Skip to content
    Moz logo Menu open Menu close
    • Products
      • Moz Pro
      • Moz Pro Home
      • Moz Local
      • Moz Local Home
      • STAT
      • Moz API
      • Moz API Home
      • Compare SEO Products
      • Moz Data
    • Free SEO Tools
      • Domain Analysis
      • Keyword Explorer
      • Link Explorer
      • Competitive Research
      • MozBar
      • More Free SEO Tools
    • Learn SEO
      • Beginner's Guide to SEO
      • SEO Learning Center
      • Moz Academy
      • SEO Q&A
      • Webinars, Whitepapers, & Guides
    • Blog
    • Why Moz
      • Agency Solutions
      • Enterprise Solutions
      • Small Business Solutions
      • Case Studies
      • The Moz Story
      • New Releases
    • Log in
    • Log out
    • Products
      • Moz Pro

        Your all-in-one suite of SEO essentials.

      • Moz Local

        Raise your local SEO visibility with complete local SEO management.

      • STAT

        SERP tracking and analytics for enterprise SEO experts.

      • Moz API

        Power your SEO with our index of over 44 trillion links.

      • Compare SEO Products

        See which Moz SEO solution best meets your business needs.

      • Moz Data

        Power your SEO strategy & AI models with custom data solutions.

      NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic
      Moz Pro

      NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic

      Learn more
    • Free SEO Tools
      • Domain Analysis

        Get top competitive SEO metrics like DA, top pages and more.

      • Keyword Explorer

        Find traffic-driving keywords with our 1.25 billion+ keyword index.

      • Link Explorer

        Explore over 40 trillion links for powerful backlink data.

      • Competitive Research

        Uncover valuable insights on your organic search competitors.

      • MozBar

        See top SEO metrics for free as you browse the web.

      • More Free SEO Tools

        Explore all the free SEO tools Moz has to offer.

      What is your Brand Authority?
      Moz

      What is your Brand Authority?

      Check yours now
    • Learn SEO
      • Beginner's Guide to SEO

        The #1 most popular introduction to SEO, trusted by millions.

      • SEO Learning Center

        Broaden your knowledge with SEO resources for all skill levels.

      • On-Demand Webinars

        Learn modern SEO best practices from industry experts.

      • How-To Guides

        Step-by-step guides to search success from the authority on SEO.

      • Moz Academy

        Upskill and get certified with on-demand courses & certifications.

      • SEO Q&A

        Insights & discussions from an SEO community of 500,000+.

      Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints
      Moz API

      Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints

      Find your plan
    • Blog
    • Why Moz
      • Small Business Solutions

        Uncover insights to make smarter marketing decisions in less time.

      • Agency Solutions

        Earn & keep valuable clients with unparalleled data & insights.

      • Enterprise Solutions

        Gain a competitive edge in the ever-changing world of search.

      • The Moz Story

        Moz was the first & remains the most trusted SEO company.

      • Case Studies

        Explore how Moz drives ROI with a proven track record of success.

      • New Releases

        Get the scoop on the latest and greatest from Moz.

      Surface actionable competitive intel
      New Feature

      Surface actionable competitive intel

      Learn More
    • Log in
      • Moz Pro
      • Moz Local
      • Moz Local Dashboard
      • Moz API
      • Moz API Dashboard
      • Moz Academy
    • Avatar
      • Moz Home
      • Notifications
      • Account & Billing
      • Manage Users
      • Community Profile
      • My Q&A
      • My Videos
      • Log Out

    The Moz Q&A Forum

    • Forum
    • Questions
    • Users
    • Ask the Community

    Welcome to the Q&A Forum

    Browse the forum for helpful insights and fresh discussions about all things SEO.

    1. Home
    2. SEO Tactics
    3. Intermediate & Advanced SEO
    4. Duplicate Content From Indexing of non- File Extension Page

    Moz Q&A is closed.

    After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.

