Duplicate Content From My Own Site?!
-
When I ran the SEO Moz report it says that I have a ton of duplicate content.
The first one I looked at was my home page.
All of the above 3 have varying internal links, page authority, and link root domains. Only the first has any external links.
All of the others only seem to have 1 other duplicate page. It's a difference between the www and the non-www version.
I have a verified acct for www.kisswedding.com in google webmaster tools. The non-www version is in there too but has not been verified.
Under settings for the verified account (www.kisswedding.com), "Don't set a preferred domain" is checked off. Is that my mistake. And if so, which should I select? The www version or the non-www version?
Thanks!
-
Hi Ryan
I'm really sorry, but could you tell me what rule(s) to add to my htaccess file. I've been to my host (bluehost) but they don't know. Nice eh!?
I'd really appreciate it. And SO sorry!
-
I think I just had a major Duh! moment. Instead of linking back to index.html could I have been linking back to / all this time?
YES! Once you decide upon a correct URL structure for your website, you should always link directly to the appropriate URL.
On your site, you have chosen http://www.kisswedding.com/ to represent your home page. 100% of your links to the home page should use that URL. Any non-www links and /index.html links should be changed to this format.
Also, any signatures you use and content on other sites which you have control over should be updated to the proper format. Facebook, twitter, articles you published on other sites, etc. should all be updated.
-
omg.
I think I just had a major Duh! moment. Instead of linking back to index.html could I have been linking back to / all this time?
And thank you for confirming. Much appreciated. It all seems logical and it's all stuff I thought needed to happen - but was hoping didn't.
-
Your understanding is correct. The most important item is #3.
You asked how do you know the www version because is getting more links
Well, I was taking your word for it. In your original question you stated "Only the first has any external links."
Since you asked I just checked and actually all 3 URLs have external links, but the www version has by far the most.
With respect to the index.html file, it does not have to exist but that is the way your site is currently set up. Either way, it is ok. Simply 301 redirect the /index.html page to the / page.
What you need to understand is that while on your site the /index.html page is the same as the / page, it is not necessarily that way on every site. Additionally while on your site the www and non-www version of a URL is the same page, it is not necessarily that way on every site. For this reason Google will treat each of these pages separately. It will appear to Google that you are duplicating content. Also, your link juice will be divided. A properly configured 301 redirect will resolve these issues.
-
Thank you Maurizio!!! Just what I needed to know!
-
Thank you so much Ryan.
You answered a lot of the questions I was contemplating. Can you confirm I've understood your suggestions?
1. Verify the non-www version in GWT
2. Set preferred domain to the www version because that's getting more links (how do you know that btw?).
3. Set up 301 redirects in my htaccess file.
4. You've recommended that i set my home page as http://www.kisswedding.com VERSUS http://kisswedding.com/index.html or http://kisswedding.com
--- question about this last one. Isn't the index.html always going to exist because if I link back to my site within my own site I use the index.html extension? In fact, all my links are like that - I don't include my entire site url when i'm linking from one page to another on the site.
-
Hi Susan.
I agree with Maurizio and will offer a few more details.
It is important for each web page on your site to only be accessible from a single URL. It is up to you to decide which URL you prefer, then ensure all other URLs are removed or redirected to your chosen URL.
With respect to www or non-www, it does not make any difference but is rather your choice. In this case, since you already have links to the www version and not the non-www version, I would recommend choosing the www version and sticking with it.
The most important change you need to make is on your site. You need to 301 redirect all non-www URLs to their www equivalent. If you are unsure how to make this change and have managed hosting (most small sites do) then contact your host and they can easily make the change. Once the change has been made, test it! First go to your non-www home page and make sure you are redirected. Next, go to any of your inner pages, remove the "www" from the URL and make sure you are redirected to the same page but with the "www" added to the URL.
For Google WMT, you need to verify the site first. You should not have to upload any new file or change any code, but simply click through the options and the site will likely verify. Next, choose the preferred domain as the "www" version. If you wish to be very thorough, you can log into Bing Webmaster Tools and perform the same action. Once your 301 redirect is in place, the search engines would automatically make the change anyway, but it will likely take a month for all the pages of your site to be adjusted.
For the index.html, I would recommend 301 redirecting that URL to your http://www.kisswedding.com/ url.
Lastly, please review all links on your site and ensure they all use the "www" prefix. Include any signatures, social pages (facebook, twitter, etc).
-
Hi
i think that is not different from wwww and without wwww but you must decide in the google webmaster tools.
and i think that you can rediret (301 permanent) with htaccess to show only one site online.
example if you decide to have http://www.kisswedding.com/ when somebody digit a url without wwww ( http://kisswedding.com) you can redirect to wwww.
So you can avoid a duplicate content
Ciao
Maurizio
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
-
How do sites without access to a site's analytical data, determine a site's organic traffic?
I've recently used a organic traffic checker that showed you your traffic compared to each google algo update. I was interested in how they derived the organic traffic totals for each month, without having access to our site's google analytics? I've since compared the data to historical google analytics data and it's not wrong, isn't 100% match either but isn't far from fact. So if they're predicting or making a guess, it's rather spot on, site crawlers and SERPs snapshots only provide so much info, I'm just wondering where they get the rest from and how?
