What may come as a surprise to some webmasters is Google’s recent announcement that cross domain content duplication will be allowed. Google is recognizing that there are legitimate reasons to duplicate content across different websites.
For example if you are migrating to a new domain name and using a Web server that cannot perform server-side redirects. To help those webmasters with these types of issues that arise on sites, Google has created the cross-domain rel=”canonical” link element.
Google recommends following certain guidelines. Such as choosing your preferred domain, when Google is confronted with duplicate content they will generally index just one version and filter the rest out. This allows you to make the decision of which version should be indexed. In addition they recommend that you reduce in-site duplication, by placing the appropriate no index statements.
You should also enable crawling and use 301 (permanent) redirects wherever possible. These type of redirects send visitors and search engine crawlers to your preferred domain and make it extremely clear which URL the search engine should index.
Finally the use of the cross-domain rel=”canonical” link element; this is to be used in situations where it is difficult to set up a redirect. Like the previously mentioned situation where a server does not feature server-side redirects. You would use the rel=”canonical” to specify which URL of the domain is preferential for indexing by the search engine.
Webmasters that they make use of this link element be warned, this is not a free pass to copy websites at will, you will still need to own the content to avoid duplication penalties. Remember content is king, create good content, reap the rewards.
While the rel=”canonical” link element is seen as a clue and not an absolute statement, Google will try to follow it where possible.
Related posts:
- Google Announces UK Ad Campaign Google is a household name in most parts of the UK – and anyone with an internet connection is likely aware of the search engine,...
- Rupert Murdoch to charge for online news content One of the biggest changes in how news media is being handled in the UK has been going on for the last few weeks, as...
- Google announces Launch of Music Onebox Streamline Feature – Search Engine News Last week Google announced yet another product launch, this time its a new search algo, called Music Onebox. This feature allows you to stream songs...
- Bing courts News Corp for exclusive content rights Bing is trying to gain ground on Google’s dominance in the search arena. What is completely shocking is that Microsoft is actually thinking about a...
- AOL to Rebrand as Online Content Provider AOL might be a name that many people associate with America, but there was a time when AOL was actually one of the leading internet...
