Canonical issue in open site explorer
-
When I look at my back links in OSE, I see two landing pages on my site that are really the same page. www.mysite.com/ and www.mysite.com/(affiliate code here)
These show different inbound link characteristics and page authority.
The page in question has a rel=canonical tag.
Am I doing something wrong?
-
Thank you. I was concerned I might have split my juice between two versions.
"OSE will also calculate redirected metrics into calculating scores such as MozRank and Domain Authority, and I believe there are plans (if they haven't been implemented already) of including canonical metrics into these calculations."
This is interesting. If I understand this correctly, this tells me that when you have inbound links with affiliate codes and such attached to the URL that MozRank is not calculated correctly; it is split between two "versions" of the same page.
-
Hi Eugene - It sounds like you are doing things right.
Open Site Explorer diplays Link Metrics for every single page in it's index as if it is independent - even if it 301 redirects or points a canonical link towards another page.
For example we can see that the inbound link metrics for the SEOmoz.org/blog differ from the metrics for SEOmoz.org/blog/ (note the extra backslash).
One advantage of this method is that we can see if our external links are pointing to the right page, and correct them if necessary. At this time, OSE will notify you if the URL you are checking 301 redirects to another page, but doesn't tell you if it has a canonical. OSE will also calculate redirected metrics into calculating scores such as MozRank and Domain Authority, and I believe there are plans (if they haven't been implemented already) of including canonical metrics into these calculations.
But back to you - what you really need is a way to make sure you've implemented your canonical tags correctly. You can check the duplicate title/duplicate content and the canonical reports in the SEOmoz PRO platform. You can also use the MozBar to check canonical tags, or a tool like URI valet to make sure your canonical tags are pointed to the right URL.
This is important because you want to avoid canonicalization errors that can lead to a loss of rankings and search engine visibility. That said, from your brief description, it sounds like you're doing everything right.
-
I do have access to the page. I am slightly confused by your reply. I was thinking that this was a reporting issue with the OSE. I shouldn't need to use a 301 when a
rel="canonical" href="http://www.example.com" />
is in the header
-
I would contact my server administrator to have them force your 301, and pages www.example.com/(client code)
If that you dont get support from, I will have my Hosting administrator help you further with this question. Cause if you dont have access to the Default home page, all your main pages utilize the code for, it will be over looked.
Let me know
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
-
How do I fix duplicate title issues?
I have a sub domain that isn't even on our own site but it's resulting in a lot of errors in Moz for duplicate content, as shown here: http://cl.ly/1R081v0K0e2N. Would this affect our ranking or is it simply just errors within Moz? What measures could I take to make sure that Moz or Google doesn't associate our site with these errors? Would I have to noindex in the htaccess file for the sub domain?
Moz Pro | | MMAffiliate0 -
Duplicate Content errors - not going away with canonical
I am getting Duplicate Content Errors reported by Moz on search result pages due to parameters. I went through the document on resolving Duplicate Content errors and implemented the canonical solution to resolve it. The canonical in the header has been in place for a few weeks now and Moz is still showing the pages as Duplicate Content despite the canonical reference. Is this a Moz bug? http://mathematica-mpr.com/news/?facet={81C018ED-CEB9-477D-AFCC-1E6989A1D6CF}
Moz Pro | | jpfleiderer0 -
Issue with follerwonk
Hey, im having issues with followerwonk. Activate my pro because when i go in search bio feater it goes back to standard and i can t use service app shows installed too. fix thanks
Moz Pro | | hunterh0 -
What do you use for site audit
What tools do you use for conducting a site audit? I need to do an audit on a site and the seomoz web crawler and on page optimization will takes days if not a full week to return any results. In past Ive used other tools that I could run on the fly and they would return broken links, missing htags, keyword density, server information and more. Curious as to what you all use and what you may recommend to use in conjunction with the moz tools.
Moz Pro | | anthonytjm0 -
How to track sub-directories as separate sites
I am tracking a blog for a client thats hosted on a subdomain, we decided to give it it's own SEOMoz campaign. My issue is that when entering competitors, if the competing blog is using a sub-directory, SEO Moz won't let me enter it, only the domain. I would assume that there has to be a way to do this, but I don't see it. I need to be able to track the competing blogs as separate from their root domain. mysite: blog.mysite.com their site: theirsite.com/blog (very different from just theirsite.com) Hopefully someone can tell me what to do here because the metrics are basically useless if I am forced to use only the domain. Thanks so much!
Moz Pro | | Ascedia0 -
Bulk OSE Open Site Explorer Tool?
I am trying to do some spring cleaning for a client and hoping to prune any unnecessary domains. Is there a tool that will check, in bulk, these domains through Open Site Explorer? I've looked through all the different Excel spread sheet apps and google doc apps but they are incredibly buggy if they work at all since SEOmoz changed their data limits. Maybe a new tool has been updated in the last few months that I am not aware of. Thanks!
Moz Pro | | kerplow0 -
When to stop link building because page authority is low - open site explorer
Hi, I'm link building with Open Site Explorer. I'm really picky in get links from only high quality sites. When do you stop going down the list of possible backlink providers because the page authority is too low. I usually stop at 40, but what do you do, why, and what does it depend on?
Moz Pro | | BobGW0 -
Site rank checking tool
Is there a tool where I can enter a URL and it will tell me all the terms a site ranks for? Basically I recently put up a new website and I want to know what terms I rank in the top 50 for in Google
Moz Pro | | KevinPatrick0