala
Do I still need to fix duplicate titles even though they have canonicalized?
Thank you mozzers.
I LOVE u guyz.0 -
How to do ip canonicalization ?
Hi , my website is opening with IP too. i think its duplicate content for google...only home page is opening with ip, no other pages, how can i fix it?, might be using .htaccess i am able to do...but don't know proper code for this...this website is on wordpress platform... Thanks Ramesh
Technical SEO | | unibiz0 -
Duplicate Content: Canonicalization vs. Redirects
Hi all, I have a client that I recently started working with whose site was built with the following structure: domain.com
Technical SEO | | marisolmarketing
domain.com/default.asp Essentially, there is a /default.asp version of every single page on the site. That said, I'm trying to figure out the easiest/most efficient way to fix all the /default.asp pages...whether that be 301 redirecting them to the .com version, adding a canonical tag to every .asp page, or simply NOINDEXing the .asp pages. I've seen a few other questions on here that are similar, but none that really say which would be the easiest way to accomplish this without going through every single page... Thanks in advance!0 -
Canonicalization Issue?
Good day! I am not sure if my company has a Canonicalization issue? When typing in www.cushingco.com the site redirects to http://www.cushingco.com/index.shtml A visitor can also type in http://cushingco.com/index.shtml into a web browser and land on our homepage (and the url will be http://www.cushingco.com/index.shtml) A majority of websites that link to our company point to: http://www.cushingco.com/index.shtml We are in the process of cleaning up citations and pulling together a content marketing strategy/editorial calendar. I want to be sure folks interested in linking to us have the right url. Please ask me any questions to help narrow down what we might be doing incorrectly. Thanks in advance!! Jon
Technical SEO | | SEOSponge0 -
Internal file extension canonicalization
Ok no doubt this is straightforward, however seem to be finding to hard to find a simple answer; our websites' internal pages have the extension .html. Trying to the navigate to that internal url without the .html extension results in a 404. The question is; should a 401 be used to direct to the extension-less url to future proof? and should internal links direct to the extension-less url for the same reason? Hopefully that makes sense and apologies for what I believe is a straightforward answer;
Technical SEO | | jg1000 -
Considering redirecting or canonicalization - Best Practice
Hi, I'm having a techinical problem and I would like advise on the effects this is having on my SEO efforts. My old site www.oldsiteexample.com (live for about 8 years) Directs to my new site www.example.com which is fine BUT When I type me new website into the tool bar both sides are found & do not direct to one domain; www.example.com & example.com (both the same site) What is the best practice here? Direct my new non www to my new www site considering my old website directs to the www. Advise & the SEO affects this is having my website would be greatly appreciated, thank you.
Technical SEO | | Socialdude0