Duplicate WordPress Home Page Issue
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I have an issue where I've created a site, (www.tntperformance805.com), using WordPress as a CMS. I enabled the option to use a static page as the home page, and created that page as /home. Well, now the issue that exists is that Google is indexing both www.tntperformance805.com, and www.tntperformance805.com/home/. I've already setup a 301 redirect, pointing /home/ to the main domain, and even have rel=canonical set up automatically, pointing every page to the www version of that particular page.
However, Google Webmaster Tools is still reporting the pages as having duplicate page titles and descriptions. I've even had the page removed from Google's cache and index. I'm assuming Google is not considering the 301 redirect, even though it's setup properly. Should I add rel="canonical" href="http://www.tntperformance805.com" /> to the body of the /home/ post, to ensure that it is giving credit to the main domain?
I am assuming the page is only redirecting to , as that's the www version, but I thought the 301 redirect would enforce that the search engines should give all credit to the main domain.
Thanks in advance for the help everyone. I look forward to some insightful feedback.
Best Regards,
Matt Dimock
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I work at National Positions, an SEO company, and have access to hundreds of different GWT accounts. In my 4 years here, I have seen the same issue persist on many different websites. GWT is definitely clunky in certain areas. But the most frustrating thing is the inaccurate 404's and duplicate title issues.
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Absolutely, I think you're OK on all fronts and glad to see the sitemap.xml is there - I didn't see it when I searched "site:tntperformance.com" but I didn't check the actual /sitemap.xml url.
If it makes you feel better, I've got GWT errors over a year old that persist. I've checked the code 8 different ways and implemented redirects and everything under the sun, sometimes I think it's just them.
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The 301 redirect definitely seems to be working fine. Though the tntperformance.com/home/ link was indexed in Google just a few days ago. I already have a sitemap.xml live (www.tntperformance805.com/sitemap.xml), and submitted it awhile back.
I was more curious if Googlebot indexed the content on the /home/ page, or was just immediately forwarded to the main domain. I cannot think as to how they would have been able to find the page, as there are no internal links or external links pointing at it.
I'll give GWT some time, and hopefully the duplicates go away. Thanks for putting my mind at ease Kane!
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The redirect appears to be working correctly.
The canonical tag on the homepage appears to be correct as well.
Your sitemap looks fine, too, though I'd add an XML sitemap and submit that to GWT.
I would not add another canonical tag in the body.
Have you given GWT a week or two to update? It's known to take a little while.
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