Duplicate Content & Rel Canonical Tag not working
-
I'm really questioning the legitimacy of the duplicate content flags with moz. I'm building a website that sells home decor products and a lot of the pages are similar in structure (As would be expected with a store that sells thousands of individual products). It seems a little overkill to me to flag the following pages as duplicate content. They have different urls, titles, h1, h2, and h3 tages, different meta tags, etc. Right now, it's saying that the following have duplicate page content:
http://www.countryporchhomedecor.com
http://countryporchhomedecor.com/park-designs/pillows/christmas-vacation-embroidered-pillow
http://www.countryporchhomedecor.com/donna-sharp/throws/camo-bear-throw
http://countryporchhomedecor.com/park-designs/teapots/wonderland-teapot
http://countryporchhomedecor.com/park-designs/rag-rugs/cambridge-rug-36x60
http://www.countryporchhomedecor.com/donna-sharp/lodge-quilts/king%2C-woodland
http://www.countryporchhomedecor.com/park-designs/rag-rugs/redmon-rag-rug-36x60
http://www.countryporchhomedecor.com/park-designs/valances/hearthside-valance-72x14
http://countryporchhomedecor.com/park-designs/valances/hearthside-valance-72x14
http://countryporchhomedecor.com/donna-sharp/lodge-quilts/king,-woodland
http://www.countryporchhomedecor.com/park-designs/teapots/wonderland-teapot
http://countryporchhomedecor.com/donna-sharp/throws/camo-bear-throw
http://countryporchhomedecor.com/park-designs/accessories/home-place-tumbler
http://www.countryporchhomedecor.com/donna-sharp/lodge-quilts/king,-woodland
http://www.countryporchhomedecor.com/park-designs/rag-rugs/cambridge-rug-36x60
http://www.countryporchhomedecor.com/park-designs/pillows/christmas-vacation-embroidered-pillow
http://www.countryporchhomedecor.com/donna-sharp/lodge-quilts/king%2C-woodland?pi=18
http://countryporchhomedecor.com/donna-sharp/lodge-quilts/king%2C-woodland
http://www.countryporchhomedecor.com/park-designs/accessories/home-place-tumbler
http://countryporchhomedecor.com/park-designs/rag-rugs/redmon-rag-rug-36x6Any ideas?
Also, it seems like it's not honoring the rel-canonical tag. It keeps saying that pages with a rel canonical tag are duplicates when some of the urls that it's flagging shouldn't even be indexed because of the canonical tag. The "pi" in the query string should not be indexed!
http://www.countryporchhomedecor.com/bedding-&-quilts/shams/standard-shams?pi=18&page=3
http://countryporchhomedecor.com/bedding-&-quilts/shams/standard-shams?page=6
http://www.countryporchhomedecor.com/bedding-&-quilts/shams/standard-shams?page=7
http://www.countryporchhomedecor.com/bedding-&-quilts/shams/standard-shams?pi=18&page=6
http://www.countryporchhomedecor.com/bedding-&-quilts/shams/standard-shams?page=10
http://www.countryporchhomedecor.com/bedding-&-quilts/shams/standard-shams?pi=18&page=8
http://www.countryporchhomedecor.com/bedding-&-quilts/shams/standard-shams?page=8
http://www.countryporchhomedecor.com/bedding-&-quilts/shams/standard-shams
http://countryporchhomedecor.com/bedding-&-quilts/shams/standard-shams?page=7
http://www.countryporchhomedecor.com/bedding-&-quilts/shams/standard-shams?pi=18&page=7
http://www.countryporchhomedecor.com/bedding-&-quilts/shams/standard-shams?page=1
http://countryporchhomedecor.com/bedding-&-quilts/shams/standard-shams?page=8
http://www.countryporchhomedecor.com/bedding-&-quilts/shams/standard-shams?pi=18&page=5
http://www.countryporchhomedecor.com/bedding-&-quilts/shams/standard-shams?pi=18&page=10
http://countryporchhomedecor.com/bedding-&-quilts/shams/standard-shams?page=3
http://countryporchhomedecor.com/bedding-&-quilts/shams/standard-shams
http://www.countryporchhomedecor.com/bedding-&-quilts/shams/standard-shams?page=5
http://www.countryporchhomedecor.com/bedding-&-quilts/shams/standard-shams?pi=18&page=4
http://www.countryporchhomedecor.com/bedding-&-quilts/shams/standard-shams?pi=18&page=9
http://www.countryporchhomedecor.com/bedding-%26-quilts/shams/standard-shams
http://www.countryporchhomedecor.com/bedding-&-quilts/shams/standard-shams?pi=18
http://www.countryporchhomedecor.com/bedding-&-quilts/shams/standard-shams?pi=18&page=1
http://www.countryporchhomedecor.com/bedding-&-quilts/shams/standard-shams?page=6
http://countryporchhomedecor.com/bedding-&-quilts/shams/standard-shams?page=1
http://countryporchhomedecor.com/bedding-&-quilts/shams/standard-shams?page=5
http://www.countryporchhomedecor.com/bedding-&-quilts/shams/standard-shams?page=2
http://www.countryporchhomedecor.com/bedding-&-quilts/shams/standard-shams?page=9
http://countryporchhomedecor.com/bedding-&-quilts/shams/standard-shams?page=4
http://www.countryporchhomedecor.com/bedding-&-quilts/shams/standard-shams?page=3
http://countryporchhomedecor.com/bedding-%26-quilts/shams/standard-shams
http://www.countryporchhomedecor.com/bedding-%26-quilts/shams/standard-shams?pi=18
http://countryporchhomedecor.com/bedding-&-quilts/shams/standard-shams?page=9
http://countryporchhomedecor.com/bedding-&-quilts/shams/standard-shams?page=10
http://www.countryporchhomedecor.com/bedding-&-quilts/shams/standard-shams?pi=18&page=2
http://countryporchhomedecor.com/bedding-&-quilts/shams/standard-shams?page=2
http://www.countryporchhomedecor.com/bedding-&-quilts/shams/standard-shams?page=4 -
No problem! Yes, same is true for HTTP and HTTPS
-
Is is the same way with https and non https pages? Should only one of those be accessible per page?
