Previously owned domain & canonical
-
Hi,
I've recently joined the business and as part of the cleanup process I got told that we owned this domain preferredsafaris.com with some very similar content to our main site southernafricatravel.com.
We're no longer owns the preferredsafaris.com domain but looking at Google's cache for it we realised that the title, meta description & page shown when looking at the 'cached page' is for our current domain even though it is showing the 'correct' URL there.
I imagine this might have something to do with canonical set on those pages but the weird thing is all those pages now render 404 & do not show a canonical in the source code.
I have used Google Removal Tool https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/removals for all those URLs & Google says that it has removed them & yet they're still showing.
What do you suggest? Any potential issue in regards to duplicate content here?
Cheers,
Julien
-
I'm confused about one thing - how did you request URL removal in Google Webmaster Tools if you no longer own the domain?
It looks like Google is caching some pages of your Southernafricatravel.com domain and showing them as appearing on Preferredsafaris.com. When I dig into the cache, it's actually showing your main/active site. This could be because of an old canonical relationships between them (whether actual canonical tags, 301-redirects, or something similar), or it could be because they contained duplicate content and Google chose to view them as canonical. Sometimes, that happens even if you don't specify it.
I don't love that the new owner has put up spam irrelevant to the domain, and it's possible that could bite you somehow, but I suspect it's unlikely. Once Google sees that this old pages don't resolve, I think you'll see them gradually disappear. There is no duplicate content at this point.
-
If you check Google's index: https://www.google.co.za/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=site%3Apreferredsafaris.com africa
You'll see that both title tags, meta description refers to our current site & when checking the cached page themselves, this shows the southernafricatravel.com equivalent page...
-
Hi Julien,
Having had a look at preferred safaris, I can't find any element of duplicate content on there - it all appears to be health spam now. Where does your concern for duplicate content come from? Sorry if I am not understanding.
-Andy
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
-
Redirection of 100 domain to Main domain affects SEO?
Hi guys, An email software vendor managed by a different area of my company redirected 100 domains used for unsolicited email campaigns to my main domain. These domains are very likely to get blacklisted at some point. My SEO tool now is showing me all those domains as "linking" to my main site as do-follow links. The vendor states that this will not affect my main domain/website in any way. I'm highly concerned. I would appreciate your professional opinion about this. Thanks!!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | anagentile0 -
Hundreds of Subdomains under a powerful domain
Hello, I own a domain FeedsPortal - com As you can see from the link profile, it has some fantastic referring domains and links. Because of this, it has a DA of 86, with a good CF/TF. The problem is that nearly all of these powerful links are for the sub domains under the main domain. For example, it has a link on this page on MSN... https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/offbeat/finland-home-of-the-dollar103000-speeding-ticket/ar-AA9GA9i?ocid=ansAtlantic11 On this MSN article, it has a link to http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheAtlantic/~3/PK4bw0Tkkps/story01.htm (a link under Google.com), which then forwards to my domain under a sub domain http://theatlantic.feedsportal.com/c/34375/f/..... I have many hundreds of sub domains like this. I have a feeling redirecting all non-existent sub domains to the homepage would be a bad idea for SEO. Does anyone else see of a way to do this without harming my SEO? I suppose the only way to do it properly would be to write articles about each subdomain. For example, http://theatlantic.feedsportal.com, write an article about The Atlantic, then forward all traffic meant for theatlantic.feedsportal.com to feedsportal.com/10-reasons-why-the-atlantic-is-great/ Does anyone else have an idea of how to at least get a list of the non-existant sub domains that have links so I can maybe create articles for each sub domain? Or is there a simpler way to do this. Thanks!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | thinkingdif0 -
How to build Domain Authority?
My site: https://www.fishingspots.com.au/ has started to drop Domain Authority in the past weeks, however less quality sites like http://silverstories.com.au/ are rising... I am not sure why? Is there someway I can understand why my site would suddenly start dropping authority?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | thinkLukeSEO0 -
Ecommerce, SEO & Pagination
Hi I'm trying to workout if there's something wrong with our pagination. We include the rel="next" and "prev" on our pages. When clicking on page 2 on a product page, the URL will show as something like - /lockers#productBeginIndex:30&orderBy:5&pageView:list& However, if I search site:http://www.key.co.uk/en/key/lockers in Google, it seems to find paginated pages: http://www.key.co.uk/en/key/lockers?page=2 I have a feeling something is going wrong here, but haven't worked massively on Pagination before. Can anyone help?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | BeckyKey0 -
Move a blog from a domain to a new domain in the same hosting server
I have the need to find the best solution to move my viverezen.org blog on new domain naturazen.org because somebody stolen my brand. Now I registererd brand NaturaZen and I am going to use this website as main and have the old viverezen just to point in the new website I dont want lose autority and more important I dont want lose the 500 visits I have everyday. Both domain are under same hosting company What is best SEO solution you can give me to help? I thought to point the hosting on new domain naturazen and put all link with redirect 301 on viverezen but probably I am wrong stuck_out_tongue thanks for your help
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | VivereZen0 -
Client wants a seperate .tv domain for their media/videos instead of a subdomain/subfolder. What is the best way to pass of link equity to a new domain?
We have a client that wants to place their video content on a .tv tld instead of a subfolder/subdomain in their .com website. They believe that the .tv domain will better represent the media experience of their business. We can understand this client's position however we are concerned about their .tv domain will lose out on the link equity if it were no longer placed in the .com's subdomain/subfolder. Here are our questions: 1. What would be the best way to pass of link equity from .com website to a new .tv domain? Should we just have a video link on the .com website that 301 directs to the new .tv domain? 2. Is there any SEO benefit of having a .tv domain for Google Video queries or even Youtube? 3. Is there any long term value of having two different websites? For link equity purposes we understand that it would be better if everything was in a .com. However is a .tv domain ideal for a better representation of their media content? We appreciate any feedback.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | RosemaryB0 -
301 redirect to multiple domain
Hi guys, I have a domain A, B and C. The domain A was an association of two business and they are about to split. Parts of domain A are going to be redirect to domain B, but some content belong to the domain C. So my question : Is it possible to 301 redirect some pages from A to B and some other pages from A to C and if yes, what would be the impact on SEO ? Thanks a lot!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | StevePatenaude0 -
New Site: Use Aged Domain Name or Buy New Domain Name?
Hi,
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | peterwhitewebdesign
I have the opportunity to build a new website and use a domain name that is older than 5 years or buy a new domain name. The aged domain name is a .net and includes a keyword.
The new domain would include the same keyword as well as the U.S. state abbreviation. Which one would you use and why? Thanks for your help!0