Check for Website Duplicates
This is something that most people won't have to worry about, but it is worth checking.
This isn't about duplicate content, but entire copies of your website.
Watch this short lesson to find out more...
Join Our Facebook Group: https://bit.ly/PropertyGroup
Full Blog Post: https://www.2waydigital.com/check-for...
Video Script:
Now, a check for website duplicates in this context, we’re not talking about shared articles or attributed content.
We are talking about a duplicated published version of your website:
-the same layout
-content
-website structure
being published in more than one location.
It is rare, but it can happen.
Often, it’s just a mistake.
WWW vs Non-WWW Websites
The www and non-www properties are viewed as different entities by Google.
These days, the www (w3) has been dropped from a lot of domain names. In the early days, w3 was used as a way of letting the servers know you wanted an HTML version of the website.
Since all websites are now HTML, there is no need for the www any more.
There is no reason you can’t or shouldn’t use the www.
It is now a matter of preference.
What you don’t want is to have different versions of your content on the different domains.
Instead, you should specify the canonical domain and redirect the other to it.
Note:
HTTP and HTTPS are also treated as different entities by the search engines. While having different content on the different protocols is unlikely, it is possible to redirect the HTTP and HTTPS protocols to different locations.
To be sure this isn’t a problem for you, and to make sure website visitors aren’t browsing your website unsafely, add an HTTPS redirect from your HTTP site.
What does Canonical Mean?
Setting a canonical tag is a way of telling the search engines that this (the tagged page) is the master copy of the content.
Ideally, every page on your website should have a canonical tag.
Other uses of the canonical tag are where you might have copies of content being shared around the web in PDF or printable formats for example. In this instance, when you create the document for sharing, you can tag the content with [link rel=’canonical URL’] and give your original content a little boost.
How Can Website Duplicates Happen?
how?
If you’ve:
moved your website to a different host
changed your domain name (less likely)
you’re using a template site
you’re developing new layouts
making backups of your site on your web host
then you should check for website duplicates that are publicly accessible.
As I mentioned at the top of the post, this is unlikely to be something you’d do deliberately and will often be an oversight or a mistake.
While it is unlikely to phase the search engines, it could still have some undesirable results, as mentioned earlier, and is, therefore, best avoided.
The Fix
Of course, you can just remove the duplicates. That solves some of the issues we’ve just covered.
Here’s a recap in case you missed it.
Set a canonical for your main domain.
Add a www to non-www redirect – or vice versa
Set up HTTP to HTTPS forwarding.
Make sure you have a canonical set for every page.
That way, if you do have duplicates, you’ll be covered, SEO wise.