Is this causing me to drop in rank?

[NoahsDad]

Today I noticed I was dropping (pretty big jump) for some keywords, so I checked out the source of a page, and noticed that my source code has two canonical urls. One to the home page, and one to the /page-title.

I just changed themes recently, and the dropped happened after I changed themes.

Is this what's causing me to drop in rank for certain terms? You can view the source here:

http://noahsdad.com/physical-characteristics/

[Esaky]

That was great content sir ! i added the comments there - adding the same question here also !

This article is very huge and will print it for better understanding !

My problem with the blog is the Duplicate content is marked as for Search Terms or Tags ! like i have written 10 post about design art, i added tags as "design art" in the tag form. using WordPress.org self hosted website !

[Dr-Pete]

I'm afraid there's no one, easy answer. I have a comprehensive post about dupe content here:

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/duplicate-content-in-a-post-panda-world

[ZoeAlexander]

Peter, I just discovered I have tons of duplicate content & titles. How can I fix them? It is hurting.

[Carson-Ward]

Yeah, looks like I was of no use at all I'm glad it's working.

[Dr-Pete]

I'm seeing the bad canonical tag gone now. Are you seeing the same thing? Maybe just had a short-term caching issue.

[NoahsDad]

Nope, no content delivery network. This is crazy.  No idea what's happening.

[NoahsDad]

Nope, no content delivery network. This is crazy.  No idea what's happening.

[Carson-Ward]

We are definitely not seeing the same thing. Are you perchance using a content delivery network? It might just take some time to update if so.

I suggest we both keep an eye on it and make sure that it's fixed for both of us going forward

[NoahsDad]

@Carson,

This is so odd. When I look at the page, I see this. Am I seeing something different than what you are seeing?

http://d.pr/6RpW

[Carson-Ward]

I see the same as you for that post, but I still see the canoncial on posts like this:

noahsdad.com/big-tex/

This is why I'm thinking you might have fixed it, and we're just seeing an old static version of the page. Re-caching the pages and/or updating posts might fix it up.

[NoahsDad]

What's strange is when I view the source on that page, I don't see it:

http://d.pr/FUmo

[NoahsDad]

Yes, I do. I'm been clearing the cache.

[NoahsDad]

If you guys are both seeing it, I'm really confused. When I look at my source code, I see this:

http://d.pr/GqOi

[Carson-Ward]

I cleared my cache and I still see it on posts. I suppose it's worth asking if you have a caching/site speed plugin?

[Dr-Pete]

Just tried a different browser. Weird thing is that I'm seeing it on some pages, but not on others. For example. it's here still:

http://noahsdad.com/medical/

[NoahsDad]

Nope...

[Dr-Pete]

Are there any admin settings in your theme itself? You may something built in that's re-adding the tag at a higher level in the code. Could be an admin flag needs to be reset.

[Carson-Ward]

I'm still seeing it as well. When you re-visit header.php now, is the line you deleted still gone?

[NoahsDad]

Really? Do you mind clearing your cache and trying again?  When I look I'm seeing just the one (correct) canonical.

[NoahsDad]

Really? Do you mind clearing your cache and trying again?  When I look I'm seeing just the one (correct) canonical.

[Dr-Pete]

Oh - yeah - that definitely doesn't look good. Probably a holdover from the template. You could just comment it out, but dumping it completely is fine, I suspect.

Unfortunately, I'm still seeing the canonical in the pages I'm checking (?)

[NoahsDad]

Thanks Carson,

It looks like I may have figured it out. I checked out the header.php file and noticed this: . So I just deleted it, and it seems to be working fine.

[Carson-Ward]

Hi there,

Make sure to check any plugins first. Some themes and plugins offer the option to add any code you like to the head - it sounds like there might be a static canonical tag in a field like this. That would be my first thought - let me know if I can be of assistance in fixing this up.

Thanks,

Carson

[NoahsDad]

No problem. Thanks!

[Dr-Pete]

Unfortunately, I'm not a WordPress expert by any means. I'll ping the team.

[NoahsDad]

yelp. When I first found the problem, I figured out the theme and the plug in were both adding a canonical url, so I took out the function in the theme to add the canonical url. Everything was working when you looked at the post the other day and noticed there was only 1 canonical url. But today I was looking at some code, and noticed it was back to 2 on each one.

What do you suggest looking at / check out?

[Dr-Pete]

I'm seeing the 2 canonical tags, but unfortunately, there's almost no way to tell from the outside why the top one is being added. It looks like your plug-in is working correctly. This is a WordPress-based site, correct?

[NoahsDad]

@Peter,

I'm not sure what happened, but for some reason the canonical is missing up again. All of the pages are using my home page as the canonical url again. No idea what is happening. Can you tell what's going on?

[NoahsDad]

@Peter,

I'm not sure what happened, but for some reason the canonical is missing up again. All of the pages are using my home page as the canonical url again. No idea what is happening. Can you tell what's going on?

[NoahsDad]

Same here. Thanks.

Hope you are doing well.

[Dr-Pete]

You've got the self-referencing canonical tags in place, which is about the best fix - unfortunately, there's no way to "undo" a bad canonical other than put a good canonical in its place. Hopefully, Google only picked up a few and, given the popularity of your site, they'll re-index pretty quickly.

[NoahsDad]

Yes, I caught it. And it did pick up the canonical to the home page...I lost rank on a ton of key words. I'm hoping it gets fixed in the next index.

[Dr-Pete]

Did you fix it? I'm only seeing one canonical now. That would definitely be bad - if Google picked up the canonical to the home-page, you could collapse a ton of pages into one and effectively knock them out of the index (and, by extension, any ability to rank).

[NoahsDad]

Thanks for the reply, but in this case I don't think that would apply.

What's happening is the them is putting 2 canonical urls into each post. The url of the current page, and the home page. So google is getting confused. Trying to fix it now.

[Naghirniac]

Usually when you change themes you can have a temporary drop down, this is normal.

Please, read this Q&A there is a very good answer from EGOL: http://www.seomoz.org/q/seo-template-for-new-website