How to Set Up Canonical Tags to Eliminate Duplicate Content Error

[Kingalan1]

Google Webmaster Tools under HTML improvements is showing duplicate meta descriptions for 2 similar pages. The 2 pages are for building address. The URL has several pages because there are multiple property listings for this building. The URLs in question are:

www.metro-manhattan.com/601-west-26th-street-starrett-lehigh-building-contains-executive-office-space-manhattan/page/3

www.metro-manhattan.com/601-west-26th-street-starrett-lehigh-building-contains-executive-office-space-manhattan

How do I correct this error using canonical tags? Do I enter the URL of the 1^st page under “Canonical URL”  under “Advanced” to show Google that these pages are one and the same? If so, do I enter the entire URL into this field (www.metro-manhattan.com /601-west-26th-street-starrett-lehigh-building-contains-executive-office-space-manhattan) or an abbreviated version (/601-west-26th-street-starrett-lehigh-building-contains-executive-office-space-manhattan)?

Please see attached images.

Thanks!!

Alan

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[DSM_UK]

Hi Alan,

To go down another route, you could instead set up URL parameters in WMT itself, that way you could set the URL that contains /page/ as the canonical without having to implement anything on the Wordpress side.

Kind Regards

Jimmy

[MattRoney]

Hi Alan,

I'm really not a Wordpress expert, so I can't comment much on implementing a rel="canonical" tag using their interface. There's some good general information on canonical here, though: http://moz.com/learn/seo/canonicalization

If you're set on solving this with a canonical, I imagine you'd point www.nyc-officespace-leader.com/601-west-26th-street-starrett-lehigh-building-contains-executive-office-space-manhattan/page/3 to www.nyc-officespace-leader.com/601-west-26th-street-starrett-lehigh-building-contains-executive-office-space-manhattan. I'd include the full URL.

Out of curiosity, what purpose does having both pages actually serve? The content is pretty similar on both.

[Kingalan1]

Hi Matt:

The error is for "Pages with duplicate title tags".

Since these two pages are so similar I believe it has something to do with a canonicalization error.

THANKS!!!! Alan

[MattRoney]

Hi there!

Just for a bit of clarification, is Webmaster Tools alerting you to duplicate title tags, duplicate meta descriptions, both, or duplicate page content overall? I think that'd make it a little easier to answer your question.

[Kingalan1]

Thanks for your comment!!! But the error is for a duplicate page rather than duplicate tags. SO I am wondering an advise me as to how to set up canonical tags in Wordpress to eliminate this error.

The error looks like this:

Pages with duplicate title tags	Pages
<a id="zip_0-anchor" class="zippedsection_title"></a>Office Space @ 601 West 26 Street - Starrett Lehigh Building/601-west-26th-street-starrett-lehigh-building-contains-executive-office-space-manhattan/page/3/601-west-26th-street-starrett-lehigh-building-contains-executive-office-space-manhattan

[Alick300]

Hi Kingalan1,

In your case I would like to let you know few things about meta description.

It’s believed that meta descriptions do not have any SEO value, but they are tremendously helpful in pulling traffic to your website from search engine results pages (SERPs). The more original, unique and compelling the meta description, the more likely it will lead to a click-through.

My Comment - In your case it doesn't matter because its about building address.

Duplicate meta descriptions could result in a bad user experience. It may appear to prospective customers as if your web pages are duplicated even if you have unique titles and content for each page. This can result in a loss of visitors and reduce the ROI of your pages. If you’re incredibly unlucky, it could also diminish the returns on your website as a whole.

My Comment - In this case my answer would be the same

Last but not least I would like to share Matt Cutts Video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4gr88oHb-k

Now coming to your question @ check first point of this article @ http://moz.com/blog/rel-confused-answers-to-your-rel-canonical-questions

Thanks