    Duplicate Content From Indexing of non- File Extension Page

    Intermediate & Advanced SEO
    4
    22
    3383
    Loading More Posts
    • Oldest to Newest
    • Newest to Oldest
    • Most Votes
    Reply
    • Reply as question
    Log in to reply
    This topic has been deleted. Only users with question management privileges can see it.
    • WebbyNabler
      WebbyNabler last edited by

      Google somehow has indexed a page of mine without the .html extension.  so they indexed  www.samplepage.com/page, so I am showing duplicate content because Google also see's  www.samplepage.com/page.html   How can I force google or bing or whoever to only index and see the page including the .html extension?  I know people are saying not to use the file extension on pages, but I want to, so please anybody...HELP!!!

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • WebbyNabler
        WebbyNabler @Mike.Goracke last edited by

        Yeah I looked further into the URL removal, but I guess technically I did not meet the criteria....and honestly I am fearful other potential implications of removal....I guess I will just have to wait for the 301 to ick in.  I just cant believe there is not a simple .htaccess code to cause all URL's to show the .html extension.  I mean it is a simple thing to implement the reverse and have the extension dropped...I mean....good lord...

        Thanks for all your help though Mike, I truly appreciate the efforts!

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • Mike.Goracke
          Mike.Goracke @WebbyNabler last edited by

          LAME! You may just want to let the 301 redirect you have in place take its course or remove the URL from Google's index since it was added by mistake anyway.

          Mike

          WebbyNabler 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • WebbyNabler
            WebbyNabler @TakeshiYoung last edited by

            Nope. .....good lord....

            Mike.Goracke 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • WebbyNabler
              WebbyNabler @Mike.Goracke last edited by

              Nope. 😞

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • Mike.Goracke
                Mike.Goracke @TakeshiYoung last edited by

                If that does not work, give this a whirl:

                RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !\.[a-zA-Z0-9]{3,4}

                RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !/$

                RewriteRule ^(.*)$ $1.html

                WebbyNabler 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • TakeshiYoung
                  TakeshiYoung @WebbyNabler last edited by

                  Try:

                  RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
                  RewriteRule ^([^.]*[^./])$ /$1.html [R=301,L]

                  Mike.Goracke WebbyNabler 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • WebbyNabler
                    WebbyNabler @TakeshiYoung last edited by

                    That caused the same "500 Internal Server Error" .......   😞

                    TakeshiYoung 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • TakeshiYoung
                      TakeshiYoung @WebbyNabler last edited by

                      Try my code without all the other redirects, and see if it works. If it does, then add back the other redirects one by one until everything works.

                      WebbyNabler 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • WebbyNabler
                        WebbyNabler @Mike.Goracke last edited by

                        Oh, and my site auditor is seeing it as a directory with a file in it???  Ugghhh....

                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                        • WebbyNabler
                          WebbyNabler @Mike.Goracke last edited by

                          Nope.  Didn't work.  I am seriously about to lose my mind with this....

                          TakeshiYoung 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • Mike.Goracke
                            Mike.Goracke @WebbyNabler last edited by

                            Maybe give this a whirl:

                            If URL does not contain a period or end with a slash

                            RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !(.|/$)

                            append .html to requested URL

                            RewriteRule (.*) /$1.html [L]

                            WebbyNabler 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                            • WebbyNabler
                              WebbyNabler @TakeshiYoung last edited by

                              I get a server error when I do this?  Sooo confused...  Here is the htaccess changes I made.  FYI...I have removed the code you told me to put in there temporarily so the site's not down.  I attached the server error screenshot too...

                              Options +FollowSymlinks
                              RewriteEngine On

                              RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ! .html$
                              RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ! /$
                              RewriteRule ^(.*)$ $1.html

                              RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^hanneganconstructionllc.com [NC]
                              RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://hanneganremodeling.com/$1 [L,R=301]

                              RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www.hanneganconstructionllc.com [NC]
                              RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://hanneganremodeling.com/$1 [L,R=301]

                              RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^hremodeling.com [NC]
                              RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://hanneganremodeling.com/$1 [L,R=301]

                              RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www.hremodeling.com [NC]
                              RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://hanneganremodeling.com/$1 [L,R=301]

                              RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} ^[A-Z]{3,9}\ /index.html\ HTTP/
                              RewriteRule ^index.html$ http://www.hanneganremodeling.com/ [R=301,L]

                              RewriteBase /
                              RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^hanneganremodeling.com$ [NC]
                              RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.hanneganremodeling.com/$1 [R=301,L]

                              m9Kq8yJ

                              Mike.Goracke 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                              • TakeshiYoung
                                TakeshiYoung @WebbyNabler last edited by

                                You repeat this code a few times, maybe that's the problem? Pretty sure you only need it once:

                                RewriteEngine On
                                Options +FollowSymlinks
                                RewriteBase /

                                The line:

                                RewriteEngine On

                                Also only needs to be included once in an htaccess file. You may want to remove all the other instances.

