Canonical URL | One Site, 2 URLs = BAD News!

Avoiding Canonical URL and Duplicate Content Issues in WordPress!

Often we come across a Web site that is accessible by the www and non-www version of its URL address. Even though both versions may look the same, search engines treat them differently… this is known as a canonical issue. A Canonical URL is the preferred URL chosen by the webmaster… Matt Cutts of Google says it this way “Canonicalization is the process of picking the best url when there are several choices, and it usually refers to home page.”

You might be surprised to know that some search engines see the www and the non-www versions of the URL as two separate Web sites (Duplicate Content). If there are websites that link to the www version of your website and others link to the non-www version, your backlinks ranking influence becomes spread out over two separate entities.

You are losing out on the weight that each of those links pass to your Web site, because the search-engine spiders follow the links to what they assume to be separate destinations. This can lead to various problems, including duplicate content penalties and dilution of incoming link benefits.

Check to See if You Have a Canonical URL Issue?

To find out how your site has been indexed by Google, go to http://www.google.com/, then in the search bar type “site:yourdomainname.com“, of course replacing the words “yourdomainname.com” with your own (the “http://” or “www.” is not required). Click on Search… the results will show every single page that Google has indexed of your Web site.

If the Google results show “www.yourdomainname.com” and “yourdomainname.com” without the “www”, then you have a canonical url issue in which we need to address. If you don’t see both versions, then you are good to go. If you are like many people, you will have more pages than you care to go through, so let’s take this one step further to rule out the possibility of any canonical url issues.

First, take note of the total number of pages indexed from your first search (the number is just below the search box). Next, type the “www.” directly before “yourdomainname.com”, then click search. Now… what you need to know about this next search is… if your site is supposed to be without the “www” before your domain name (like mine: http://seoblogoptimizer.com), you will show no results if you don’t have any canonical url issues.

If your site is supposed to have the www before the domain name, then you should show results, hopefully matching the amount of the first search. If the indexed results differ dramatically to the quantity from the first search, then you have a canonical issue.

You Have a Canonical URL Issue, What’s Next!

Since this article is concentrating merely on the WordPress-based site, let’s talk for a minute about what we can do to help get this canonical url issue under control. Let’s start with your General WordPress settings… is the URL with or without the www under “WordPress Address” and also “Site Address” (see below). You’ll find this located in your WordPress BackOffice Dashboard under Settings > General.

Below is what your address should look like if your site URL is without the www before the domain name. Keep in mind that your WordPress address may look different if you have the WordPress theme in a folder, so just make sure both URL’s either have the “www.” before the domain name, or both are without the www.

Next, let’s talk about a plug-in that will help get all of the canonical url issues straightened out. It’s known as the All in One SEO Pack Plug-in. Upload this plug-in to your site… once you activate it, you should get a message stating “All in One SEO Pack must be configured”, click on the link or go to Settings > All in One SEO. To start configuring the page, tick “enabled” where it says Plugin Status, then work your way down the page and you should see that the Canonical URL’s should automatically be checked (see below).

“This option will automatically generate Canonical URL’s for your entire WordPress installation. This will help to prevent duplicate content penalties by Google.” To configure the plug-in, continue down the the page, clicking on any link that is next to each box for an explanation of the option. When you are done configuring the page, be sure to click the Update Options button at the bottom of the page.

Another option you have is to notify Google of your preferred domain. For this you need to have a Google account and have your site added to the Google Webmaster Tools section. Go to “My Account” > Webmaster Tools > click on your site > Site Configuration > Settings > Preferred Domain section, then pick the domain you prefer.

There is another option, called a 301 permanent redirect, but it requires access to your site’s root directory on the server “htaccess” file in your root directory.

One Last Piece of Advice about the Canonical URL Issue… If you focus all your links and traffic to one variation of your domain, you will most likely experience an overall ranking increase.