Deos canonicalisation work across directories?
-
Hi everyone,
I'm new to the group and can't find this question answered anywhere else.
I have a dynamic site that we aim to rewrite the URLs removing parameters and making it easier for the engines to index us and users to recall URLs.
The issue that worries me relates to canonical tags. If I put a canonical tag on a directory..
http://www.abc.com/spain (index page)
and then point all variations of that page to the index page will it stop/pass juice for those pages at the next directory level to the index page rather than properly index and rank those pages appropriately. ie.
http://www.abc.com/spain/Malaga.html will it pass any link juice I have for the second level to the first level?
It concerns me that it will as I had a conversation with someone who lost all visibility on her site and it turned out to be the canonical tag on the home page that was causing it.
Thanks in anticipation
-
Peter is correct below. I think you are heading in the wrong direction. After your explanation here, I understand a little more about where you are going. Here is what I would say to your question:
1. All "old urls" (and all versions of) will need to have a 301 redirect to the new SEo friendly url. The currency is a different issue. You cant redirect that because you would never be able to show multiple currencies to the right users. In the curreny example, you could use a canonical tag to the most popular or default currency.
2. Directories and IA (information architecture) of your site have nothing to do with redirects or canonical tags. As Peter pointed out below, /spain/malaga is a totally different page than /spain. You dont do anything special with tags here, you just create unique content for each of those pages. You pass proper link juice upwards by internally linking your /spain/malaga page up to your /spain page, and every other page that exists below a main level directory page. Essentially, you want all deeper pages linking up to your main directory page.
3. In the small cases that you will be using the canonical tag, you put those tags on all the pages except the original page.
Hope that clears things up. I was/am still a bit confused as to your structure, but think this should get you in the right direction.
-
Sorry, I'm still confused (read your reply to Ryan, who asked some good questions). The canonical, like a 301-redirect will consolidate link-juice, but only for the pages it's on and preferably only for actual duplicates.
If you put a canonical tag at the "/Spain" level, it doesn't impact "/Spain/Malaga.html" at all. It just makes sure that any stray inbound links to "/Spain" duplicates (like "/Spain?print=true") have their link-juice consolidated and don't show up in the index.
If you could give a couple of sample tags and how you're looking to use them, maybe we could dig in deeper. I feel like I'm missing something still.
-
Hi Ryan,
Thanks for the response. I have to say I'm impressed at the speed!
Hmmm, there is a bit of both going to be happening. We are restructuring some of the dynamic pages to present user and search engine friendly URLs. I understand we will need to be putting in place redirects for those pages, so far so good. We have, for example, pages were each one can have a parameter for each currency. I understand we would merely redirect every parameter version to the original page under the new user friendly URL?
We are then creating specific SEO landing pages for dedicated keywords per page. The URLs in here will be structured in directories. What I am confused about relates to differing levels of directory. If we put in a canonical tag on the top level will it direct all rank and link juice to that level, so Spain/ would benefit from the links to spain/malaga ?? Or would each level hold its own link juice spreading to links out and not the other way? I just don't want to pass link juice 'up' the chain so to speak due to a canonical tag.
Finally, and this may answer my question. If I have two pages that I want a tag to pass the link juice to one of them...do I place the tag on both pages and indicate on both tags the URL of the main page? If that is correct then I understand that the directory issue I am worried about won't exist because I will only put canonical tags on the one directory level.
Hope this isn't too long!
Thanks
Andy
-
Not sure why you want to use the canonical tag in this instance. If http://www.abc.com/spain/Malaga.html is truly a duplicate or replicated page of the new /spain page, then I guess you could do it. But it sounds to me like you are re-structuring your urls to be more friendly, and if that is the case you will want to permanently 301 redirect the old urls to the new SEO friendly one. That will pass on the SEO juice in a more effective way then canonical a bunch of the old pages that you dont want anyway.
Is that the case? It kind of depends on the content of each of the pages, and how that content interacts with the other pages. Typically canonical is used for paginated instances or duplicated content that is handle in a different matter, not redirecting juice from old urls/pages to new ones.
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
-
Unsolved URL dynamic structure issue for new global site where I will redirect multiple well-working sites.
