Categories and rel canonical
-
Hello everyone,
I have a doubt in how to approach this problem.
I have a local business website, and i want to rank this website for our main KW.
So the idea is to rank the main Keyword to the home page www.sitename.com
At the same time we blog every week and one of the categories is the same has the main Keyword. It makes sense because the majority of the blog posts are about it.
In a certain way the homepage and the category page are competing for the same keyword. How can i approach this problem?
Should i use rel canonical in the category page, pointing to the homepage?
Thanks for your help.
-
While I think keyword cannibalization is a valid concern, it's natural for there to be some overlap when a site is clearly focused on a topic. I hate to over-generalize, but my gut reaction is that the home-page and a single category page aren't a big problem. Sure, they'll compete a little, but we're only talking about two pages, and the home-page is generally already stronger. I think the canonical might be artificial here (these aren't true duplicates, and it could look a bit odd to Google).
I'd think more about how the two pages can co-exist - are their certains aspects of the keyword that one more naturally fits than the other? Could you reflect those in the on-page content/tags (TITLE tag, especially)? If the topic merits an entire site, there almost definitely enough facets to it that two pages can live together perfectly well.
Again, don't to over-generalize, but I think you may be worrying too much about this one. If the pages compete in an undesirable way later, you can always add a canonical, but two pages shouldn't be a big issue.
Unless I'm misunderstanding, do NOT 301-redirect. That's going to kill your category page, as 301s impact human visitors as well as search bots.
-
I apologize I did not have the opportunity to get back to last night.
Wordpress SEO by YOAST Is a great plug-in. With the plug-in you will not have to worry about
<code>rel="canonical"</code>
<code>The plug-in has all of the built-in so when you go to make </code>
<code>a page will not have to worry about ``` <code>rel="canonical"</code> ``` ``` Might I ask what framework you're using and what host? ```</code>
<code>Sincerely,</code>
Thomas
-
yes, with Wordpress SEO by YOAST
-
Are you using WordPress?
-
you definitely do not need to make the home page have a / with the keyword it is not necessary if you optimize site correctly. However if you were to do that and you want to know what the rel=canonical is it would be
<code>however if you can keep from having to do this for your homepage I would do a 301 redirect</code>
<code>that way your site is set the way you want to be and you have a link that is clean. Then do a</code>
<code>a ``` <code>you want the rel=canonical to reflect the page that you want to be the homepage you want to tell Google this is the page I want.</code> ``` ``` So your best cases is www.KeywordBrand.com ``` ``` Sincerely, ``` ``` Thomas ```</code> ```
-
It's a www.KeywordBrand.com type domain.
And the category is keyword
So we have www.KeywordBrand.com/Keyword
And in theory the Homepage is the same has the category but with an introduction.
In this case what's best ?
a 301 to the homepage, a rel=canonical or not doing nothing?
-
I thought I should welcome you to SEOmoz as well this is the best place on the planet to get search engine advice. Try reading over some of the information here regardless of its title is always useful to anyone.
http://www.seomoz.org/beginners-guide-to-seo
Sincerely,
Thomas
-
if you want to rank well of course you should use rel canonical all tips are right here http://www.seomoz.org/learn-seo/canonicalization
if your local business register immediately with Google places. is 90% of search engine optimization for local.
Are you talking about that exact match domain? If I were to say I don't mean his example.com and my keyword is example?
In order to blog effectively in each blog 300 words or more at least 4 times a week or 20 times a month. It also must be engaging content that keeps people coming back.
I hope it helped you,
Thomas
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
-
Does using a canonical with ?utm_source=gmb cause any issues?
All of our URLs in Google My Business are tagged with ?utm_source=gmb. This way when people click on it within a Google Map listing, knowledge graph, etc we know it came from there. I'm assuming using a canonical on all ?_utm_source _pages (we have others, including some in the index) won't cause any problems with this, correct? Since they're not technically traditional organic SERPs? Dumb question I know, but better safe than sorry. Thanks.
