Can I redirect when Google is showing these as 2 different pages?
-
Hi Guys, Google webmaster is showing 1000 duplicate title tags because its picking up our pages like this. How can I correct this? Please explain in detail please. Thank You Tim /store/ICICLES_NO_7_CLEAR_WITH_PINK_NUBBY//store/ICICLES_NO_7_CLEAR_WITH_PINK_NUBBY
-
Thanks Man that helps a lot. We will implement asap and see if it takes care of the problem. Have a great weekend.
-
This post covers Apache redirects in-depth.
Read this if you don't want an entire overview:
"Part 4 - How can I add a trailing slash to requested URLs ?
Description of the problem:
Some search engines remove the trailing slash from urls that look like directories - e.g. Yahoo does it. However it could result into duplicated content problems when the same page content is accessible under different urls. Apache gives some more information in the Apache Server FAQ.
Let's have a look at an example: domain.com/google/ is indexed in Yahoo as domain.com/google - which would result in two urls with the same content.
Solution:
The solution is to create a .htaccess rewrite rule that adds the trailing slashes to these urls. Example - redirect all urls that do not have a trailing slash to urls with a trailing slash:
RewriteEngine On RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !example.php RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !(.*)/$ RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://domain.com/$1/ [L,R=301]
Explanation of the add trailing slash .htaccess rewrite rule:
The first line tells Apache that this is code for the rewrite engine of the mod_rewrite module of Apache. The 2nd line sets the current directory as page root. But the interesting part is:
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
makes sure that existing files will not get a slash added. You shouldn't do the same with directories since this would exclude the rewrite behavior for existing directories. The line
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !example.php
excludes a sample url that should not be rewritten. This is just an example. If you do not have a file or url that should not be rewritten, remove this line. The condition:
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !(.*)/$
finally fires when a url does not contain a trailing slash. Now we need to redirect the urls without the trailing slash:
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://domain.com/$1/ [L,R=301]
does the 301 redirect to the url, with the trailing slash appended. You should replace domain.com with your url."
-
Hi Daniel, I understand it needs redirected. But for some reason I dont understand what that redirect would look like for just a trailing slash. Do you have an example. Sorry redirects are not my strong point. It is a apache server running linux.
-
You have a trailing slash canonical issue. There are two version of every page on your site. The slash version and the non-slash version.
Find out which version has the most links going to it. Using Open Site Explorer is one way. And then 301 redirect all of the pages from the less popular version to the more popular version.
Directions for a 301 redirect can be found in the Web Developer's SEO Cheat Sheet:
http://static.seomoz.org/user_files/SEO_Web_Developer_Cheat_Sheet.pdf
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 the canonical tag for the redirected pages be changed
Hi! Does anyone know if the canonical tag of the old redirected page should be changed, and include the URL of the new destination? Thanks in advance.
Technical SEO | | AnahitG0 -
Is 301 redirect replacing or adding PA on a page ?
Hello Moz community, I am re-structuring information architecture on a website. The homepage targets keyword A
Technical SEO | | Sindicic_Alexis
There is a page /page-on-B/ that targets keyword B
There is also an older page /page-on-kinda-B/ that targets a keyword which is really close to B ( i think they should have been worked on the same page...) I want to re-optimise the homepage on keyword B because i know it is worth the effort. If i re-write the homepage to talk about B and do a 301 redirect of : /page-on-B/
/page-on-kinda-B/ to the homepage is it going to add page authority to the homepage ? is it the right way to proceed ?
Thanks for your support !0 -
How to stop google from indexing specific sections of a page?
I'm currently trying to find a way to stop googlebot from indexing specific areas of a page, long ago Yahoo search created this tag class=”robots-nocontent” and I'm trying to see if there is a similar manner for google or if they have adopted the same tag? Any help would be much appreciated.
Technical SEO | | Iamfaramon0 -
How to Stop Google from Indexing Old Pages
We moved from a .php site to a java site on April 10th. It's almost 2 months later and Google continues to crawl old pages that no longer exist (225,430 Not Found Errors to be exact). These pages no longer exist on the site and there are no internal or external links pointing to these pages. Google has crawled the site since the go live, but continues to try and crawl these pages. What are my next steps?
Technical SEO | | rhoadesjohn0 -
SEOMOZ and Webmaster Tools showing Different Page Index Results
I am promoting a jewelry e-commerce website. The website has about 600 pages and the SEOMOZ page index report shows this number. However, webmaster tools shows about 100,000 indexed pages. I have no idea why this is happening and I am sure this is hurting the page rankings in Google. Any ideas? Thanks, Guy
Technical SEO | | ciznerguy1 -
Can you do a 301 redirect without a hosting account?
Trying to retire domain1 and 301 it to domain2 - just don't want to get stuck having to pay the old hosting provider simply to serve a .htaccess file with the redirect rule.
Technical SEO | | TitanDigital0 -
Pages not Indexed after a successful Google Fetch
I am trying to understand why google isn't indexing key content on my site. www.BeyondTransition.com is indexed and new pages show up in a couple of hours. My key content is 6 pages of information for each of 3000 events (driven by mySQL on a wordpress platform). These pages are reached via a search page, but no direct navigation from the home page. When I link to an event page from an indexed page it doesn't show up in search results. When I use fetch on webmaster tools the fetch is successful but is then not indexed - or if it does appear in results it's directed to the internal search page e.g. http://www.beyondtransition.com/site/races/course/race110003/ has been fetched and submitted with links but when I search for BeyondTransition Ironman Cozumel I get these results.... So what have I done wrong and how do I go about fixing it? All thoughts and advice appreciated Thanks Denis
Technical SEO | | beyondtransition0 -
Redirect Flash Site for Google Only - Is this against TOS?
A photographer client has a flash website, purchased as from a (well respected) template company. The main site is at the root domain, and the HTML version is at www.example.com/?load=html If I visit the site on a browser without Flash installed, I am re-directed automatically to the HTML version. I'm concerned as the site has some great links and the HTML version is well optimised, but doesn't appear anywhere in Google for chosen keywords (ranks perfectly for brand related searches). Google is indexing the Flash version of the site, but I would rather it didn't (there's no real content (just Javascript to load the SWF) and all of the pages load under one URL). How can I block the Flash version from Google but still make the incoming links count towards the HTMl version of the site? If I re-direct Google to the HTML version, is this cloaking, and is it frowned upon? Thanks for any advice you can offer.
Technical SEO | | cmaddison0