Googlebot: Preventing Duplicate Content
Duplicate content caused by your root AND index pages being indexed
You can find your content being indexed for the root and the index.php (the default page which can also be: index.html, index.htm, default.html, index.asp, etc.) pages like this:
www.Mydomain,com/index.php AND www.Mydomain,comEspecially if you have inadvertently linked to the index file (www.Mydomain,com/index.php), rather than the root (www.Mydomain,com). This situation can and often does occur with subfolders too.
Duplicate content caused by multiple domains on the same web space
Do you have more than one domain mapped to the same website/web content?
If so then you are not alone. This can have a negative affect on your pr and SEO.
Consider the affects it can have on search bots (googlebot, etc) finding duplicate content:
finds domain1 then domain2 which both map to the same web space. It could then decide to drop domain1 in favour of domain2, or worse still drop both domains!
Duplicate content caused by your domain being indexed with and without the "www" www.Mydomain,com AND Mydomain,comThis is just like having two domain names pointing to the same content, it creates duplicate content.
So what do you do about it? There are two options.The first option is where you are able to move the domain(s):
host each of the domain on their own web space with unique content.
The second option is where you are unable to host the domains on separate web space with separate unique content:
is to issue a HTTP status code: "301 Moved Permanently"
Below is the PHP code to redirect the traffic using an appropriate header and issue a HTTP 301 permanently moved status.
WAIT - is this correct? Yes, check with GoD (Google's official Documentation) here:
http://www.google.co.uk/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=34481http://www.google.co.uk/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=34464Using PHP you can use this to redirect traffic (for ASP, ColdFusion and .htaccess methods see
other relevant reading below) and tell googlebot the pages have moved, add this PHP to the top of your PHP pages:
$PHP_URI=$_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']; // folders and filename - used over PHP_SELF as will NOT pickup on filename from root access (webserver loads default file: index.php)
$HTTP_HOST=$_SERVER['HTTP_HOST']; // domain name, may include .www
if ($HTTP_HOST=="localhost") $main_url="localhost"; // useful for testing on localhost
else $main_url="www.dwalker.co.uk";// * CHANGE to your domain to be indexed
if( (!ereg("www.",$HTTP_HOST) AND ($HTTP_HOST!="localhost") ) OR (ereg("index.php",$PHP_URI)>0) )
{
$the_folder = str_replace("index.php", "", $PHP_URI);
header ('HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently');
header ('Location: http://'.$main_url.$the_folder);
exit;
}
*Make sure you check which domain you should add here, and whether you it should or should not include "www". Only you can know this by checking your website stats and the current indexed domain and pages with Google (the above PHP code can be downloaded here:
http://www.dwalker.co.uk/blog/blog301redirect.zip )
Duplicate content is to be avoided at all costs, it will harm your website in the long term. You should always work towards UNIQUE content:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Daddy_Google#Duplicate_Content Other relevant reading:
Google’s Matt Cutts on Duplicate Content:
http://blog.outer-court.com/archive/2006-08-02-n60.html
ASP, .htaccess, and Coldfusion methods of issuing a 301 HTTP status:
http://www.thegooglecache.com/white-hat-seo/duplicate-content-round-up-diagnosis-and-correction-with-free-tools/
This post follows the information from: googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com
Recommended UK Dedicated Servers
Recommended UK web hosting
Have fun and remember "content is still king".
Send me your comments...
Dave ;-)
Labels: googlebot, redirects
Webhosting - Does location really matter?
If you are a new off-line retail sales business and are buying a high street shop then the main criteria is
location, location, location. Simple, effective and works every time.
However, will this philosophy work for online businesses?
In many ways YES. As I have already mentioned to ensure your website is ranked well in your country's specific search results then where you host your website can be critical to its success. Why risk it when you can place your online business with a proper UK host quite often for just a few pounds more. But you should always check the host is a proper UK web host and that they have servers in the UK. And just as important for many that they provide UK support by UK staff.
Details on how you can check to see if your website is hosted in the UK here.
So location really does matter, not only for bricks-n-mortar but for your online business too.
Labels: native hosting, real UK host
Changing host - will it affect my Google search ranking or pr?
If its done correctly then your Google search results and/or PageRank (pr) will not be negatively affected.
The success much depends on the following:
- Avoid downtime while transferring.
Changing host can be done in most cases without any interruption to your website (even a dynamic database driven ecommerce site can be transferred without loss of business if done correctly).
Choose a host that allows you to setup your website on a sub domain (YourNewSite.ontheNewWebHostsDomain) prior to transferring in your existing domain name, more details on domain transfer here.