Dear all, We are working on a new platform called [https://www.piktalent.com](link url), were basically we aim to redirect many smaller sites we have with quite a lot of SEO traffic related to internships. Our previous sites are some like www.spain-internship.com, www.europe-internship.com and other similars we have (around 9). Our idea is to smoothly redirect a bit by a bit many of the sites to this new platform which is a custom made site in python and node, much more scalable and willing to develop app, etc etc etc...to become a bigger platform. For the new site, we decided to create 3 areas for the main content: piktalent.com/opportunities (all the vacancies) , piktalent.com/internships and piktalent.com/jobs so we can categorize the different types of pages and things we have and under opportunities we have all the vacancies. The problem comes with the site when we generate the diferent static landings and dynamic searches. We have static landing pages generated like www.piktalent.com/internships/madrid but dynamically it also generates www.piktalent.com/opportunities?search=madrid. Also, most of the searches will generate that type of urls, not following the structure of Domain name / type of vacancy/ city / name of the vacancy following the dynamic search structure. I have been thinking 2 potential solutions for this, either applying canonicals, or adding the suffix in webmasters as non index.... but... What do you think is the right approach for this? I am worried about potential duplicate content and conflicts between static content dynamic one. My CTO insists that the dynamic has to be like that but.... I am not 100% sure. Someone can provide input on this? Is there a way to block the dynamic urls generated? Someone with a similar experience? Regards,
Technical SEO | | Jose_jimenez0 -
Schema.org markup for breadcrumbs: does it finally work?
Hi, TL;DR: Does https://schema.org/BreadcrumbList work? It's been some time since I last implemented schema.org markup for breadcrumbs. Back then the situation was that google explicitly discouraged the use of the schema.org markup for breadcrumbs. In my experience it had been pretty hit or miss - sometimes it worked without issues; sometimes it did not work without obvious reason. Consequently, I ditched it for the data-vocabulary.org markup which did not give me any issues. However, I prefer using schema.org and currently a new site is being designed for a client. Thus, I'd like to use schema.org markup for the breadcrumb - but of course only if it works now. Google has dropped the previous warning/discouragements and by now lists a schema.org code https://developers.google.com/structured-data/breadcrumbs based on the new-ish https://schema.org/BreadcrumbList. Has anybody here used this markup on a site (preferably more than one) and can confirm whether or not it is reliably working and showing the breadcrumb trail / site hierarchy in the SERP? Thanks for your answers! Nico
Technical SEO | | netzkern_AG0 -
Does Anyone Know How Linstant Works??
I recently installed Linkstant after reading lots of great reviews. I'm eager to use the new tool, but I would like to know HOW it works. Does it send Google queries?? Just to give you some background info, I was recently burned by Rank Tracker...after using the tool it killed any access to Google and ruined a Google+ event that our company had planned. I do not want this to happen again, so I'd like to know how exactly it works. Thanks!
Technical SEO | | TMI.com0 -
301 redirect not working
Hi there! I have recently moved a domain that has been indexed by google and setup redirects so that it forwards to the new domain. It seems like the only redirect that actually is working is the canonical and main domain but every other page and or page nested within a folder are not working. Here is an example of some of the redirects. Am I doing this wrong? It seems to be going to the new domain but can't find the actual pages.... RewriteEngine On
Technical SEO | | twotd
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !agoodsweep.com$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://agoodsweep.com/$1 [L,R=301]
redirect 301 woodstoveservicerepair.html http://agoodsweep.com/woodstoveservicerepair/
redirect 301 /westchesterchimney.html http://agoodsweep.com/west-chester-chimney/ Thanks in advance for any help!!0 -
Is placing content in sub directories better for SERP
Hi For small web sites with less than 6 pages Is there a benefit to structuring url paths using keyword rich sub directories compared to pages in the root of the site. for example: domainname.co.uk/keywordpagename.html or www.domainname.co.uk/keyword/keywordpagename.html which seems to have better rankings? thanks keyword
Technical SEO | | Bristolweb0 -
How to add business address in local directories for consistent NAP
Hi Mozers I keep puzzling over this one! I work from home and really don't want to plaster my address all over the web. The GP page now allows for me to hide my exact location, which is great. However, as far as I can see this is not the case with all the potential local directories and listings. I have been trying in to get around this by not adding my house number and last digit and 2 characters of my post code. So far this has been allowed by the local listings I have signed up with. When I tried doing as recommended by the excellent Miriam and checking my business name with 'Getlisted' I found that I could only see these local listings if I added the doctored address, i.e. no house number or full postcode. My question, finally is, if I continue in this fashion for businesses based at home addresses am I going to confuse the search engines. I want to provide a consistent NAP but GPP insists that I add a full postcode. The only way I could possible see around this is to add: street name city full postcode and omit the house name/number. Will this be a reasonable work around to maintain client confidentiality and satisfy the NAP requirement of Local search?
Technical SEO | | catherine-2793880 -
No Google cached snapshot image... 'Text-only version' working.
We are having an issue with Googles cached image snapshops... Here is an example: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:IyvADsGi10gJ:shop.deliaonline.com/store/home-and-garden/kitchen/morphy-richards-48781-cooking/ean/5011832030948+&cd=308&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=uk I wondered if anyone knows or can see the cause of this problem? Thanks
Technical SEO | | pekler1 -
Directory Categories
Is it important to select the right category for directory listings from an SEO point of view? I have located 2 appropriate categories in Business.com for my website: Category 1 = PR 5, Page Authority 53 Category 2 = PR 4, Page Authority 44 I presume number of links on the page is also a factor.
Technical SEO | | martyc0