-
Ok thank you!
-
That is correct, you should be using rel=next/prev for markup on paginated sections. But after noticing the www and non-www issue, I don't think your problem is related to canonicals or prev/next.
Regardless of what you're doing with canonical tags or prev/next, you pages should never be accessible at both www and non-www versions. You're going to be at a duplicate content risk as long as both versions exist.
-
Thank you very much for your response! On the paginated pages I don't think you're supposed to use the canonical tag. Instead you're supposed to use the next/prev tag which is what I did. the next/prev tag points only to pages without query string values and those are the pages that are supposed to be indexed. So there shouldn't be individual pages that are separated by query string values right? They should all use non query string value pages.
Even though I do have both www and non www pages accessible, on all of the pages, I am either using the canonical tag or the next/prev tag on paginated pages. Shouldn't that tell search engines which to index??
-
Hi,
Regarding the first set of URLs: I took a look at a handful of those URLs, and it's entirely possible that you're getting duplicate notices on those. Rogerbot flags any 2 pages as duplicates if the source code of those URLs matches at 90% or more. So it's not identical, but not different enough that search engines can discern. Most of the products you've listed there have no content, or a very small amount, meaning that when you consider the rest of the code involved with that page, it mostly matches the homepage.
Regarding the second set: I ran those URLs through Screaming Frog and don't see any canonical tags. Keep in mind, just because URLs aren't indexed in search engines, doesn't mean Rogerbot doesn't have access to them.
*Update - on further digging, I think I found the source of all of your duplicate issues. Both www and non-www versions of your URLs are accessible. One of them should redirect to the other, doesn't matter which, but both should not render.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Duplicate Content
Hello, I'm managing a site which shows as having duplicate page issues (in the crawl analyser) for 3 pages. Basically the site is offering 3 different options of the same product so depending on which size you select, you are directed to the relevant page. These 3 pages are basically identical apart from a slight difference in copy regarding the size (small, medium, large) Is this likely to be a big issue regarding SEO, and what would the moz community suggest re this? Thank you!
Moz Pro | | wearehappymedia0 -
Rel=canonical SEO Ultimate plug in
I like SEO ultimate and use the rel=canonicalizer has anyone come into problems with it... ps I still cant get my head around canonical tags!
Moz Pro | | Agentmorris0 -
Duplicate Page Title - although there are differences
Hello, I get duplicate page titles errors on pages in which there are little differences. For example: C++ Online Test for Seniors C# Online Test for Seniors I assume that from some reason the ++ and the # are removed when SEOMoz crawler checks for duplicate page titles. As you may know C# and C++ means two different programming languages. Should I do something about it or is it a bug in the crawler?
Moz Pro | | ulukach0 -
Duplicate Page content
I found these URLs in Issue: Duplicate Page Content | http://www.decoparty.fr/Products.asp?SubCatID=4612&CatID=139 1 0 10 1 http://www.decoparty.fr/Products.asp?SubCatID=4195&CatID=280 1 0 10 1 http://www.decoparty.fr/Catproducts.asp?CatID=124 | 28 | 0 | 12 | 1 |
Moz Pro | | partyrama0 -
URL paramters and duplicate content
Hello, I have a 2-fold question: Crawl Diagnostics is picking up a lot of Duplicate Page Title errors, and as far as I can tell, all of them are cause by URL parameters trailing the URL. We use a Magento store, and all filtering attributes, categories, product pages etc are tagged on as URL parameters. example: Main URL:
Moz Pro | | yacpro13
/accessories.html Duplicated Title Page URLs: /accessories.html?dir=asc&order=position
/accessories.html?mode=list
/accessories.html?mode=grid
...and many others How can I make the Crawl Diagnostics not identify these as errors? Now from an SEO point of view, all these URL parameters are been picked up by google, and are listed in WedMaster Tools -> URL parameters. All URL parameters are set to "let google decide". I remember having read that Google was smart enough here to make the right decision, and we shouldn't have to worry about it. Is this true, or is there a larger issue at hand here? Thankas!0 -
Did anyone else see "Rel Canonical" drop to zero after their latest SEOmoz crawl?
In the Crawl Diagnostics section of the SEOmoz reports, we get errors in red, warnings in yellow, and notices in blue. After my latest crawl, I saw the "Rel Canonical" part go from about 300 down to 0. Obviously, this isn't right, so I'm wondering if this is a bug that everyone is experiencing. U9W5I
Moz Pro | | UnderRugSwept0 -
Crawl diagnostic Notices for rel Canonical increased
Hello, We just signed up for SEO Moz, and are reviewing the results of our second web crawl. Our Errors and Warnings summary have been reduced, but our Notices for Rel Canonical have skyrocketed from 300 to over 5,500. We are using a WP with the Headway theme and our pages already have the rel=canonical along wiht rel=author. Any ideas why this number would go up so much in one week? Thank you, Michael
Moz Pro | | MKaloud0 -
Why does the crawl report say I should have meta description and title tags in my xml files?
Just had my first crawl report today which has been very useful in finding missing and duplicated title tags and meta descriptions but it has flagged up the fact that my xml files are missing these. Surely non HTML documents shouldn't have them (or need them) so why are they showing up in the report?
Moz Pro | | PandyLegend0