Adding Rel Canonical to multiple pages
-
Hi,
Our CMS generates a lot of duplicate content, (Different versions of every page for 3 different font sizes). There are many other reasons why we should drop this current CMS and go with something else, and we are in the process of doing that. But for now, does anyone know how would I do the following:
I've created a spreadsheet that contains the following:
Column 1: rel="canonical" tag for URL
Column 2: Duplicate Content URL # 1
Column 3: Duplicate Content URL # 2
Column 4: Duplicate Content URL # 3
I want to add the tag from column 1 into the head of every page from column 2,3, and 4.
What would be a fast way to do this considering that I have around 1800 rows.
Check the screenshot of the builtwith.com result to see more information about the website if that helps.
Farris
-
Yeah, wish I could give you a simpler answer, but I'm afraid it might end up being a little tricky. Hit the biggest problems first, and at least you can manage time/money a bit. The one bright side is that the rules should be no harder to code in ColdFusion than anything else (PHP, ASP, whatever). It's just the core logic that's tricky.
-
That's what I thought. I need to find someone in the company who knows cold fusion and go through it.
Thanks for your help though. I appreciate it.
Farris
-
Unfortunately, the rules may differ from page to page and will be entirely dependent on how your pages are generated. If it's just a matter of the "index.cfm" version vs. root ("/") versions of pages, those canonical should be straightforward. For the other parameters, though (like "i", "fs", etc.), it depends entirely on the function of those parameters.
I know ColdFusion reasonably well, and even given that, I couldn't give you a one-size-fits-all rule that would solve the problem. It really has to be guided by your site structure and code/data logic. Personally, I'd start with the pattern that generates the most problems and solve that one first. In other words, if one template (like "/press-releases") generates dozens or hundreds of duplicates, deal with that first. If you solve the top 3-4 problems, you may clean up quite a bit. That could be more effective than trying to fix everything at once.
-
Here's a spreadsheet sample. I did what Roberto suggested. I have a column with the ready for every duplicate content URL.
The site is dynamic. That was the main problem I was facing, I'm not sure how to set the canonicals on each page without having to go into the html and copy the tag from the spreadsheet to the manually.
I added the screenshot of builtwith.com in the main question hoping it would give anyone insight as to how I would code rules to set the canonicals.
-
Could you provide an approximate example that matches your real situation (a fake domain is fine, but with the same basic format)? This is a situation where fake examples that don't match the real situation probably won't help us (or you) much.
Once you have the spreadsheet, how are you going to translate that into tags? If this is a dynamic site, it would be better to be able to code rules to set the canonicals - and potentially much easier.
-
Following the same concept:
- Create a column (Column E) with the following information "then another column (Column F) with ""/>"
- In column G enter the following formula: =CONCATENATE(E1,Cell of Duplicate URL, F3).
The end result will have Column A with the Domain in it. Follow steps 6 & 7 to complete the process.
Feel free to send me a sample spreadsheet with some info and I can set it up for you.
-
Roberto, Thank you for your answer. I just realized that I was unclear when I asked the question. I already have the link containing the canonical tag for each of the URLs ready. That is what column A already contains. I need to add that into the section of the pages in column 2,3, and 4. I'm just unsure how to do this for 1800 rows each containing the correct URL in column A, and in column 2,3, and 4 the URLs of the duplicate content pages that need the link added to the section. Check the image below to see what I mean. I appreciate the effort though Farris
-
Farris,
This is the way I would do it.
You have the following columns created:
- Column A: "canonical" tag for UR
- Column B: Duplicate Content URL # 1
- Column Duplicate Content URL # 2
- Column Duplicate Content URL # 1
Follow the next steps:
- Create three more columns with to duplicate columns B, C, D
- Use the following formula on column B "**=CONCATENATE(A1,B1)" **
- Copy the same formula for columns C & D
- Replace the “B1” in your formula for the respective columns (i.e. Column C should have C1.)
- Copy & Paste the content of columns E, F, G (The copied columns with formulas) to all the rows.
- Once copied, the information in columns E, F, G should look like the end result that you want.
