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Duplicate Content and Canonical IssuesIs it just us, or does “canonical issues” sound like it might have something to do with the pope? If the term gives your brain a rash, don’t worry. Today we’ll help you understand this mystifying issue and determine whether your site is at risk. Duplicate ContentPicture this: You switch on your TV, and every channel is showing the same show, or nearly identical shows with slight costume variations. BO-ring! (And oh-so-painfully close to last Friday night’s TV lineup!) Duplicate content is the same or very similar on-page elements showing up under more than one URL, and search engines don’t like it. The rule of thumb is simple: We’re sorry to say that your site may for perfectly innocent reasons contain duplicate content. Here are some examples we’ve seen: • Printer-friendly versions of pages • Old versions of pages that exist at old URLs • A pointer domain, also called a masked domain, which redirects site visitors but hides the fact that they have been redirected by keeping the original domain name in the browser address bar • Several different URLs for the same product, generated by an e-commerce system • Pages with various tracking tags (for example, &affiliate-id=3) tacked onto the URLs • Articles or press releases that are reprinted from elsewhere on the Web If any of these situations sound familiar, don’t panic. We said search engines don’t like duplicate content we didn’t say they hate it the way they hate spam tactics. Google, for example, is likely to choose its favorite page from among the clones and filter the rest out of its index. According to Google, link authority will be consolidated onto the favored version of the page. Don’t count on that we think your page authority could be diluted between all the multiple versions of your pages. Worst-case scenario: If search engines run into a large amount of duplicate content on your site, they may throw the remote control up in frustration and stop, or slow, your website indexing. Here are several strategies for cleaning up or avoiding duplicate content on your website: • If multiple pages on the site display materials that are identical or nearly identical, duplicates should be excluded from indexing using the robots.txt file or a robots meta tag (you’ll learn how later this week), and only a single instance allowed into the search engines. • Domain masking is not recommended. Instead, use a 301 redirect (your webmaster or hosting company can help with this) from the secondary to the primary domain. • Any page URLs with a tacked-on tag should be excluded from search engine indexing. And remove any unnecessary URL parameters. • Each page should have a unique HTML title and meta description tag if you can’t make them unique, leave them off entirely. If the extent of duplicate content on your site is a few pages here and there, you probably don’t need to worry about it. Leave a sticky note for the person in charge of the website saying, “I’m coming for you.” Canonical IssuesIf we tell you how to pronounce canonical, do you promise you won’t use your knowledge to make other people feel dumb? All right then: it’s pronounced can-ON-ical. Canonical issues are a special case of duplicate content. Here’s how: In the eyes of the search engines, the following four URLs are four different pages: • yourdomain.com/ • yourdomain.com/default.asp • yourdomain.com • yourdomain.com/default.asp Now, you know and we know that these are actually pointing to the same page, and we figure that soon enough the search engines will get it right. But for now, most search engines have what industry insiders call a canonical URL problem (canonical is a programmer’s term for “standard,” so a canonical URL would be the standard or preferred URL for your website) and it can have a significant effect on your SEO success: Here’s how to zap canonical issues: • Ensure that all internal links within your site point to the same URL version. Choose a format and stick with it. • Set up a 301 redirect that always points the variant URL(s) to your preferred URL. That will help search engines know which one is your preference. (By the way, this could be a tricky one for your webmaster, so don’t suggest it without some sort of bribe in hand.) • If there are inbound links from other websites pointing to the wrong URL format, write to them and ask for an update. • Log into your Google Webmaster Tools and set up a preferred URL. |
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