Canonicalization and Search Engine Marketing
With regard to Search Engine Marketing, I used the word “Canonicalization” yesterday.
Twice. I almost choked on the word as I stuttered through pronouncing it.
My clients regarded me strangely. I wish there was a better word or phrase. If you know of one, let me know.
Basically, what I mean by Canonicalization is this:
Do you want to be www.YourCompany.com or simply YourCompany.com ?
Does it matter?
Yes. Especially after the Google Big Daddy update earlier this year.
Deciding on one or the other canonical up front lets search engines know which URL you prefer. Using one….not both…avoids any Page Rank degradation due to perceived content duplication. It’s better for branding. And it prevents the degradation of Page Rank.
And it’s super easy to implement. Simply select your preference, and update your root .htaccess file. Takes a few seconds for most sites.
If you need to see an easy, real-world example of canonicalization in action:
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Type in just maniactive.com (no www.) in the address bar of your browser.
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You’ll see the address bar instantly flip to www.maniactive.com . That’s because I decided on a canonical of www.maniactive.com for this site. (I’m the webmaster over there.)
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Conversely, I decided on a “no www” canonical for my bergells.com site. Try typing www.bergells.com in your browser address bar, and you will see the address instantly flip to bergells.com.
Now, try visiting a site where canonicalization is not set. (There are millions.) If you have the Google Toolbar in your browser, you will see that Page Rank differs for each. That’s because the Google’s page rank system counts links in to your site. If most sites linking in to yours use one kind of canonical, why, that’s the address that will have a higher Page Rank. If a few link in using the other canonical, you have degraded Page Rank at your site. Over time, this effects rankings at the engines.
Further: after the Google Big Daddy update this year, sites with duplicate content saw a decline in their rankings. It’s entirely possible that Google read both pages — both the www pages and the non-www pages as duplicate content. And so not only did non-canonical sites suffer a degradation in Page Rank, they potentially got gigged for content duplicationk, as well.
By setting canonicalization, you can avoid confusion, Page Rank degradation, and the possibility of misinterpretation of duplicate content. After you decide on a canonical, here’s how easy it is to set:
Open up your .htaccess file in your root directory
For a www. canonical:
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^YourCompany.com
RewriteRule (.*) http://www.YourCompany.com/$1 [R=301,L]
For a no-www. canonical:
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www.YourCompany.com
RewriteRule (.*) http://YourCompany.com/$1 [R=301,L]
Ok. I’ve used variations of the word canonical about a jillion times in the post. I hate it. Had to look up spelling every time.
Every bit as difficult to spell as it is to say!
How about “web address naming convention” as a better alternative to that dreaded word?
Golly. Four words to replace one. That’s no good either.
Somebody, please. Come up with a better word!
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[…] Sometimes, you don’t get to choose your canonical. Your canonicalization chooses you. […]