Canonical: Same content but different countries
-
I'm building a website that has content made for specific countries. The url format is:
MyWebsite.com/<country name="">/</country>
Some of the pages for <specific url="">are the same for different countries, the <specific url="">would be the same as well. The only difference would be the <country name="">.</country></specific></specific>
How do I deal with canonical issues to avoid Google thinking I'm presenting the same content?
-
In response to your second question, it's fine to have /usa/ although /us/ or /en/ would be a more typical deployment (lots of people go like, /en-us/ and /en-gb/ as that structure allows for really granular international deployment!)
As long as the hreflangs are accurate and tell Google what language and region the URLs are for, as long as the hreflangs are deployed symmetrically with no conflicts or missing parts - it should be ok
Note that Google will expect to see different content on different regional URLs, sometimes even if they're the same language but targeted at different countries (tailor your content to your audience, don't just cut and paste sites and change tags and expect extra footprint). Stuff like shipping info and prices (currency shown) should also be different (otherwise don't even bother!)
Your hreflangs, if you are doing USA as your EN country, should not use 'en-gb' in the hreflang (instead they should use 'en-us')
If you're thing God the HTML implementation will make the code bloated and messy, read this:
https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/189077?hl=en
There are also HTTP header and XML sitemap deployment options (though IMO, HTML is always best and is the hardest, strongest signal)
-
Yep every page should reference every language, including its own language. but obviously with different URLs in the link fields, as different pages should have different regional equivalents (hope that makes sense)
-
Thank you, so if I had approximately 30 different countries, then I would reference all 30 different country URLs?
-
Basically the canonical tags should self reference, so long as they are also supported by hreflangs.
So for example if you had these two URLs:
... then on site.com/en/category/product you'd need:
**... and on site.com/fr/category/product you'd need:**
It's pretty simple really! Remember, only canonical URLs (usually not parameter-based child URLs) should self-reference with a canonical tag. Remember that Hreflangs need to be mutually agreed between pages for them to work (so if the FR page links to the EN page with a hreflang, but there's no hreflang coming back - it fails!) - Keep hreflangs simple and exactly symmetrical
-
Hi, newbguy,
It appears that your concern is about losing the different language versions of the same page? I assume that the content is the same apart from language or location. If this is the case here are some links that should help.
https://webmasters.googleblog.com/2011/12/new-markup-for-multilingual-content.html
https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/182192?hl=en
https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/182192?hl=en
https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/189077
https://yoast.com/rel-canonical/
https://moz.com/learn/seo/canonicalization
If after having a look through these you are still stuck, let me know.
If you do need further help can you please tell me
- Is the content the same on each page?
- Is the content in the same language on each page?
Please keep in mind that the URLs in your example are technically different as they <country name="">is different in each one.</country>
I hope this helps,
Steve
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
-
Canonicals
I dynamically generated pages using rewrite functions in wordpress (new-york, san-diego, san-francisco). All these pages look the same but with different content. yoast (seo wordpress plugin) was unaware of this and set canonicals up relating to the wordpress page used as the template page for the dynamic pages (City_home_page). so all these pages had the canonical https://dinnerdancecruises.com/City_Home_Page. using search console, i saw google indexed my site, looked at all these dynamically created pages (which is about 30 pages) and took them all in as duplicate pages. this happen sometime in april or may. I fixed this problem and set unique canonicals up for each dynamically created page. but now google is not crawling them for some reason. im not sure why its been months and these pages are not indexed. i thought to myself is it because these links end up on multiple pages? sort of like having "terms of agreement" link at the footer. every single page has that terms of agreement link. does google look at those links as duplicates and not index the page at all. this is where my issue lies. i need google to crawl regularly and see those pages with their new, unique canonicals and re-index them correctly. but it seems to save cpu resources, google feels once a thief always a thief. i could be wrong but this is why i need your suggestion. thank you.
On-Page Optimization | | bobperez7360950 -
Does hover over content index well
i notice increasing cases of portfolio style boxes on site designs (especially wordpress templates) where you have an image and text appears after hover over (sorry for my basic terminology). does this text which appears after hover over have much search engine value or as it doesnt immediately appear on pageload does it carry slightly less weight like tabbed content? any advice appreciated thanks neil
On-Page Optimization | | neilhenderson0 -
Tool To Search For Duplicate Content
Hi Is there such a tool that can be use to search a website for duplicate content? Thanks
On-Page Optimization | | Bossandy0 -
Is This A Reason To Move Content?