                                Try adding this code at the very top, after the first "RewriteEngine On":

                                RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ! .html$
                                RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ! /$
                                RewriteRule ^(.*)$ $1.html

                                WebbyNabler 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                • WebbyNabler
                                  WebbyNabler @Mike.Goracke last edited by

                                  Thanks Mike, you are awesome!  I actually was thinking to do that, but I was concerned that it might have some larger implications?

                                  I also just resubmitted a sitemap so hopefully that "might" speed up the crawl process...

                                  Thanks again!

                                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                  • Mike.Goracke
                                    Mike.Goracke @WebbyNabler last edited by

                                    "I accidentally manually submitted the url to google and manually in submitted it to index and that when this issue began...."

                                    It sounds like you accidently added this URL to the index. You can follow the procedure outlined below to request Google remove the specific URL from the index:

                                    https://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=59819

                                    I checked your site's structure using Screaming Frog and it does not appear that you are linking to any non-.html versions. If I perform a scan using one of your non-.html pages, it appears that it only links to itself.

                                    Since you have the 301 redirect in place, you can choose to wait it out and Google should correct things eventually; otherwise, requesting Google remove the URL is a faster... PERMANENT process.

                                    Good luck.

                                    Mike

                                    WebbyNabler 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                                    • WebbyNabler
                                      WebbyNabler @NakulGoyal last edited by

                                      No it's not a wordpress, it was created with Dreamweaver.  I didn't make sample and sample.html same page, but google is treating it that way....  I have implemented the 301, so I guess I just have to wait for a crawl

                                      Mike.Goracke 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                      • WebbyNabler
                                        WebbyNabler @TakeshiYoung last edited by

                                        Thank you very for your input!  When I implement into my .htacces what you suggested I get a "Internet 500 Server Error" ?   Maybe it would help if I list what I currently have in my .htaccess  I had to redirect some old domains and did canonical redirects and default non .index....I hope this help, I am at my wit's end...  I also attached a screenshot of the webmaster warning... THANKS!!!

                                        Options +FollowSymlinks
                                        RewriteEngine On

                                        RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^hanneganconstructionllc.com [NC]
                                        RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://hanneganremodeling.com/$1 [L,R=301]

                                        RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www.hanneganconstructionllc.com [NC]
                                        RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://hanneganremodeling.com/$1 [L,R=301]

                                        RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^hremodeling.com [NC]
                                        RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://hanneganremodeling.com/$1 [L,R=301]

                                        RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www.hremodeling.com [NC]
                                        RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://hanneganremodeling.com/$1 [L,R=301]

                                        RewriteEngine on
                                        RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} ^[A-Z]{3,9}\ /index.html\ HTTP/
                                        RewriteRule ^index.html$ http://www.hanneganremodeling.com/ [R=301,L]

                                        RewriteEngine On
                                        Options +FollowSymlinks
                                        RewriteBase /
                                        RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^hanneganremodeling.com$ [NC]
                                        RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.hanneganremodeling.com/$1 [R=301,L]

                                        Options +FollowSymLinks
                                        RewriteEngine On
                                        RewriteBase /

                                        u1YvXLR

                                        TakeshiYoung 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                        • NakulGoyal
                                          NakulGoyal @WebbyNabler last edited by

                                          Is this a wordpress based site ? What CMS are you using ? How were you able to get domain.com/sample and domain.com/sample.html be the same page ? Either way, canonical tag is the correct solution in this case. There's no need for a 301 and if you do 301 redirects, you are not really fixing the issue caused by your CMS System.

                                          I would therefore strongly advise to use the canonical tag. That's the intended use of that tag.

                                          WebbyNabler 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                                          • TakeshiYoung
                                            TakeshiYoung @WebbyNabler last edited by

                                            A canonical tag won't physically redirect you when you visit the page, it just lets the search engines know which is the right page to index.

