Duplicate page content issue needs resolution.

[JamesSagerser]

After my last "crawl" report, I received a warning about "duplicate page content". One page was:

http://anycompany.com

and the other was:

http://anycompany.com/home.html

How do I correct this so these pages aren't competing with each other or is this a problem?

[JamesSagerser]

Excellent!  Thanks Ryan for the personal attention and the advice.  Just what I needed.  Jim

[RyanKent]

Network Solutions is similar to GoDaddy. They sell domain names and then supporting services. I don't mean any disrespect to either company but I would suggest you never approach them for SEO advice. It's not within their expertise. You are likely to speaking to a random 1st level tech who's expertise and training is for the core services, not SEO.

I took a brief look at your site. You can use any page as a landing page for a particular keyword. For example you may offer a "summer cabin" page which focuses on your summer specials and other information. The main landing page for your site should likely be your home page.

When I hover my mouse over the HOME link on your home page, I see the URL /home.html. Fix that link so it points to http://acabinbythepond.com. Search your site to ensure there are no other links which point to /home.html. Next, either add a 301 redirect or ask Network Solutions (if they are your host) to do it for you pointing from /home.html to /.

A final note. When I look at your home page you have about 40 links to Wikipedia. An occasional link to Wikipedia is fine, but not 40 links, and not from your home page. I strongly suggest you review your linking strategy. Most of your links should be to your site's internal pages, not Wikipedia.

[JamesSagerser]

Thanks Ryan for your response.  After more checking I found my site, http://acabinbythepond.com uses the home page as the landing page.  So when I go to the site with the above url, it has the same information as when I subsequently click on the "Home page".  Network Solutions possible fix would be for me to create a new splash page for the landing page and redirect it to the home page.  I'm concerned about loosing all of my links going to http://acabinbythepond.com with the addition the splash page.  Any guesses?

[RyanKent]

How do I correct this so these pages aren't competing with each other or is this a problem?

1. Remove all links on your site to the /home.html page.

2. As a precaution, place a 301 redirect from /home.html to /. This step will help in case anyone bookmarked or linked to the /home.html page.