canonical issue

[raiahsan]

My site has canonical issue. Some one has advised me to remove this issue for better seo and back links. My question is that
1. Is it very important to remove canonical issue?
2. If I remove it and make my site to open with www , then what about that visitors who will try to open my site without www, would my site open if visitor write my site address in address bar with out www?
3. If it is very important to remove canonical issue, how to remove it?

And other suggestions you would like...

[dzine]

If you use a 301-style redirect, your visitors will hardly notice.

Question is:
- do you use the www version or the non-www version of your URLs consistently throughout your site?
- are backlinks from OTHER websites consistent as well? Do they point to one or the other?
- who said that you have 'canonical issues'?
- ...but if so, then it should be relatively easy to fix

[NathanielB]

www - non-www redirects are not a canonical issue, its quite simple to 301 redirect your www to the non-www or the non-www to www depending on which you want (it makes no difference what so ever to which way around you do the redirect).

If your on a linux server you can use the .htaccess file for all your redirects. Please see the link in my sig for the standard code you should use along with some details about what it all does. I also added a standard .htaccess file at the end (make sure to read the comments), so feel free to copy paste all that code to your .htaccess file

[somendra11]

Hii raiahsan,

I agree with NathanielB. It’s a 301 redirect issue. To solve your problem to some extent read this article and its references very carefully Canonical link element - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[lray]

Canonical URL issues should be resolved. Whether your end result is with or without the "www" is up to you, but there should be consistency across your domain. So either use rel=canonical to take users to "www" or just domain.com, but pick one and stick with it.

[raiahsan]

Thanks for your all replies.
Please tell me that what code I've to put in my .htaccess file? I mean that write the code for me and also tell me in detail that where I will put this code, after which line and before which line?

[vikasbook]

1. Is it very important to remove canonical issue?

Ans. If your site have such kind of issue then you must resolved. Its really easy to tell search engine about this issue.

2. If I remove it and make my site to open with www , then what about that visitors who will try to open my site without www, would my site open if visitor write my site address in address bar with out www?

Ans. Use 301 redirection for your preferable URL so your visitors would see page that you want show him. Even If you are asking canonical issue only for www or non www site then its not necessary to make any change however it’s an best SEO practice


3. If it is very important to remove canonical issue, how to remove it?
What type of canonical Issue you are facing? Is it about URL or content?

[raiahsan]

3. If it is very important to remove canonical issue, how to remove it?
What type of canonical Issue you are facing? Is it about URL or content?

I don't know what means of content canonical issue means. My site is opening both with and with out of www. So I have been advised to choose one with which my site is indexed in google. My site is indexed with www in google so now I have to make redirect from non www to www.
So please tell me what code I've to write there in .htaccess file and where? I mean tell me code and tell me where I'll write it in .htaccess file, after which line and before which line?
Thanks

[raiahsan]

Any body answer?

[vikasbook]

I don't know what means of content canonical issue means. My site is opening both with and with out of www. So I have been advised to choose one with which my site is indexed in google. My site is indexed with www in google so now I have to make redirect from non www to www.
So please tell me what code I've to write there in .htaccess file and where? I mean tell me code and tell me where I'll write it in .htaccess file, after which line and before which line?
Thanks

If you just looking for htaccess code to redirect non-www to www then just paste below code in .htaccess file

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^www\.
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.%{HTTP_HOST}/$1 [R=301,L]

[RafaelJames]

Yes, it is important to remove canonical issue because you have to open website with www to do better SEO and back links.

[NathanielB]

Thanks for your all replies.
Please tell me that what code I've to put in my .htaccess file? I mean that write the code for me and also tell me in detail that where I will put this code, after which line and before which line?

If you read I told you to check the link in my sig, but being as you don't seem to know how to that, lets try this...

Click this link right here .htaccess canonical 301 redirects now READ what I have put and you will understand exactly what does what and where to put it in your .htaccess file!

I'm not going to re-write the whole lot here for you just because your to lazy to click the link and read it on a post already provided! And if you scroll down to the 5th post in that thread you will see some ready to use .htaccess file code for a simple default .htaccess setup which I use and have shared for others to use in order to save them time

If you want to find out about more different .htaccess code please have a look on my blog (which again is linked to in my sig at .htaccess 301 Redirects | The Official Weblog of Nathaniel Bailey) where I have posted more details about different code for different redirects.