Welcome back to my series on fixing canonical URL issues. Here again are the areas of canonical URL issues:

1. Protocols (http and https)
2. Domain and subdomain names (sometimes referred to as host names)
3. URL paths
4. File names
5. Case sensitivity (when myPage.html is handled differently than MYPage.HTML)
6. Query strings
7. Combinations of any or all of the above

In my last post, I discussed how protocols (http and https) can present un-canonical URLs to the search engines and how it can create duplicate content. Let’s pick up where we left off.

You have two domain names, example.com and example.biz. You want traffic to example.biz to see content at example.com. Your hosting company set up your web hosting account on their servers to be able to show visitors to www.example.com and visitors to example.com using the same files (that way you don’t have to maintain two versions of, say, the Home Page). This is the default way most hosting companies create new accounts.

To fix canonical URL issues related to different top-level domains (e.g. edu, com, org, us, etc. — look out for anythinggoes top-level domains as well), domains and/or different (or no) subdomains, you can set up your server to show content from the non-canonical domain(s) to the visitor while, at the same time, that content is banned from being indexed by the engines (using a robots.txt file or the robots meta tag) or the visitor and search engine needs to be properly redirected to the canonical domain. First, choose which subdomain/domain/top-level domain combination you want to be canonical. Set up the web servers or hosting accounts that host the non-canonical domain to ‘301 redirect’ to the canonical domain using the same rewrite rules or the ‘include’ method I previously discussed. (In a future post, I will discuss URL rewriting on Apache servers and compare it to URL rewriting on Windows servers.) Be aware that if you bought multiple domain names from a registrar, only your canonical domain may be actually hosted, while the other domains may be using their ‘forwarding’ service to redirect to your canonical domain. If you use their forwarding service or even their ‘301 redirect’ feature, they may not implement a 301 redirect consistently or properly. I am speaking from first-hand experience with well-known hosting companies.

You were categorizing your pages and realized that you accidentally placed a page in both the /blog/Colors directory and the /blog/shapes directory. This could happen from physically copying a file to another directory or perhaps you are using a blogging application (or any web application for that matter) and categorized a post in two categories. In the latter case, if the blogging application does not handle cross-posts in an SEO friendly way, you might have duplicate content issues.

As far as the URL path goes, it would be a good idea to know which URLs have duplicate content of other URLs on your site. If you don’t know, try the tools offered by Google’s Webmaster Tools. Different web applications and different types of web applications (such as blog software from vendor A vs. vendor B or CMS software from vendor C) handle canonical URL paths differently. Check what web application is powering the pages at those URLs. Also see if there are add-ons or plugins for your software that can handle duplicate content issues created from assigning multiple tags or categories to content. They could add a robots meta tag to one of the duplicate pages.

Other ways to handle this is to 301 redirect one of the duplicate pages to the other. In a pinch, and depending on the URL structure of your site, you may be able to use the robots.txt file to exclude a certain section or an exact URL of your site from the indexes, thereby removing the duplicate content while making sure that any other page in that section is not removed from the index. You want to be careful which URL you redirect from or block using the robots.txt file, because one of those URLs might be more optimized than the other.

Please remember to read my next post in this series about file names, the mysterious forward slash at the end of URLs and case sensitivity in URLs. Check back soon!

While doing research for a client, I stumbled upon some interesting things that Google is doing.  While they are not big changes, I thought it would be good to show them off and give my 2 cents!

Ever notice how some websites have a splash or entrance page?  Do they annoy you?  They do me.  It seems to me that this is an extra click which is really unnecessary.  It looks as though Google has recognized this dilemma and is now giving us the choice of viewing the entrance page, or going straight to the regular homepage.  See example below:

If you were to click on the yellow area, you would be taken to the entrance page.  If you click on the light blue area, you bypass the entrance page and go right to the homepage. 

What I get from this is that Google realizes that most people don’t want to sit though a flash intro or view a splash page.  So, if you are thinking about adding a splash page, you may want to think about this and if it is worth your time if people will be skipping over it anyway.  Invest your time in adding good quality content and links to your site!

Google Cache
In the last few weeks, Google has changed the look of the information it is giving when you check you website’s cache.  In the past the Google Cache looked like this:

It is now displaying like this:

The information is the same, but Google is now giving it with a cleaner look.  To learn more information about Google’s cache tools, you can click on the “learn more” button.

What does one do when trying to learn the complex, ever evolving world of SEO? Is it as hard as explaining what an SEO engineer is to your friends and family? Definitely not, as there are some awesome free tools to both guide you through the world of SEO and to help you in the process of making the most Search Engine friendly site possible.

It’s amazing to me the vast array of “stuff” out there when putting yourself through the exercise of getting the best SEO learning experience.

While searching through the milieu of learning tools, I stumbled across some keepers. These may seem basic and rudimentary to most of the seasoned pros out there, but they serve as a great foundation for those newer to the field.

I avoided the obvious suggestion of just reading “Search Engine Optimization For Dummies” as I‘ve never read it nor plan to, but in no particular order here are some top tools for SEO newbies:

Lynda.com (visual online training)

For a mere $25 a month, you get access to a whole suite of techie articles, but for the purposes of this blog post, the SEO class by Richard John Jenkins is really informative. The entire class lasts about 9 hours and you can learn at your own pace. The class itself is a few years old (he talks about Yahoo Overture as something that has yet to be phased out), with that aside, it’s a great learning tool. Mr. Jenkins talks in layman’s terms, so it’s easy to follow for all the newbs.

Webconfs.com

A very cool website that combines tutorials and free SEO tools. There’s even an SEO quiz! Tools include Search Engine Spider Simulator, Backlink Checker and even a Screen Resolution Simulator!

Sempoinstitute.com

Everyone knows about this I’m sure. Created to provide education to the industry and to promote growth in the field, it’s a great site for both beginners and veterans.

I could go on and on about the plethora of sites out there, but these are a few you should find helpful!