- if data is correct, copy columns E, F, G and paste in the same location but use Paste Special and paste values only. This will remove your formulas.
I hope this helps.
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
-
Should I deindex my pages?
I recently changed the URLs on a website to make them tidier and easier to follow. I put 301s in place to direct all the previous page names to the new ones. However, I didn't read moz's guide which says I should leave the old sitemap online for a few weeks afterwards. As I result, webmaster tools is showing duplicate page titles (which means duplicate pages) for the old versions of the pages I have renamed. Since the old versions are no longer on the sitemap, google can no longer access them to find the 301s I have put in place. Is this a problem that will fix itself over time or is there a way to quicken up the process? I could use webmaster tools to remove these old urls, but I'm not sure if this is recommended. Alternatively, I could try and recreate the old sitemap, but this would take a lot of time.
Technical SEO | | maxweb0 -
From page 1th to page 18th @ Google
Hello Mozzers! I have a question, you may help.. How may it be possible that a page ranking well (1th result) goes from 1th result to the 18th page just in 1 day? It doesnt seem to be any kind of penalization.. I now had all suspicious outgoing links to be nofollow (they were not before), this may be a cause .. (?) Do you have any other suggestion? Thanks
Technical SEO | | socialengaged0 -
50,000 pages or a page with parameters
I have a site with about 12k pages on a topic... each of these pages could use another several pages to go into deeper detail about the topic. So, I am wondering, for SEO purposes would it be better to have something like 50,000 new pages for each sub topic or have one page that I would pass parameters to and the page would be built on the fly in code behind. The drawback to the one page with parameters is that the URL would be static but the effort to implement would be minimal. I am also not sure how google would index a single page with parameters. The drawback to the 50k pages model is the dev effort and possibly committed some faux pas by unleashing so many links to my internal pages. I might also have to mix aspx with html because my project can't be that large. Anyone here ever have this sort of choice to make? Is there a third way I am not considering?
Technical SEO | | Banknotes0 -
Rel=Canonical Header Location
Hello, I've been trying to get our rel=canonical issues sorted out. A fellow named Ayaz very kindly pointed out that I'm trying to put the code into the wysisyg editor, but this might not be the best place to put the code. We are using Drupal 6. Where do I insert the code? head> <link rel="canonical" href="http://www.example.com/blog/my-awesome-blog-post"> Thanks!
Technical SEO | | OTSEO0 -
Determining When to Break a Page Into Multiple Pages?
Suppose you have a page on your site that is a couple thousand words long. How would you determine when to split the page into two and are there any SEO advantages to doing this like being more focused on a specific topic. I noticed the Beginner's Guide to SEO is split into several pages, although it would concentrate the link juice if it was all on one page. Suppose you have a lot of comments. Is it better to move comments to a second page at a certain point? Sometimes the comments are not super focused on the topic of the page compared to the main text.
Technical SEO | | ProjectLabs1 -
Hreflang on non-canonical pages
Hi! I've been trying to figure out what is the best way to solve this dilemma with duplicate content and multiple languages across domains. 1 product info page 2 same product but GREEN
Technical SEO | | LarsEriksson
3 same product but RED
4 same product but YELLOW **Question: ** Since pages 2,3,4 just varies slightly I use the canonical tag to indicate they are duplicates of page 1. Now I also want to indicate there are other language versions with the_ rel="alternate" hreflang="x" _element. Should I place the _rel="alternate" hreflang="x" _on the canonical page only pointing to the canonical page with "x" language. Should I place the _rel="alternate" hreflang="x" _on all pages pointing to the canonical page with the "x" language? Should I place the _rel="alternate" hreflang="x" _on all pages and then point it to the translated page (even if it is not a canonical page) ? /Lars0 -
Is there any value to a home page URL adding the /index.html ?
For proper SEO, which version would you prefer? A. www.abccompany.com B. www.abccompany.com/index.html Is there any value or difference with either home page URL??
Technical SEO | | theideapeople0 -
How to set up a rel canonical in big commmerce?
I have no clue how to set this up in the Bigcommerce store platform
Technical SEO | | Firestarter-SEO0