SEO finding
A variant of the URL serves the same page without a redirect or canonical
SEO Warning Severity: Medium
Part of the audit Duplicate and competing content. Finding id: seo.duplicateUrlVariants.
What it costs you
Every variant that answers is a second address for the same page. Links to it do not count for the real URL, and crawlers spend their visits on copies.
What to do
Choose one form of the URL and redirect every other form to it with a 301. Where a redirect is not possible, point the canonical tag at the chosen form.
What it checks
- Different URLs showing the same page
How to fix it
Redirect or canonicalise every variant
- Decide the one form: https or http, with or without www, with or without trailing slash, lower case.
- Redirect the other forms to it with a 301 in the web server or the application.
- For parameter variants that must keep working (sorting, tracking), print a canonical tag with the URL without the parameter.
- Use the chosen form in internal links and in the sitemap.
How to check: curl -sI [variant url] shows a 301 with the chosen URL in the Location header, or the page source names it as canonical.
A real case
A site owner's dictionary pages answered at both /MyDictionary.aspx and /mydictionary.aspx, and search traffic was split between the two. When he added a canonical tag to fix it, his CMS put it on every term page and he lost over 40% of his traffic in two days.