[Shadow44]

Yesterday I downloaded microsoft IIS Manager and run it to check my website,it came back with several errors.

1) There wasn't any H1 on any of the pages,I have corrected this and added some H1 and H2.

2)It says there are 84 canonical errors and suggests to do this to correct them :

Pick a canonical URL format for your site and then ensure that all the links in your site follow that format. (For example, always use lowercase letters.) If an external link that points to your site does not use the canonical URL format, use permanent HTTP redirection to redirect site visitors and search engines to a canonical equivalent of that URL.

Am I to understand after reading a article yesterday that I need to add this to my pages in the "head Section" : "<link rel="canonical" href="http://www.sheergoldweddingcars.co.uk/index" />" and point all my pages to the index page ???


I am not understanding this at all can someone please help me out

[rallport]

Do people use Google anymore????

Simply put, you want one URL and one URL only for each page. For example, a product on an ecommerce site should only be accessible through one location. So say the following urls:

site.com/shirt.html
site.com/shirts-23.html
site.com/view/product/23.html etc

all went to the same page you should set a canonical tag, using your preferred url. This isn;t always needed when you've coded your site well.

You also see the canonical tag used on filters pages. E.g. all the following urls go to site.com/shirts

site.com/shirts/page/2
site.com/shirts?page=2
site.com/shirts?page=2&sort=23
site.com/shirts/?sort=23&page=2
site.com/shirts?page=2&sort=23&order=2

etc. For that page, you'd definitely want to set a canonical url of your preferred page, without all the filters, so: site.com/shirts/page/2

[Shadow44]

rallport, on 01 December 2011 - 05:02 PM, said:

Do people use Google anymore????

Simply put, you want one URL and one URL only for each page. For example, a product on an ecommerce site should only be accessible through one location. So say the following urls:




etc. For that page, you'd definitely want to set a canonical url of your preferred page, without all the filters, so: site.com/shirts/page/2

The problem appears to be the navigation bar,it's generated more urls apparently ie:

The page with URL "http://www.example.co.uk/images/img0001.gif" can also be accessed by using URL "http://www.example.co.uk/images/img0014.gif".

So do I redirect them to internal page or just put a canonical on each page in the head ?
Thanks for your reply I am new to this and finding difficult to understand ...do I put a canonical on each of my pages except my index page ( the one I want to use ) if you understand.

Would it be this I need to enter ? : <link rel="canonical" href="http://www.example.co.uk/index" />

[rallport]

I wrote a small post about the canonical url tag on my blog. Google also wrote a post about it too: http://googlewebmast...-canonical.html

May be worth you reading.

[Shadow44]

rallport, on 02 December 2011 - 11:11 AM, said:

I wrote a small post about the canonical url tag on my blog. Google also wrote a post about it too: http://googlewebmast...-canonical.html

May be worth you reading.

Thank,yes I read the google blog yesterday,I just wanted to make sure I'm about to do the right thing,thanks.

[opensesame]

Shadow44, on 02 December 2011 - 01:40 PM, said:

Thank,yes I read the google blog yesterday,I just wanted to make sure I'm about to do the right thing,thanks.

The canonical rel tag is like a redirect.

So for example if you have a page with 1000 products and this is broken down into 10 pages using paging you would put the canonical tag on all the pages after the first with the url pointing back to the first page.

It helps to stop being slapped with a duplicate content penalty and passes any PR from the canonical tag pages back to the url you put in the tag.

This post has been edited by opensesame: 05 December 2011 - 05:11 PM

[Shadow44]

opensesame, on 05 December 2011 - 05:10 PM, said:

The canonical rel tag is like a redirect.

Thanks a lot ,what appears strange now is when I was ready to publish my site I invited a IT consultant to help me,he has put a canonical tag on my index page( my home page) and it's not pointing anywhere,he just entered my web address,surely this needs to be removed and the canonical tag entered on my other pages pointing to my index page ?

[opensesame]

Shadow44, on 05 December 2011 - 08:17 PM, said:

Thanks a lot ,what appears strange now is when I was ready to publish my site I invited a IT consultant to help me,he has put a canonical tag on my index page( my home page) and it's not pointing anywhere,he just entered my web address,surely this needs to be removed and the canonical tag entered on my other pages pointing to my index page ?

Erm the example I gave is the same example Google gives when explaining how to use this fairly new tag BUT this shows how it might be helpful using it on the homepage as well.

http://www.seomoz.or...g-for-home-page

[rallport]

opensesame, on 05 December 2011 - 05:10 PM, said:

The canonical rel tag is like a redirect.

Say what lol.

[SeoInVogue]

Shadow44, on 01 December 2011 - 11:32 AM, said:

Yesterday I downloaded microsoft IIS Manager and run it to check my website,it came back with several errors.

