Duplicate content error?
-
I am seeing an error for duplicate content for the following pages:
http://www.bluelinkerp.com/contact/
http://www.bluelinkerp.com/contact/index.asp
Doesn't the first URL just automatically redirect to the default page in that directory (index.asp)? Why is it showing up as separate duplicate pages?
-
@Streamline is right - as soon as the engines encounter both versions, they see it as two pages. It's no problem for human visitors, but it can create issues with duplicate URLs in the Google index. You can either 301-redirect the "index.asp" version back to the cleaner, root URL or use a canonical. ASP/.Net can be weird about 301s, so the canonical is probably easier.
Generally, we suggest people canonical to the shorter/friendlier version, but the trouble here is that you're using the "/index.asp" version in your internal links. If you can change the internal links to the "/contact/" version, I'd prefer that, but if not, then set the canonical tag to the "/index.asp" version. The most important thing is consistency. If you link to one version but canonical to the other, Google could ignore your canonical tag. Put simply, your canonical URL isn't really canonical, in that case.
-
Thanks for the response! Is it best practice to specify the canonical URL as the "unspecific" link? Should I not rather specify the canonical URL as "http://www.bluelinkerp.com/contact/index.asp"?
-
They're two different URLs.
If the URL changes but the content stays the same then it's classed as duplicate content.
I feel your pain though - the amount of duplicate pages I've ended up with just because copywriters like to capitalize their words...
-
There's several possible ways the search engines could have come across both versions of that page. If I had to guess, it's because somewhere on the web or even on your own website there are links to both URLs. It's a pretty common issue but one that is easily resolved with the rel="canonical" tag.
Simply put the following code in the header of that page -
This tells the search engines to use your designated URL anytime they access that page.
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
-
Duplicate Pages
Hello, we have an issue which I'm hoping someone can help with. Our Moz system is saying that this page http://www.indigolittle.com/fees/ Is a duplicate page. We use this page purely for mobiles and we have added code to say This has been on for over a month now however Moz is still picking the page us as a High Priority Issue.
Moz Pro | | popcreativeltd0 -
Moz crawl duplicate pages issues
Hi According to the moz crawl on my website I have in the region of 800 pages which are considered internal duplicates. I'm a little puzzled by this, even more so as some of the pages it lists as being duplicate of another are not. For example, the moz crawler considers page B to be a duplicate of page A in the urls below: Not sure on the live link policy so ive put a space in the urls to 'unlive' them. Page A http:// nuchic.co.uk/index.php/jeans/straight-jeans.html?manufacturer=3751 Page B http:// nuchic.co.uk/index.php/catalog/category/view/s/accessories/id/92/?cat=97&manufacturer=3603 One is a filter page for Curvety Jeans and the other a filter page for Charles Clinkard Accessories. The page titles are different, the page content is different so Ive no idea why these would be considered duplicate. Thin maybe, but not duplicate. Like wise, pages B and C are considered a duplicate of page A in the following Page A http:// nuchic.co.uk/index.php/bags.html?dir=desc&manufacturer=4050&order=price Page B http:// nuchic.co.uk/index.php/catalog/category/view/s/purses/id/98/?manufacturer=4001 Page C http:// nuchic.co.uk/index.php/coats/waistcoats.html?manufacturer=4053 Again, these are product filter pages which the crawler would have found using the site filtering system, but, again, I cannot find what makes pages B and C a duplicate of A. Page A is a filtered result for Great Plains Bags (filtered from the general bags collection). Page B is the filtered results for Chic Look Purses from the Purses section and Page C is the filtered results for Apricot Waistcoats from the Waistcoat section. I'm keen to fix the duplicate content errors on the site before it goes properly live at the end of this month - that's why anyone kind enough to check the links will see a few design issues with the site - however in order to fix the problem I first need to work out what it is and I can't in this case. Can anyone else see how these pages could be considered a duplicate of each other please? Checking ive not gone mad!! Thanks, Carl
Moz Pro | | daedriccarl0 -
Why SEOmoz bot consider these as duplicate pages?
Hello here, SEOmoz bot has recently marked the following two pages as duplicate: http://www.virtualsheetmusic.com/score/PatrickCollectionFlPf.html?tab=mp3 http://www.virtualsheetmusic.com/score/PatrickCollectionFlPf.html?tab=pdf I don't personally see how these pages can be considered duplicate since their content is quite different. Thoughts??!!
Moz Pro | | fablau0 -
SEOmoz duplicate content checker
From my reports in seomoz i can see pages that are showing as having duplicate content but when i click on them it does not show me which pages are carrying the duplicate content? Is there any way to check this via semoz reports?
Moz Pro | | jazavide0 -
Port 80 and Duplicate Content
The SEOmoz Web App is showing me that every single URL on one of my clients' domains has a duplicate in the form of the URL + :80. For instance, the app is showing me that www.example.com/default.aspx is duplicated in the form of www.example.com:80/default.aspx Any idea if this is an actual problem or just some kind of reporting error? Any help would be appreciated.
Moz Pro | | AnthonyMangia0 -
How to handle crawl diagnostic errors for the same url. /products & /products/
I have copied on of the errors out of the crawl diagnostics report. Both /products and /products/ are returning an error, and both have pretty good domain authority so I feel like its hurting my site that these show up this way. Both urls create the same page, should I just setup a 301 on the /products with no slash or will that cause more harm... I am using the MODx cms system and that could have something to do with it. | Products | Datalight http://www.datalight.com/products 1 37 5 Products | Datalight http://www.datalight.com/products/ | 1 | 30 | 1 |
Moz Pro | | tjsherrill0 -
4xx (not found) errors seem spurious, caused by a "\" added to the URL
Hi SEOmoz folks We're getting a lot of 404 (not found) errors in our weekly crawl. However the weird thing is that the URLs in question all have the same issue. They are all a valid URL with a backsalsh ("") added. In URL encoding, this is an extra %5C at the end of the URL. Even weirder, we do not have any such URLs in our (Wordpress-based) website. Any insight on how to get rid of this issue? Thanks
Moz Pro | | GPN0 -
What the . . ! Duplicate Pages and Titles WAY up?
My duplicate pages went up 50 plus in the past week, and my duplicate page titles went over more then 100. We recently redesigned the website, but it has been up for several weeks now. The only change I made specifically last week or late the week before was to get my 301 redirects done to get the www. version and the non www version pointing to the same place (as well as a couple other sites that point to it). I'm sure this is not enough info to figure out what went wrong . . . I'd love some help in figuring this out though.
Moz Pro | | damon12120