Technical SEO | | Alces1 -
Rel=canonical and redirect on same page
Hi Guys, Am I going slightly mad but why would you want to have a redirect and a canonical redirecting back to the same page. For Instance https://handletrade.co.uk/pull-handles/pull-handles-zcs-range/d'-pull-handle-19mm-dia.-19-x-150mm-ss/?tag=Dia.&page=2 and in the source code:- <link href="<a class="attribute-value">https://handletrade.co.uk/d'-pull-handle-19mm-dia.-19-x-150mm-ss/</a>" rel="<a class="attribute-value">canonical</a>" /> Perfect! exactly what it is intended to do. But then this page is 301 redirected tohttps://handletrade.co.uk/pull-handles/pull-handles-zcs-range/d'-pull-handle-19mm-dia.-19-x-150mm-ss/ The site is built in open cart and I think it's the SEO plugin that needs tweaking. Could this cause poor SERP visibility? This is happening across the whole site. Surely the canonical should just point to the proper page and then there is no need for an additional bounce.
Technical SEO | | nezona1 -
How long does it take for canonical tags to work
How long on average does it take for a canonical tag to work? Understand that canonicals are just a suggestion, but after adding a canonical tag and submitting the page via Google fetch, assuming Google follows the canonical, would you expect it to work after a day or two or does it take longer? We added canonicals to old PPC landing pages that are ranking organically, though our new landing pages (which we want to rank organically) are not identical and have a bit more content/features. They are similar though. Canonicals were added to the old pages (pointing to new pages) and requested indexing via search console. Old pages are still ranking and new pages not so much. FYI we are unable to 301 old PPC pages due to other non negotiable reasons unfortunately. Thanks.
Technical SEO | | SoulSurfer80 -
301 Redirect Url Within a Canonical Tag
So this might sounds like a silly question... A client of mine has a duplicate content issue which will be fixed using canonical tags. We are also providing them with an updated URL structure meaning rwe will be having to do lots of 301 redirects. The URL structure is a much larger task that than the duplicate content so i planned to set up the canonicals first. Then it occurred to me id be updating the canonical tags with the urls from the old structure which brings me to my question. Will the canonical tags with the old urls redirect credit to the new urls with the 301? Or should i just wait until we have the new url structure in place and use these new urls in the canonicals? Thanks!
Technical SEO | | NickG-1230 -
Canonical URL
Hi there Our website www.snowbusiness.com has a non www version and this one has 398 backlinks. What is the best way of transfering this link value if i establish the www. address as the canonical URL? Thanks, Ben
Technical SEO | | SnowFX0 -
Canonical and Alternate REL
Hi I have a website which is mostly dynamic content from a database. In the header of the site I have a function which outputs the rel="canonical" link and in some cases the canonical is the page the user is visiting and not another page on the site but I still show it in the source. However we have just recently launched our mobile website which is stored on an M DOT domain (i.e. m.mydomain.com) which has different URL's to my main website so following Google's recommendations we have created rel="alternate" links on my desktop site to point to the equivalent mobile pages and on the mobile pages I have created rel="canonical" links which point back to the relevant desktop site keeping everything tidy.
Technical SEO | | yousayjump
My question is, is there an issue with having both a rel="canonical" and rel="alternate" in the source of of a single page on my desktop site? Is it conflicting or detrimental in anyway? Thanks for reading0 -
Rel="external"
Hi all, I got a link and its off a site and marked up with rel="external". Is this a followed or nofollowed link? Does it pass link juice? Thanks
Technical SEO | | Sharer0 -
Does Bing support cross-domain canonical tags?
We have heard Bing takes canonical tags as hints, but do they support cross-domain canonical tags? I don't think this has ever been discussed? Does anyone have an answer or insight? Thanks!!
Technical SEO | | bonnierSEO0