Theoretical Canonical Query/Test
-
This is just a general discussion on your thoughts on this - maybe some tests have been done, but I haven't found any.
Suppose I have document X
If I put document X on high authority website A - It comes in SE position 1 for Keyword Z
If I put document X on low authority website B - It comes in SE position 10 for Keyword Z
What happens (if anything) if I put document X on website A and include a canonical tag to point to document X on website B.
What SE position would document Z on website B now come for Keyword Z ??
-
I've been working with the canonical tag for many issues since Feb 2009. I haven't tried this particular situation. It will most likely not rank document X on website B like it would on website A without canonical.
Since canonical translates to "i'm a copy of an existing page", then I guess that it would perform as if it was the documenton website B.
It is a whole different story if document X has been linked to from good pages on website A. If it ranks possition 1, then it is likely it is linked. This way you should be able to transfer some link juice. It is considered to pass on less than 301 redirect, which on its part is not passing the whole thing.
I look forward to some testing. I will try to see if I can do the experiment myself. This sounds like a good way to build links. That is if you can place the canonical link element on website A.
-
Is the real question - Does the cross-domain canonical tag pass domain and/or page metrics to the canonical page?
Yes, most likely
Check out this - http://www.seomoz.org/blog/cross-domain-canonical-the-new-301-whiteboard-friday
However, to think about it more specifically.
Site A (DA:65, PA:35) ranks first for content Z. Site B (DA:20, PA:15) ranks 10th for content Z. Site A add a canonical tag to Site B, what happens?
- Site B will rank higher and Site A will drop out.
- Site A maintains it's rank and Site B will improve rank.
- Site A will drop in ranking and Site B will improve rank.
- No change to either site.
Most likely in my mind is 1 is most likely depending on how competitive the keyword is.
-
You can find tests carried out by the Dr. here http://www.seomoz.org/blog/6-extreme-canonical-tricks
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
-
Rankings w/ 301 redirect.. is this normal?
For http://www. I am ranking for particular KW's/phrases However, when I search just http:// - I am unranked. The http:// 301's to the http://www. Is this normal? Thank you
Competitive Research | | lawfirm0 -
What To Focus On SEO / Link Building for this campaign to rank again..
Hi All; I recently joined Moz and I am really starting to learn a lot here. I am still finding it difficult to figure out what to focus on the most to improve my rankings (although I do have some page 1 ranks) I have one strong competitor who has a SOLID spot in the top 5 of google for the past few years for the keyword I would like to be ranked for again. (as they have always been a competitor of mine either 1 spot above or 1 spot below). then i fell off google in January and finally made it back to page 1. But their links are thousands higher than mine. What parts of my SEO Link Building should I focus on the MOST to improve my ranking to move up a few spots? Followed links vs No Followed Links Followed Linking Root Domains vs NoFollowed Linking Root Domain Any help would so greatly be appreciated; also please explain why you would focus on that part of my campaign so I can better understand as well. Thanks again
Competitive Research | | Circa
(there are 3 images total) t4klvWZ,I9R9BsC,fbDoF3L#20 -
Internal/External link ratio
I have a client who ranked #3 for a very important and highly competitive keyword phrase. Using the 'Compare Pages' tool in open site explorer I could see that we were far better optimized than the two websites that were out ranking my client. Our PA was higher, the MozRank was higher, more internal and external links (and the external are all high quality) more linking C blocks etc.. etc... not just the page but the website, in general, was better optimized. The one thing I did notice was that although we had more internal and external links, our ratio was far heavier to the external side than the ratio of either competitor. So, at a loss of what else to do, I went through the website and beefed up the internal links to the specific page in question. I didn't over do it, just moved up from about 6% to about 12% (one competitor was at about 20% while the other was about 65%). Six days later we are number two rather than number three. Coincidence? Should I beef it up even more? Has anyone ever come across anything like this? Thank you for your comments in advance.
Competitive Research | | Vizergy0 -
Moz metrics / PageRank Incoherence
I'm checking some domains/pages where I could acquire some links, but I'm seeing huge differences between Moz metrics and PageRank and I'm hesitant about the meaning of it.. Given that PR was updated recently, is it safe to assume tons of crappy inbound links or a penalization by Google? Here is an example: Page Authority: 60
Competitive Research | | Branagan
Page MozRank: 6.0
Page MozTrust: 6.0
Domain Authority: 50
Domain MozRank: 4.0
Domain MozTrust: 4.0 Google PageRank: 1 Any clues?
Cheers!1 -
Competitor research: No data / results displaying on Keyword tools, Aexa
Hi there! I'm trying to research a few competitors using various Keyword tools (SEM Rush, Compete, Keyword Spy -- even Alexa for high level insight). While the bulk of the competitors generate expected results through these tools (a smattering of their top organic and paid search keywords, some traffic estimations through Alexa), ONE of these competitors lists "No results" across all categories and all tools: http://www.bgstar.ca Despite this, we know that they invest heavily in search -- and my SEM Rush toolbar indicates that they have a Google PR of 5 (though I recognize that that should be taken with a grain of salt). So I'm stumped! Has anyone encountered this before? Is there something structural that they might be doing, that's blocking not only Google-based platforms, but Alexa too? Thanks for your help!
Competitive Research | | MACJ0 -
Your favorite/most comprehensive guide to keyword research?
what's your favorite guide to keyword research? in lieu of having a favorite, what is the most comprehensive guide you've come across?
Competitive Research | | Mozzin0 -
Certainty or Uncertainty of SEO / Link Building
Hey there I'm new to both SEO and Seomoz. I have this personal site I've been working on SEO wise (slowly since I started learning from 0) and I have reached a point where the only missing thing for me to do is build links. However, the competitors for my site have thousands of links. From all I've read on the web regarding SEO&LinkBuilding, including articles in this site...the old method of spamming links wherever/whenever possible is now being penalized while the practice of manual/hand-built links of higher quality and lesser quantity is rewarded. So I went ahead and approached several linkbuilding companies and one thing that struck me was the level of uncertainty regarding the chances of getting a site to get to the first page. I understand there's factors you cannot predict or control, such as what your competitors are doing on the SEO front...but ultimately, I'm curious as to how do you effectively gauge the possibility of getting to the top page of any keyword combination? Especially when dealing with clients... since apparently whoever 'guarantees' you anything is a fraud or uses blackhat techniques...how do you pitch the 'uncertainty' to the client? Likewise...how do you know if you can make it to the top page or viceversa? Cheers
Competitive Research | | Sotkra0 -
How does this domain / page rank for this particular term?
Hi everyone, I'm wondering whether someone can enlighten me as to how a particular page / domain is ranking for a term that the page appears to be in no way optimised to receive traffic to. The search engine is Google Australia and the Search Term (albiet low volume) is "Bunbury Builders" the top organic result is the homepage for "Content Living" www.contentliving.com.au/ There is one single mention of Bunbury on the page (as a phone number in the footer of the page). I've disabled javascript, css, and spoofed my user agent as Googlebot and I can't see anything suspect going on here at all. I also ran the domain through open site explorer and I couldn't find a single anchor text reference to bunbury directing visitors back to this domain. We haven't yet begun targeting this term, but I was curious to see (for my own education as much as anything else) how they were achieving this ranking position. Any feedback would be appreciated.
Competitive Research | | NaomiC0