Reporting & Analytics | | Deacyde0 -
Hello, our domain authority dropped significantly overnight from 37 to 29\. We have been building good links from high DA pages and producing quality, regular content.
Hello, our domain authority dropped significantly overnight from 37 to 29. We have been building good links from high DA sites and producing regular, good quality content. Anyone able to offer any ideas why? Thanks
Reporting & Analytics | | ProMOZ1231 -
Wordpress site with increase number of Crawl(400 response Code) errors in Others section of GWT
I have a wordpress site http://muslim-academy.com/I check in Google Webmasters tool today and I see the increase number of errors in Others area of Google webmaster Tool.The error code is 400http://muslim-academy.com/%D8%B3%D9%8A%D8%B1%D8%A9-%D8%AA%D8%A7%D8%B1%D9%8A%D8%AE%D9%8A%D8%A9-%D9%84%D9%84%D8%B1%D8%A6%D9%8A%D8%B3-%D8%AC%D9%85%D8%A7%D9%84-%D8%B9%D8%A8%D8%AF-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%86%D8%A7%D8%B5%D8%B1-2/%D8%B3%D9%....%3Cbr%20/%3E________________%3Cbr%20/%3E___________%3Ca%20href=?lang=zhOne of the example link of this error.Can you guide me why the number of errors are increasing and how to fix the existing errors.
Reporting & Analytics | | csfarnsworth0 -
Are organic search visitors always seen as organic in origin, even if their return to the site is direct?
Many of our conversions occur in a customers second visit to the site. Often, a customer will arrive at our site, submit a finance application, leave, and return at a later date to checkout. We are interested in tracking how many of our checkouts come from customers who originally found our site through an organic search result. If a customer enters the site through organic search, leaves, and returns later through an email link or directly entering our URL, will G analytics show that customer as direct or organic origin? Cheers, Ben
Reporting & Analytics | | WSPL0 -
Local site rankings have dropped off first page but Universal went up.
My site was performing first page locally on 6 of 20 keywords, and universally on 3 of 20 keywords. We started a link building campaign and optimization about 3 weeks ago. When I looked at the rankings today I was happy to see that 16 of 20 keywords were in the top 20 rankings universally, but not happy to see that only 1 of the 25 words were ranking locally now. I lost my local ranking on 5 very important keywords. I realize that you can not rank first page for both local and organic but its as if I traded my first page local ranking for a universal ranking that appears lower on the page. Maybe someone could point me in the right direction.
Reporting & Analytics | | whmgatx0 -
How serious are the Duplicate page content and Tags error?
I have a travel booking website which reserves flights, cars, hotels, vacation packages and Cruises. I encounter a huge number of Duplicate Page Title and Content error. This is expected because of the nature of my website. Say if you look for flights between Washington DC and London Heathrow you will at least get 60 different options with same content and title tags. How can I go about reducing the harm if any of duplicate content and meta tags on my website? Knowing that invariably I will have multiple pages with same content and tags? Would appreciate your advice? S.H
Reporting & Analytics | | sherohass0 -
Duplicate content? Split URLs? I don't know what to call this but it's seriously messing up my Google Analytics reports
Hi Friends, This issue is crimping my analytics efforts and I really need some help. I just don't trust the analytics data at this point. I don't know if my problem should be called duplicate content or what, but the SEOmoz crawler shows the following URLS (below) on my nonprofit's website. These are all versions of our main landing pages, and all google analytics data is getting split between them. For instance, I'll get stats for the /camp page and different stats for the /camp/ page. In order to make my report I need to consolidate the 2 sets of stats and re-do all the calculations. My CMS is looking into the issue and has supposedly set up redirects to the pages w/out the trailing slash, but they said that setting up the "ref canonical" is not relevant to our situation. If anyone has insights or suggestions I would be grateful to hear them. I'm at my wit's end (and it was a short journey from my wit's beginning ...) Thanks. URL www.enf.org/camp www.enf.org/camp/ www.enf.org/foundation www.enf.org/foundation/ www.enf.org/Garden www.enf.org/garden www.enf.org/Hante_Adventures www.enf.org/hante_adventures www.enf.org/hante_adventures/ www.enf.org/oases www.enf.org/oases/ www.enf.org/outdoor_academy www.enf.org/outdoor_academy/
Reporting & Analytics | | DMoff0 -
Unable to use Open Site Explorer
I have repeatedly tried to use Open Site Explorer on a site. I always get the same response: No Data Available for this URL The site is 4 months old. It is listed by Alexa in 1.3 million page category. The site ranks well on numerous key terms for the industry it covers. OSE offers 4 reasons for not having data: 1. Recency of page creation. In the explanation offered 45-60 days is the longest estimate it should take. The site has been live close to 120 days. 2. Deep down in the web. The tool doesn't even have any data for the site's home page. 3. Blocked pages. The site is listed in Google and these pages are not blocked. 4. No links. There are plenty of links. Site url is www.terapvp.com What can I do to fix this issue and get data?
Reporting & Analytics | | RyanKent0