rel=canonical: trying to get Google to understand
Published on April 14th, 2009 Join the conversation »
I wrote a few days ago about how duplicate content can damage your site's visibility in search results. This first fix comes in the form of a simple line in your page header.
Back in February, Google announced it had begun supporting the rel=canonical hint in determining the definitive URL for an item of content. This sounds like a one-stop solution to all our duplicate content problems.
For example, my previous post can be reached by the full URL, but also (because of the Wordpress system defaults) via
http://seowebmonkey.com/?p=113
If someone decides to link to my post using that URL, it might therefore also enter the search index in addition to the full version - thus duplicate content.
Placing a rel=canonical instruction in your page’s header can resolve this problem before it occurs. It tells the search engine which URL to use as the definitive (canonical) URL for that page of content, regardless of what was used to get there.
Here’s an example for the above page:
<link rel="canonical" href="http://seowebmonkey.com/duplicate-content-web-applications/"/>
This sits within the <head> section of your page’s html.
This link-tag is supported by Google, Yahoo, Ask.com and Microsoft Live Search.
Does it work?
Google describes its support of rel=canonical as a “hint”. This means it will use the information to determine a canonical URL, but reserves the right to do what it wants when it feels like it. This seems to be a way to cover for errors that slip through the net. Search engines are rarely predictable, and no single method should be trusted in avoiding duplicate content.
For all content management systems in particular, this is an essential addition to the page output. How rapidly Google will change any existing duplicative content URLs that are already in its index is yet to be clearly determined, and this alone will not enable webmasters to explicitly request removal of duplicative URLs via the Google Webmaster Tools interface.
Direct removal of pages from Google’s search index will be covered in my next post.
Duplicate content in web applications
Published on April 10th, 2009 Leave your comment (1 so far) »
Arguably, the most prevalent blockage to strong visibility within search results is created by inadvertent duplicated pages of content.
Easy OSX hosts file editing with GasMask
Published on February 4th, 2009 Join the conversation »
It’s not often I come across a new utility that combines simplicity with easing a regular point of pain.
Linkbuilding nirvana - taking the pain out of one-way links
Published on January 20th, 2009 Leave your comment (8 so far) »
Still the most important factor in achieving and maintaining search engine positioning, quality link building is expensive and time consuming. Linkvana claims to have the answer.
Is Black-Hat SEO on the way out?
Published on January 6th, 2009 Join the conversation »
As long as there have been search engines, there have been active techniques to make the most of the search results for business and profit. But could the day of direct profits from search through clandestine activities be seeing the deep orange of a sunset?
Overcoming duplicate content filters - back-links are everything
Published on December 29th, 2008 Leave your comment (6 so far) »
Gaining Google visibility when your website content solely duplicates existing content can be tough. Here is one method of overcoming the duplicate competition.
PageRank, influence, and the silo
Published on December 16th, 2008 Join the conversation »
Every three months or so the general SEO community murmur grows to a muttering, and ultimately a cacophony of misunderstanding as PageRank Update Fever takes a grip. But the apparent excitement is tempered by the resurrection of the age old debate on whether PageRank has any value at all.
Jamming the scraper signals
Published on December 12th, 2008 Join the conversation »
Many bloggers have experienced their content being legitimately syndicated onto other sites and permit it to happen as part of their promotion. But many have also experienced the scrapers: sites that illegally duplicate entire blog contents, replicating new and old posts in order to populate their sites with content. A Wordpres plugin helps us fight back.
Google Searchwiki - blackhat SEOs rejoice
Published on December 10th, 2008 Join the conversation »
The recent release of Google’s Searchwiki offering the ability for individuals with a Google account to directly manipulate their personal search results for a particular term, created much speculation as to whether (or when) Google might start using such data outside the realm of the individual searcher. We now seem to be a step closer to confirmation of Searchwiki data influencing SERPs.
When the idea is worth more than the business
Published on December 1st, 2008 Leave your comment (1 so far) »
Imagine a summer coffee shop working session, just to kill the monotony of the home office, while across the room a small bubble of intensity was building.
The [prospective] client, late twenties, retaining his outdoor coat despite the humidity and non-functioning aircon, was sat without coffee - on the comfy leather sofa, of course. Web designer/developer turns up amongst apologies for his tardiness and carrying a tray containing coffee for himself and the client (and the web guy’s child who plays no part in this account).