Help I don't understand Rel Canonical
-
I'm really stuck on how to fix up Rel Canonical errors on a Wordpress site. I went in and changed all the URLs to remove the www and added / to the end.
I get this message on page analysis details:
<dt>Canonical URL</dt>
<dd>"http://www.some-url.com.au/",</dd>
<dd>"http://some-url..com.au/", and</dd>
<dd>"http://some-url..com.au/"</dd>
<dd>Well the first one with the www doesn't exists and the second two urls are the same! (Note that I have removed the actual URL for this post)</dd>
<dd>I'm not sure how to read and fix the errors from the reports ether. The only issues I can see is that the 'Tag Value' has the www and the 'Page Title - URL' doesn't have the www.
</dd> -
Yeah, unfortunately, on a CMS or template-driven site, it's really easy to put a canonical tag in place that impacts the wrong pages. Hopefully, you caught it in time.
The 270 notices in are system are just telling you that 270 URLs we crawled had a canonical tag pointing to a different page. In this particular case, it was a problem, but it isn't always an issue.
Unfortunately, with the bad canonical tag in place, it's tough to tell why they were there before. This is usually just a notice, and non-critical, but once the bad canonicals clear out, let us know if you're still getting the notice (it may take a couple of weeks to go away).
-
I think I know what I have done wrong. I placed this code line in the header instead of the index:
I only did this last week, so hopefully the damage won't last long. I still don't understand the 270 Rel Cononical errors, because they were already there. Is this a Wordpress problem?
-
I just checked, and it actually looks like you've got a potentially serious problem. All of your canonical tags that I've seen are pointing to the home-page, even archives and blog posts. This will essentially de-index those pages. Something is set up badly - that canonical tag should only appear on the actual home-page.
Since this is public, I won't reveal details, but look at the, for example, the canonical tag on your "About" and "Services" pages - they're pointing to the home-page.
-
So whats the best way to fix the 270 Rel Cononical errors? How do I actually tell Google what URL is the same pages as another URL?
-
The basic problem, and it's actually confusing to a lot of people, is that what you think of as a "page" is the physical file on your server (like your home-page). What Google thinks of as a page is a URL. So, if multiple URLs go to the same place, they look like duplicate copies to Google (who sees them as all different pages).
It's especially common with home-pages, where you can have www vs. non-www, root ("www.example.com") vs. the filename ("www.example.com/index.php"), etc. If those variations get crawled and indexed by Google, the duplicates can dilute your index and weaken your ranking ability. So, rel-canonical helps tell Google that those variations are all the same page.
-
Zapprabbit,
I would like to underline the main reason of canonical tag usage.
We use canonical to eliminate duplicate content which is cause by different paths to the same content.
In order to eliminate this, you point out to search engines which of the paths is the one that you are optimizing for (which path you want to be indexed).
So let's take your example:
<dd>"http://www.some-url.com.au/",</dd>
<dd>"http://some-url..com.au/", and</dd>
<dd>"http://some-url..com.au/"</dd>
All of the above are different versions of the index.php (wordpress), right?Ok so you have the following:Index.php is shown as:
- http://www.some-url.com.au
- http://www.some-url.com.au/
- http://www.some-url.com.au/index.php
- http://some-url.com.au
- http://some-url.com.au/
- http://some-url.com.au/index.php
all the links above are different paths for Search Engines.
Now you put a canonical tag into the header of index.php which point out for "www.some-url.com.au". What happens?
Search Engines now crawl all versions of your index.php, but they know that they only need to index one version: www.some-url.com.au
What happens from link juice point of view?
If people will start linking to http://some-url.com.au/ or http://www.some-url.com.au/index.php or any other version of your index.php file the link juice will be targeted to the canonical version in some portion (aprox. 85% because you will loose some "juice").
I hope that is clearer now
Gr.,
Istvan
-
The bit I'm stuck on is what am I looking for when I click on the Cannonical URL Tag?
Duplicated URLs? Too many URLs pointing to the same place?
I know I must sound stupid but I just can't get my head around the problem.... Any pointers?
-
Hi Zapprabbit, For you to understand the Rel Cannonical errors you must visit the Cannonical URL Tag.
In wordpress these cannonical url errors are fixed up with all in one seo wordpress plugin.
I hope that your query had been solved.
-
Hi Zapprabbit,
You have the following issue:
1. You didn't proper place the canonical
2. you miss the non www. -> www. 301 redirect
So let's take it step by step:
1. Canonicals: In order to have the chance to set the canonicals right, I would advice you to use the Yoast WP plugin. On the same page you will have how-to articles and usage tips for the plug-in.
