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I have an E commerce site that I want to boost search rank for.  I had taken some else's advice and created a wp blog on a different url then created content around the products we offer and linked back to the main site using the specific keyword in anchor text.

I just joined seomoz earlier this month.   It seems like the main consensus here as far to install the blog in the domain.com/blog  and I just did that.  So now when I create content for that blog should I just link back to the specific categories and or products then? Should I be aware of duplicate content issues? So if the product is widgets and I am talking about widgets in the blog, or blog title, could they be competing or helping the main URL?

Hello,

So I have searched the Q & A , Google, the zen cart forum and at this point I am looking for some one to give a concrete answer on what I should do.  There is a lot of different opinions on " rel=canonical" and how to apply it , since there are many other variable in place.

I have a zen cart site.  I am using the latest 1.3.9 version.  The default setting ( seem to me) uses the  rel=canonical to point back to the specific link product or category respectively.

Most of the time I have two scenarios.

1. Main category --->  Sub category----> Product

2. Main Category----> Product

I'll give an example

http://www.perfectindesign.com/awards ---main category

http://www.perfectindesign.com/awards/acrylic-awards sub category

http://www.perfectindesign.com/awards/acrylic-awards/slanted-award  product

(this example has three sub categories with maybe 12 products in one 4 in the second and 5 in the third)

From looking at the source code for each url it the rel=canonical just points back to its own url.

I want to avoid competing against my self, for the example above keyword "acrylic awards" so should the use of the re=canonical be changes site wide to have products point back to sub categories when they exist and have products point back to main categories when no sub categories exist?

I am very new to seo, specifically eCommerce seo.   If you have experience and have done this to a site you manage for a client or your own please advise how to proceed. Also if I'm missing some thing that will give me a better understanding of the bigger seo picture that would be great.

Thanks,

Yevgeny

I have a follow question about this.  I have a zen cart eCommerce site.  Just learned and read both articles that Saibose mentioned but still not sure how to proceed.  I have dup content issues.  So do I use 301 or  rel=canonical? I have two variations. (that I see for now)

1.  Main category _ Sub category_product   examples below

http://www.perfectindesign.com/awards

http://www.perfectindesign.com/awards/acrylic-awards

http://www.perfectindesign.com/awards/acrylic-awards/slanted-award

Do I pass all link juice to the main category ie awards or sub cat.  (should mention there are three sub categories in this example.

2. Main category _product

same as above with out sub categories.

Thanks