                                            If you want to actually redirect using .htaccess, try using this code

                                            RewriteEngine On

                                            RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ! .html$

                                            RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ! /$

                                            RewriteRule ^(.*)$ $1.html

                                            WebbyNabler 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                            • WebbyNabler
                                              WebbyNabler @TakeshiYoung last edited by

                                              I tried the canonical and when I enter the url without the .html, it doesn't resolve to the url with the .html extension.  I tried an .htaccess reirect...I am stumped, I can't get it to redirect automatically the the .html  I accidentally manually submitted the url to google and manually in submitted it to index and that when this issue began....

                                              TakeshiYoung NakulGoyal 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                              • TakeshiYoung
                                                TakeshiYoung last edited by

                                                Add a canonical tag to your header so that Google/Bing knows which version of your page they should be indexing.

                                                You can also try looking into where the link to the non-html page is coming from. If it's an internal link, just change it so that Google doesn't continue to crawl it.

                                                WebbyNabler 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                                • 1 / 1
                                                • First post
                                                  Last post

                                                Got a burning SEO question?

                                                Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.


                                                Start my free trial


                                                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.

                                                • See all categories

                                                Related Questions

                                                • AaronHurst

                                                  Solution to Duplicate Pages within Shopify

                                                  Thanks in advance for your time and expertise. I am having issues with duplicate page content and titles on a client's Shopify subdomain. Examples below. Two questions: #1 How can I solve this issue? Do I block the duplicate pages from being crawled? With meta NoIndex? Establish the main page as the canonical version and stop obsessing? Other... #2 Is it a big concern or am I needlessly obsessing? Feels like a concern that needs to be addressed, but maybe not? Duplicate Page Content Examples: #1 URL: http://shop.shopvandevort.com #1 Duplicate URLs: http://shop.shopvandevort.com/collections/all; http://shop.shopvandevort.com/collections/all?page=1 #2 URL: http://shop.shopvandevort.com/collections/accessories #2 Duplicate URLs: http://shop.shopvandevort.com/collections/accessories; http://shop.shopvandevort.com/collections/types?q=Accessories Duplicate Page Title Examples: http://shop.shopvandevort.com/collections/vendors?q=For%20Love%20And%20Lemons http://shop.shopvandevort.com/collections/for-love-lemons http://shopvandevort.com/blog/tag/for-love-and-lemons/ http://shop.shopvandevort.com/collections/for-love-lemons?page=1 Thanks again for taking a look here, very much appreciated.

                                                  Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | AaronHurst
                                                  0
                                                • Blink-SEO

                                                  Do internal links from non-indexed pages matter?

                                                  Hi everybody! Here's my question. After a site migration, a client has seen a big drop in rankings. We're trying to narrow down the issue. It seems that they have lost around 15,000 links following the switch, but these came from pages that were blocked in the robots.txt file. I was wondering if there was any research that has been done on the impact of internal links from no-indexed pages. Would be great to hear your thoughts! Sam

                                                  Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Blink-SEO
                                                  0
                                                • friendoffood

                                                  Pages are Indexed but not Cached by Google. Why?

                                                  Here's an example: I get a 404 error for this: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://www.qjamba.com/restaurants-coupons/ferguson/mo/all But a search for qjamba restaurant coupons gives a clear result as does this: site:http://www.qjamba.com/restaurants-coupons/ferguson/mo/all What is going on?  How can this page be indexed but not in the Google cache? I should make clear that the page is not showing up with any kind of error in webmaster tools, and Google has been crawling pages just fine.  This particular page was fetched by Google yesterday with no problems, and even crawled again twice today by Google  Yet, no cache.

                                                  Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | friendoffood
                                                  2
                                                • fablau

                                                  Is Google indexing Mp3 audio and MIDI music files? Can that cause any duplicate problems?

                                                  Hello, I own virtualsheetmusic.com website and we have several thousands of media files (Mp3 and MIDI files) that potentially Google can index. If that's the case, I am wondering if that could cause any "duplicate" issues of some sort since many of such media files have  exact file names or same meta information inside. Any thoughts about this issue are very welcome! Thank you in advance to anyone.

