Rel Alternate tag and canonical tag implementation question
-
Hello, I have a question about the correct way to implement the canoncial and alternate tags for a site supporting multiple languages and markets.
Here's our setup. We have 3 sites, each serving a specific region, and each available in 3 languages.
- www.example.com : serves the US, default language is English
- www.example.ca : serves Canada, default language is English
- www.example.com.mx : serves Mexico, default language is Spanish
In addition, each sites can be viewed in English, French or Spanish, by adding a language specific sub-directory prefix ( /fr , /en, /es).
The implementation of the alternate tag is fairly straightforward.
For the homepage, on www.example.com, it would be:
-
MX” href=“http://www.example.com.mx/index.html” /> -MX” href=”http://www.example.com.mx/fr/index.html“ />
-MX” href=”http://www.example.com.mx/en/index.html“ />
-US” href=”http://www.example.com/fr/index.html” />
-US” href=”http://www.example.com/es/index.html“ />
-CA” href=”http://www.example.ca/fr/index.html” />
-CA” href=”http://www.example.ca/index.html” />
-CA” href=”http://www.example.ca/es/index.html” />My question is about the implementation of the canonical tag.
Currently, each domain has its own canonical tag, as follows:
rel="canonical" href="http://www.example.com/index.html"> <link rel="canonical" href="http: www.example.ca="" index.html"=""></link rel="canonical" href="http:>
<link rel="canonical" href="http: www.example.com.mx="" index.html"=""></link rel="canonical" href="http:>I am now wondering is I should set the canonical tag for all my domains to:
<link rel="canonical" href="http: www.example.com="" index.html"=""></link rel="canonical" href="http:>
This is what seems to be suggested on this example from the Google help center.
http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=189077
What do you think?
-
Thank you for your responses. I did get a weird feeling about canonicalizing my .co.uk and .ca sites into my .com site. I leave the canonical tag on each country specific TLD, referencing the canonical URL of the page within each TLD site.
-
I agree with Alan on this.
Canonical is meant to link identical pieces of content. If the content is in a different language it's not identical and you would want it to appear in the index separately.
-
i think that page is misleading, this page is clearer
http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com.au/2010/03/working-with-multi-regional-websites.html
Dont use a canonical, if the have different tlds, only if they are in the same tld.
This video sums it up, you should at least localize your site,
if you have a US a UK and AU site, all in english, this is ok, but you should have currency and date formats to match.
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
-
Is it possible that Google would disregard canonical tag?
Hi all, I was wondering if it is possible for Google to diregard the canonical tag, if for example they decide it is wrongly put based on behavioural data. On the Natviscript Blog's individual blog posts there is a canonical tag for the www.nativescript.org/blog/details (printscreen - http://prntscr.com/e8kz5k). In my opinion it should not be there, and I've put request to our Engineering team for removal some time ago. Interestingly, all blog posts are indexed and got decent amount of organic traffic despite the tag. What do you think? Could it be that Google would disregard the tag based on usage data from let's say GA? Thanks, Lily
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | lgrozeva0 -
Best way to implement canonical tags on an ecommerce site with many filter options?
What would be the best way to add canonical tags to an ecommerce site with many filter options, for example, http://teacherexpress.scholastic.com? Should I include a canonical tag for all filter options under a category even though the pages don't have the same content? Thanks for reading!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | DA20130 -
Canonical Tags being indexed on paginated results?
On a website I'm working on which has a search feature with paginated results, all of the pages of the search results are set with a canonical tag back to the first page of the search results, however Google is indexing certain random pages within the result set. I can literally do a search in Google and find a deep page in the results, click on it and view source on that page and see that it has a canonical tag leading back to the first page of the set. Has anyone experienced this before? Why would Google not honor a canonical tag if it is set correctly? I've seen several SEO techniques for dealing with pagination, is there another solution that you all recommend?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | IrvCo_Interactive0 -
Quick htaccess question
Hi! I'm trying to do a 301 from www.stevesims.com/index.htm to www.stevesims.com. I know I need to use the request command to avoid an infinite loop, but I can't quite figure out the correct code. Here's the first part of the htaccess file. RewriteEngine On RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^stevesims.com
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Blink-SEO
RewriteRule (.*) http://www.stevesims.com/$1 [R=301,L] RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://stevesims.com/.$ [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://stevesims.com$ [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://www.stevesims.com/.$ [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://www.stevesims.com$ [NC]
RewriteRule .*.(jpg|jpeg|gif|png|bmp)$ - [F,NC] Any suggestions would be much appreciated.0 -
Canonical tag question
Suppose a site has two pages ( Page A ) and Page B. Both of them have pagerank, but duplicate content. The page A is ranked for keyword "seo india" and page B is ranked for keyword "seo services". If i implement canonical tag on page B, does 1. The pagerank of page B will be transfered to Page A ? 2. Does the site A now ranks for keyword "seo servicies " ( for which Page B was ranking earlier )
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | seoug_20050 -
Could adding canonical tags to large Ecommerce site ever hurt rankings? Temporarily?
We have a really large site we're working on who's product pages rank well for the most part but also have multiple products listed in different categories with different URL's. I'm assuming there's no downside to adding canonical tags to these right? Its peak season so I don't want to do anything that could, even temporarily, bring down their rankings. Thanks!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | iAnalyst.com0 -
Should I be using rel canonical here?
I am reorganizing the data on my informational site in a drilldown menu. So, here's an example. One the home page are several different items. Let's say you clicked on "Back Problems". Then, you would get a menu that says: Disc problems, Pain relief, paralysis issues, see all back articles. Each of those pages will have a list of articles that suit. Some articles will appear on more than one page. Should I be worried about these pages being partially duplicates of each other? Should I use rel-canonical to make the root page for each section the one that is indexed. I'm thinking no, because I think it would be good to have all of these pages indexed. But then, that's why I'm asking!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | MarieHaynes0