Correctly copy all pages and folders from your old host to the new web space, then test and test again until your sure all pages are present and correct (see 2. below), only when you are happy the new site is working correctly should you transfer your domain name.
- Check pages and links are correct.
You need to check all your pages are linked correctly on your new web
space and that you do not have any 404 errors (pages not found)! Xenu Sleuth is good
this this and its free, download here:
http://home.snafu.de/tilman/xenulink.html
(don't be scared it really not that scary, its a useful tool).
Also, make sure you retain the original filename and folder structure as you do not want to lose any page rankings. A common mistake made by many of the arty-farty types who create these flashy sites is to scrap the old site and replace it with their own creation which has all new page names and folder names - this is bad news as all your existing pages will be dropped from Google as they will no longer be available. Retain your existing page and folder names when transferring or redesigning your website.
- Stick to your native country for hosting.
Google will list your results as per location, read why here:
is-your-website-not-listed-in-google
Google is the main search engine you should concentrate upon, you can forget trying to get traffic from other engines, you will be wasting your time. Google announced third-quarter increase in revenue of 70% to £1.4bn with £390m profit, while Yahoo profits fell 38% for the same period (source: computing.co.uk/...google-growth-continues). With that kind of income Google can sustain its position for a long time yet (personally I find this unfortunate as its not good for anyone to have a single dominating company steering our Internet).
Labels: Google UK, pagerank
Offshore web hosting - its cheaper so why not?
Why not use offshore web hosting?
Well there is NO guarantee with these services as could be involved in illegal activities (hosting any type of website), or may use unethical practices. Many state that if you must host outside the UK then host in the US, Canada, or Australia (however, don't forget
unless you host in your native country then you could be excluded from your country's search engine listings).
Consider the logic why these locations are often recommended:
- stability (of the host country - stable government), and
- positive regulations (that aid business enterprise growth)
this steers the decisions for good reason, and before you decide to take your prised
business website to foreign shores you should take heed too. And don't forget
data protection - else you could end up breaking the law yourself!
Labels: data protection, Google UK, real UK host
United Kingdom as the web hosting location over Eastern Europe?
Quite often with Eastern European web hosting services is to charge an extremely low price for the actual space and bandwidth but when you need support it is either none existent or is charged per call.
If you have a UK business website I would recommend you use a
UK web host and make sure the support is able to help when things go wrong (as eventually they will). Also, ensure you make contact, via email or telephone, with the new hosting company before you move, or buy hosting from them. This way at least you know you are able to contact them when the need arises.
And remember if you host in a foreign country then there could be issues with support such as language barriers - it can be a difficult task relaying an error with your website via email or telephone at the best of times, and this can become impossible if the support operative can not communicate in English well enough to either understand your query or to answer it!
Labels: real UK host
How to check if your host is actually in the UK
Start by entering their main domain name here:
http://geotargeting.2meta.com/ is it in the UK? If not then is it most likely (not always the case though) that
your site would not be hosted in the UK either if you host with them.
Other checks you can do:
- Check the telephone number, is this a British number?
- Check the phyical address, is this British?
- Check their domain name: you can carry out simple checks such as whois
and traceroutes by entering their domain name here:
http://www.dnsstuff.com/
- Check the network of the host, enter their domain here: http://uptime.netcraft.com/up/graph
If the Netblock owner is not obviously a UK company try looking the company name up on google.
Labels: real UK host
Website speed - FTP: Latency - reasons why to host in the UK
In relation to UK hosting/UK business websites - "connection speed" or delay is caused by latency (see first definition [in a network] whatis.techtarget.com/definition/latency ) this can be an issue for FTP, causing slow/delayed website updates, but can also be an issue for HTTP. In other words if your visitors are very impatient they may give-up waiting and go elsewhere if they have to wait half a second longer - Internet customers are very fickle.
If your business is based in the UK and your customer base is English/British then for optimum speed you need to host in the UK on a United Kingdom Server. This will ensure your website displays without delay and your customers will not be tempted to go elsewhere.
Also, remember search engines may not place your website within the UK search results if you host outside the UK (ESPECIALLY if you have a GTL Domain [.com, .net, .org, .biz, .info, etc...]).
Is it worth spending a little more to host your UK business in the UK? If it affects the successfulness of your business it is! There are other issues such as data protection issues with hosting outside the UK. If you host outside the EU you maybe breaking the law by moving customer data outside the EU unless you have specific permission from each customer.Labels: data protection, Google UK
