Http v https Duplicate Issues
-
Hello,
I noticed earlier an issue on my site.
http://mysite.com and https://mysite.com both had canonical links pointing to themselves so in effect creating duplicate content.
I have now taken steps to ensure the https version has a canonical that points to the http version but I was wondering what other steps would people recommend? Is it safe to NOINDEX the https pages? Or block them via robots.txt or both?
We are not quite ready to go fully HTTPS with our site yet (I know Google now prefers this)
Any thoughts would be very much appreciated.
-
Since HTTPS is now a ranking signal, it is better to use the HTTPS version as the canonical. I would personally make every page of the site HTTPS via 301 redirections (or rel=canonical but those can be trickier to implement).
http://site.com --301--> https://site.com
http://site.com/page1/ --301--> https://site.com/page1/
etc.This may require a few changes to the site (internal links shouldn't have unnecessary redirections, adding the HTTPS site to Search Consol (webmaster tools), etc.) so make sure you look around for resources on migration.
If you decide to keep HTTP only, do not noindex or disallow HTTPS because you may have valuable links pointing to HTTPS which help your ranking.
-
Thanks for your replies. Although I'm still confused.
I have areas of the site that are and should be https (checkout etc) and these pages have canonical links pointing to the https version.
The rest of my site however is still on http but the https versions can be accessed via their urls. What I have done today is to add a canonical tag to the https pages to point to the http pages. Is this the correct thing to do to avoid a duplicate content issue?
-
Hi,
I agree with Patrick, if you are not using the https then the safest way to ensure no canonical content is to remove it all together.
If you are using it partially such as checkouts and user areas, then you could 301 redirect the https traffic for the other pages to their https counterparts until you are ready to go full https.
Kind Regards
-
Hi there
If your site is not ready to go fully https, I would hold off on it until you are, unless you have a checkout process or information gathering portion of the site that should be https.
Reason being - the https isn't providing any ranking factor value as it's being canonicalized to the http version of your site, so you're not getting the value.
When you are ready to go https, I recommend taking a look at this Moz resource, specifically the section under SEO checklist to preserve your rankings.
Hope this helps! Good luck!
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 content issue on Magento platform
We have a lot of duplicate pages (600 urls) on our site (total urls 800) built on the Magento e-commerce platform. We have the same products in a number of different categories that make it easy for people to choose which product suits their needs. If we enable the canonical fix in Magento will it dramatically reduce the number of pages that are indexed. Surely with more pages indexed (even though they are duplicates) we get more search results visibility. I'm new to this particular SEO issue. What do the SEO community have to say on this matter. Do we go ahead with the canonical fix or leave it?
Technical SEO | | PeterDavies0 -
150+ Pages of URL Parameters - Mass Duplicate Content Issue?
Hi we run a large e-commerce site and while doing some checking through GWT we came across these URL parameters and are now wondering if we have a duplicate content issue. If so, we are wodnering what is the best way to fix them, is this a task with GWT or a Rel:Canonical task? Many of the urls are driven from the filters in our category pages and are coming up like this: page04%3Fpage04%3Fpage04%3Fpage04%3F (See the image for more). Does anyone know if these links are duplicate content and if so how should we handle them? Richard I7SKvHS
Technical SEO | | Richard-Kitmondo0 -
Duplicate Page Title
Hi I just got back from first crawl report and there were plenty of errors. I know this has been asked before but I am newbie here so bear with me. I captured the video. Any ideas on how to address the issue? ktXKDxRttK
Technical SEO | | mcardenal0 -
Is this considered Duplicate Content?
Good Morning, Just wondering if these pages are considered duplicate content? http://goo.gl/t9lkm http://goo.gl/mtfbf Can you please take a look and advise if it is considered duplicate and if so, what should i do to fix... Thanks
Technical SEO | | Prime850 -
Duplicate page error
SEO Moz gives me an duplicate page error as my homepage www.monteverdetours.com is the same as www.monteverdetours.com/index is this actually en error? And is google penalizing me for this?
Technical SEO | | Llanero0 -
Duplicate titles Question
Hi eveyone, I have around 1000 duplicate titles and meta description. The poblem was that I had pages in my home page and different pages had the same title. For example, index.php/site/articles/should_you_eat_protein_every_2-3_hours_for_muscle_growth/
Technical SEO | | anoopbal/index.php/site/articles/should_you_eat_protein_every_2-3_hours_for_muscle_growth/N12/
/index.php/site/articles/should_you_eat_protein_every_2-3_hours_for_muscle_growth/N1444/
/index.php/site/articles/should_you_eat_protein_every_2-3_hours_for_muscle_growth/N1448/
/index.php/site/articles/should_you_eat_protein_every_2-3_hours_for_muscle_growth/N1448/P6/
/index.php/site/articles/should_you_eat_protein_every_2-3_hours_for_muscle_growth/N1452/I have 172 of the same page!So I took off all the pagination on my home page and just added 'click fo more'. When they click more, it takes them to the category.So my question is will google slowly start deleting or non-indexing these duplicate titles or pages as I have removed it from my website? (Just so that you know I added a canonical link and figuring out how to add page numbers to met titles and meta description tags for categories with pages)
0 -
Local Search | Website Issue with Duplicate Content (97 pages)
Hi SEOmoz community. I have a unique situation where I’m evaluating a website that is trying to optimize better for local search and targeting 97 surrounding towns in his geographical location. What is unique about this situation is that he is ranking on the 1st and 2nd pages of the SERPs for his targeted keywords, has duplicate content on 97 pages to his site, and the search engines are still ranking the website. I ran the website’s url through SEOmoz’s Crawl Test Tool and it verified that it has duplicate content on 97 pages and has too many links (97) per page. Summary: Website has 97 duplicate pages representing each town, with each individual page listing and repeating all of the 97 surrounding towns, and each town is a link to a duplicate page. Question: I know eventually the site will not get indexed by the Search Engines and not sure the best way to resolve this problem – any advice?
Technical SEO | | ToddSEOBoston0 -
Duplicate Content Issue
Hi Everyone, I ran into a problem I didn't know I had (Thanks to the seomoz tool) regarding duplicate content. my site is oxford ms homes.net and when I built the site, the web developer used php to build it. After he was done I saw that the URL's looking like this "/blake_listings.php?page=0" and I wanted them like this "/blakes-listings" He changed them with no problem and he did the same with all 300 pages or so that I have on the site. I just found using the crawl diagnostics tool that I have like 3,000 duplicate content issues. Is there an easy fix to this at all or does he have to go in and 301 Redirect EVERY SINGLE URL? Thanks for any help you can give.
Technical SEO | | blake-766240