2. 301 redirect: http://www.webconfs.com/how-to-redirect-a-webpage.php
This should solve your issue.
Gr,
Istvan
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
-
Rel-canonical
Hi, I am a bit confused. A potential clients website has three versions: http://www. http:// http://dev. In each version they have used the rel=canonical back to each base version. So http://www." http://" http://dev." I would have expected duplicate content but I see only one version of the content when I check using "....." in Google. Using the site: tool I see that all three versions are indexed. When moving through the navigation on them, they all redirect to the one home page - the www version. Any idea what is going on and what should be recommended?Redirecting all versions to the www. version? Is it a problem?
On-Page Optimization | | AL123al0 -
Rel canonical tag on a single page site?
I have a wordpress theme site which essentially is all in 1 page. Do I need to use rel-canonical tag? It would just loop?
On-Page Optimization | | graftene0 -
Can't get authorship to show in the rich snippets tool...
Can't get authorship to show in the rich snippets tool... am I doing something wrong? spokanepaintingcontractor.org
On-Page Optimization | | Superflys0 -
Too many broken links which i am unable to understand
Dear All, There are some links which are cropping up again and again in my google webmaster tools. I am using wordpress and genesis theme. Both are upgraded to the latest version. But there are 3 types of errors being created as mentioned below. tag/target-markets/%E2%80%9Dhttp:/www.wordpress.org%E2%80%9D tag/smartphone-apps/%E2%80%9Dhttp:/%E2%80%9Dhttp:/www.marketing91.com%E2%80%9D how-to-maintain-customer-interest/%3C?php%20the_permalink()%20?%3E As you can see, either wordpress.orf or marketing91.com or php%20 the _permalink is being added at the end of URLs and they are breaking. This cannot be seen in google index. But this indicates wrong coding and due to it my traffic is regularly dropping. Can you tell me what is causing the break in URL like above. My website is http://www.marketing91.com Thanks in advance. This has being going on for 2 months 🙂 Hope someone comes out with the right answer.
On-Page Optimization | | hith2340 -
Is Google indexing something I can't see on my page title?
When I do a search for my businesses website (colourpages.com) it returns a listing which is great but the title tag includes Hull Colour Pages which is our old brand name - we changed to colourpages.com 2 years ago yet Hull Colour Pages is still pulling through on the title tag. I have checked the source and it's as follows: <title>Plumbers in Hull - Reviews - colourpages.com</title> I have attached a photo which shows the issue - http://imgur.com/Cva3001 Is Google indexing it from old history that is no longer visible or am I missing something? Cva3001
On-Page Optimization | | colourpages0 -
Not using H1's with keywords to simulate natural non SEO'd content?
There has been a lot of talk lately about making a website seem like it is not SEO'd to avoid over optimization penalties with the recent Google Algorithmic updates. Has anyone come across the practice of not using Headings (H1's, H2's etc..) properly to simulate that the current webpage isn't over optimized? I've come across a site that used to use multiple keywords within their headings & now they are using none. In fact they are marking their company name & logo as an H1 and non keyworded H2's such as our work or Contact. Is anyone holding back on their old SEO tactics to not seem over optimized to Google? Thanks!
On-Page Optimization | | DCochrane0 -
Is rel=canonical used only for duplicate content
Can the rel-canonical be used to tell the search engines which page is "preferred" when there are similar pages? For instance, I have an internal page that Google is showing on the first page of the SERPs that I would prefer the home page be ranked for. Both the home and internal page have been optimized for the same keyword. What is interesting is that the internal page has very few backlinks compared to the home page but Google seems to favor it since the keyword is in the URL. I am afraid a 301 will drop us from the first page of the SERPs.
On-Page Optimization | | surveygizmo0 -
3 Different Home Page URL's Being Indexed?
Hello Everyone! I own a dog supplies eCom site on the x-cart platform. I recently upgraded to 4.4 version about 3 weeks ago and am noticing 3 different home page URL's getting indexed and ranked: /
On-Page Optimization | | k9byron
/home.php
/home.php?cat= I dont know why this is happening and I dont claim to be an expert SEO but know this cant be good! I am seeing high rankings on certain terms for all 3 URL's. Has anyone seen this before and can anyone give me any feedback on this and how it may be effecting my sites ranking in the future? Thanks in advance!
Byron-0