1) There wasn't any H1 on any of the pages,I have corrected this and added some H1 and H2.

2)It says there are 84 canonical errors and suggests to do this to correct them :

Pick a canonical URL format for your site and then ensure that all the links in your site follow that format. (For example, always use lowercase letters.) If an external link that points to your site does not use the canonical URL format, use permanent HTTP redirection to redirect site visitors and search engines to a canonical equivalent of that URL.

Am I to understand after reading a article yesterday that I need to add this to my pages in the "head Section" : "<link rel="canonical" href="http://www.sheergoldweddingcars.co.uk/index" />" and point all my pages to the index page ???


I am not understanding this at all can someone please help me out

I can understand that you are worried but don't worry you can correct it with ease. Just be sure of the url that you want search engines to consider while crawling that page.
We use canonical in case a same page has different URL's. For example http://www.sheergold...o.uk/index.html might return same page as http://www.sheergoldweddingcars.co.uk. Now search engine could take them as two different pages with duplicate issues, to avoid this we use canonical link element. You just have to set your preferred URL for every page of your website and you are good to go.

For more details I think you should watch a video of Matt Cutts on you tube regarding canonical link element and it's use.

[Shadow44]

SeoInVogue, on 07 December 2011 - 05:13 AM, said:

I can understand that you are worried but don't worry you can correct it with ease. Just be sure of the url that you want search engines to consider while crawling that page.

Thanks,I am trying to SEO my site,yesterday I changed all the titles,meta tags,I am still confused,how come my page "prices" is ranked higher when I want my index page to rank,and also when I change files the index page isn't changing.I have read several topics on SEO issues and have done what I can

[opensesame]

rallport, on 06 December 2011 - 11:20 AM, said:

Say what lol.

Why you laughing for?

Read this from Rand at SEOMOZ - http://www.seomoz.or...-since-sitemaps

In particular this part:

'The Canonical URL tag attribute is similar in many ways to a 301 redirect from an SEO perspective. In essence, you're telling the engines that multiple pages should be considered as one (which a 301 does), without actually redirecting visitors to the new URL (often saving your dev staff considerable heartache).'

Then come back and apologies.

[Renaissance-Design]

opensesame, on 08 December 2011 - 12:57 PM, said:

Then come back and apologies.

Don't believe he needs to.

"The Canonical URL tag attribute is similar in many ways to a 301 redirect from an SEO perspective" - accurate.

"The canonical rel tag is like a redirect." - without the "from an SEO perspective" this is vague and misleading.

[opensesame]

Renaissance-Design, on 08 December 2011 - 01:33 PM, said:

Don't believe he needs to.

"The Canonical URL tag attribute is similar in many ways to a 301 redirect from an SEO perspective" - accurate.

"The canonical rel tag is like a redirect." - without the "from an SEO perspective" this is vague and misleading.

Well considering its under the SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) category, I think its pretty relevant.

If rallport new it was like a 'redirect from an SEO perspective' he wouldn't have put 'say what lol'.

I don't appreciate being laughed at in something I have extensive knowledge in because the member has a lack of understanding for the subject.

I don't have anything against anyone on here, im just use to posting on SEO forums so in future I will reply in more detail.

This post has been edited by opensesame: 08 December 2011 - 02:17 PM

[Renaissance-Design]

opensesame, on 08 December 2011 - 02:15 PM, said:

I don't appreciate being laughed at in something I have extensive knowledge in because the member has a lack of understanding for the subject.

You posted a declarative sentence which failed to make sense out of context without reading either your mind or Rand's post. Climb down of your high horse and be a bit clearer about what you say in future.

[opensesame]

Renaissance-Design, on 08 December 2011 - 02:19 PM, said:

You posted a declarative sentence which failed to make sense out of context without reading either your mind or Rand's post. Climb down of your high horse and be a bit clearer about what you say in future.

I don't really want to get into arguments as im here for one thing and that's to learn more about design (which im a novice at), I apologies to rallport and you for any offence and in future I will try and be more clear about any advice I try and give.

[rallport]

Shouldn't have spoken People are so touchy in this forums sometimes

[opensesame]

rallport, on 08 December 2011 - 07:44 PM, said:

Shouldn't have spoken People are so touchy in this forums sometimes

apologies Rallport, must have got out the wrong side of bed

[SeoInVogue]

Look you have to use canonical link element very carefully. You will have to use canonical link for every page of your website not just the home page.

Yes if some one is linking to your home page without index/ then you can set canonical link on your home page like "<link rel="canonical" href="http://www.sheergoldweddingcars.co.uk/index" />". It will tell search engines to treat every URL coming to your home page to the specified one in the canonical element.

Similarly you will have to do with inner pages as well. It's a kind of redirect but which works only within a particular domain, unlike 301 which works between two different domains as well.