                                                  Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | fablau
                                                  0
                                                • deskstudio

                                                  How to Remove Joomla Canonical and Duplicate Page Content

                                                  I've  attempted to follow advice from the Q&A section. Currently on the site www.cherrycreekspine.com, I've edited the .htaccess file to help with 301s - all pages redirect to www.cherrycreekspine.com. Secondly, I'd added the canonical statement in the header of the web pages. I have cut the Duplicate Page Content in half ... now  I have a remaining 40 pages to fix up. This is my practice site to try and understand what SEOmoz can do for me. I've looked at some of your videos on Youtube ... I feel like I'm scrambling around to the Q&A and the internet to understand this product. I'm reading the beginners guide.... any other resources would be helpful.

                                                  Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | deskstudio
                                                  0
                                                • YNWA

                                                  Duplicate Content on Press Release?

                                                  Hi, We recently held a charity night in store. And had a few local celebs turn up etc... We created a press release to send out to various media outlets, within the press release were hyperlinks to our site and links on certain keywords to specific brands on our site. My question is, should we be sending a different press release to each outlet to stop the duplicate content thing, or is sending the same release out to everyone ok? We will be sending approx 20 of these out, some going online and some not. So far had one local paper website, a massive football website and a local magazine site. All pretty much same content and a few pics. Any help, hints or tips on how to go about this if I am going to be sending out to a load of other sites/blogs? Cheers

                                                  Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | YNWA
                                                  0
                                                • TauriU

                                                  Google is indexing wordpress attachment pages

                                                  Hey, I have a bit of a problem/issue what is freaking me out a bit. I hope you can help me. If i do site:www.somesitename.com search in Google i see that Google is indexing my attachment pages. I want to redirect attachment URL's to parent post and stop google from indexing them. I have used different redirect plugins in hope that i can fix it myself but plugins don't work. I get a error:"too many redirects occurred trying to open www.somesitename.com/?attachment_id=1982 ". Do i need to change something in my attachment.php fail? Any idea what is causing this problem? get_header(); ?> /* Run the loop to output the attachment. * If you want to overload this in a child theme then include a file * called loop-attachment.php and that will be used instead. */ get_template_part( 'loop', 'attachment' ); ?>

                                                  Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | TauriU
                                                  0
                                                • ContentWriterMicky

                                                  How to resolve Duplicate Page Content issue for root domain & index.html?

                                                  SEOMoz returns a Duplicate Page Content error for a website's index page, with both domain.com and domain.com/index.html isted seperately. We had a rewrite in the htacess file, but for some reason this has not had an impact and we have since removed it. What's the best way (in an HTML website) to ensure all index.html links are automatically redirected to the root domain and these aren't seen as two separate pages?

                                                  Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | ContentWriterMicky
                                                  0

                                                Get started with Moz Pro!

                                                Unlock the power of advanced SEO tools and data-driven insights.

                                                Start my free trial
                                                Products
                                                • Moz Pro
                                                • Moz Local
                                                • Moz API
                                                • Moz Data
                                                • STAT
                                                • Product Updates
                                                Moz Solutions
                                                • SMB Solutions
                                                • Agency Solutions
                                                • Enterprise Solutions
                                                Free SEO Tools
                                                • Domain Authority Checker
                                                • Link Explorer
                                                • Keyword Explorer
                                                • Competitive Research
                                                • Brand Authority Checker
                                                • MozBar Extension
                                                • MozCast
                                                Resources
                                                • Blog
                                                • SEO Learning Center
                                                • Help Hub
                                                • Beginner's Guide to SEO
                                                • How-to Guides
                                                • Moz Academy
                                                • API Docs
                                                About Moz
                                                • About
                                                • Team
                                                • Careers
                                                • Contact
                                                Why Moz
                                                • Case Studies
                                                • Testimonials
                                                Get Involved
                                                • Become an Affiliate
                                                • MozCon
                                                • Webinars
                                                • Practical Marketer Series
                                                • MozPod
                                                Connect with us

                                                Contact the Help team

                                                Join our newsletter
                                                Moz logo
                                                © 2021 - 2025 SEOMoz, Inc., a Ziff Davis company. All rights reserved. Moz is a registered trademark of SEOMoz, Inc.
                                                • Accessibility
                                                • Terms of Use
                                                • Privacy

                                                Looks like your connection to Moz was lost, please wait while we try to reconnect.