Dear All, I am questioning my initial decisions when I planned a site due to reading lots of info on moz. Although what I have read has made me question what I have already done, I can't find anything that is specific to my exact case, so here goes. I recently built a shopping cart in OpenCart. I want the site to have lots of information on the products it sells. I have populated each category with at least 1000 words of content that is specific to the products in that category, also I have some information pages that have no products in them at all, just copy. So the shopping site actually has a few pages that look like a static website and a few that look like a normal shopping cart. My thought behind this was I wanted the pages with lots of info to rank and become authoritative, in some way elevating the whole site. I have recently put a blog on the site, and a combination of that, and reading Moz has lead me think that I should move all the content from the category pages to the blog, and deep link each blog post to it's relevant products and category. From what I have read it would be easier to get the blog ranking and acknowledged as an authority rather than 30 category pages. Also each 1500+ word category page will make at least 3-4 nice blog posts, and each post can be focused on a single keyword rather than a large category page that has maybe 3-4 keywords it's trying to rank for. Also the blog is much better optimised than a standard OC category page (even using extensions with them). The only negative I can see is moving the content, but the site is less that 2 months old, and the amount of link juice it has is negligible. Does google cut new sites a bit of slack in these situations of moving content around, or will I be seen as 'up to something' by google? I guess my question is, am I barking up the right tree? Or is the old adage 'a little information is dangerous' true in this case, and I just about to make a load of work for the sake of it with no real benefit. However, if I am to make such a dramatic change to the sites architecture I think the time is now, before things start gaining juice & rank. I hope I have explained my situation clearly and I thank anyone who can offer me any advice. Great forum, Thank you, Ian
On-Page Optimization | | cookie7770 -
Canonical URL, cornerstone page and categories
If I want to have a cornerstone "page", can I substitute an actual page with a category archive of posts "page" (that contains many posts containing the target key phrase)? This way, if I make blog posts about a certain topic/ key phrase (example "beach weddings") and add a canonical URL of the category archive page to the individual posts, am I right then to assume google will see the archive page as the cornerstone page (and thereby won't see the individual posts with the same key phrase as competing)?
On-Page Optimization | | stephanwb0 -
Content Update
Hello, If I update the existing content i.e.I added some content to the already existing indexed content in a post,how will it effect SEO wise? Venkee
On-Page Optimization | | Venkee0 -
Canonical URL problem
On page analysis wanted me to add a canonical url tag. However I added then re ran the on page analysis and it came up with an error. What is the proper way to add a canonical url tag in the head of an index page? ie. add a canonical tag to www.hompeage.com/index.html would it be ? Or should I ignore this for a home page? Because I add it then run the analysis again and get this? Appropriate Use of Rel Canonical Moderate fix <dl> <dt>Canonical URL</dt> <dd>"http://www.ensoplastics.com/index.html"</dd> <dt>Explanation</dt> <dd>If the canonical tag is pointing to a different URL, engines will not count this page as the reference resource and thus, it won't have an opportunity to rank. Make sure you're targeting the right page (if this isn't it, you can reset the target above) and then change the canonical tag to reference that URL.</dd> <dt>Recommendation</dt> <dd>We check to make sure that IF you use canonical URL tags, it points to the right page. If the canonical tag points to a different URL, engines will not count this page as the reference resource and thus, it won't have an opportunity to rank. If you've not made this page the rel=canonical target, change the reference to this URL. NOTE: For pages not employing canonical URL tags, this factor does not apply.</dd> <dd>So do I add it or not? If I don't I get a lower page rating if I take it off I get a higher page rating with room for improvement. </dd> </dl>
On-Page Optimization | | ENSO0 -
How to solve Rel Canonical issue?
I have created one campaign for my website on SEOmoz. I found Rel Canonical issue for following 2 URLs. I can not understand that, what is error with that? Can any one help me to solve it? http://vistastores.com/blog/?p=1 http://vistastores.com/blog/?page_id=2
On-Page Optimization | | CommercePundit0