No-index or 301 - custom wordpress archives
-
Hi,
We are using custom wordpresss posts to showcase different services we provide, these are then grouped within custom archives. These custom archive pages are our main keyword landing pages and traffic generators (although ranking is fairly average).
It's come to my attention that these custom posts have also been listed in the wordpress standard categories, with an identical title, excerpts and near identical urls as the custom archives. This appears to have been the case for quite a while. We are concerned that this is may causing duplicate content issues and unsure how to proceed.
We have been advised to simply no-index the redundant 'standard' categories but as they have been indexed for some time we are cautious of causing any upset with search engines (although the categories are indexed they are not ranking for any major keywords)
Are we best 301ing the redundant category to the custom archives or using a canonical tags or simply no-indexing the categories like other archive pages?
Any advice is aprreciated
Many thanks
BC
-
Hi Laura, thank you very much for the advice.
No we don't need users to access the redundant categories, there is no unique content on them. I can arrange to have the 301 put in place
Thanks
-
Do you want users to be able to access the blog category URLs that were inadvertently created?
If so, use canonical tags. Users will be able to access both URLs, but Google will fold them together in the search index.
If not, use 301-redirects. Users will be redirected to the custom archives.
Either way, Google will eventually remove the blog category URL from the index and any link equity from backlinks will flow to the correct URL.
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
-
Pages Not Showing Up In Search After Being Indexed....
Hello, I'm trying optimize my google search for local business in Fort Myers, FL area. I've created specific keywords that people are searching and have made my page title and on-page experience reflect this relevency. However, the page isn't appearing anywhere on google search even though search console has stated that the page has been indexed. My question is, how do I trouble shoot this so that I can appear in local search for these search terms?
On-Page Optimization | | scottgray06200 -
Tracking down rel="canonical" on Wordpress site
A rel="canonical" is being added to every page and post on my Wordpress site - not tag results, not category results. Not a major problem, right? Except that I don't know where it's coming from. I've tried tracking it down - change the theme back to a default one, turn off all the plugins - it's still there. Is it coming from .htaccess perhaps? The only issue it is causing is that it has causes me to have to turn off the canonical option in Platinum SEO as that was resulting in two identical rel=canon on each page. It doesn't seem to be causing problem but I'd like to get a better understanding of what it going on.
On-Page Optimization | | robandsarahgillespie0 -
Can lost pages be redirected with a 301 in order to do not lost keyword rankings?
Hi, I have got a website and some posts rank well, but I am not so interested in keep them for branding reasons. So I planned to do 301 redirects to home and remove those contents. Is it ok? Thanks!
On-Page Optimization | | patrizia_h0 -
Why my website some pages is not index in google ?
Hi, I have submitted my pages in Google fetch for consideration tool but they are not indexed yet in the Google search. Additionally, there is also no error shown by the Google.
On-Page Optimization | | seo.kishore890 -
301 rediects - weird characters
Hi, Just cleaning up some 404 errors in my site in GWT and noticed a couple of external links pointing at me that are wrong. Basically they are from a couple of DIY forum sites (I've not put these links in place myself they are 100% natural) and it appears that the owners of the forums amend the links (inserting characters into link) so they are not quite right. How would I go about redirecting the following - www.example.co.uk/blueberry_pie.htm Whatever I try doesn't work and I always end up with a 404! Cheers
On-Page Optimization | | Jon-C
J0 -
Adding Google Authorship To Wordpress Category Pages
How can I add google authorship to my wordpress category pages? I use the 'google author link' plugin which adds it to posts and pages but not categories?
On-Page Optimization | | SamCUK0 -
Why some pages are not indexed?
I have a furniture´s ecommerce. When searching for "site: movstore.com.br" returned 1080 results, but if I search for "site: movstore.com.br / Product" returned 1020 results. I mean, that 1080 indexed pages, 1020 are products pages and the other 60 pages are irrelevant. Where are the category pages? "site: movstore.com.br / Categories" - 0 results
On-Page Optimization | | maisempresas
"site: movstore.com.br / Departments" - 0 results
"site: movstore.com.br / Marks" - 0 results What might be happening?0 -
Getting pages indexed by Google
Hi SEOMoz, I relaunched a site back in February of this year (www.uniquip.com) with about 1 million URL's. Right now I'm seeing that Google is not going past 110k indexed URL's (based on sitemaps). Do you have any tips on what I can do to make the site more likeable by Google and get more indexed URL's? All the the part pages can be browsed to by going to: http://www.uniquip.com/product-line-card/suppliers/sw-a/p-1 I've tried to make the content as unique as possible by adding random testimonials and random "related part numbers" see here: http://www.uniquip.com/id/246172/electronic-components/infineon/microcontrollers-mcu/sabc161pilfca Do I need to wait more time and be more patient with Google? It just seems like I'm only getting a few thousand URL's per day at the most. Would it help me if I implemented a breadcrumb on all part pages? Thanks, -Carlos
On-Page Optimization | | caneja0