The Link Canonical Tag: Good Guy or Bad Guy? by Adam Audette - SMX Advanced 2009

The Link Canonical Tag Adam Audette SEO with Many Hats

There’s a new gun in town!

(Just don’t wear it like Joe)

I’m the SEO with many hats (and they’re all white)

Brief Background
2 nd generation search marketer
John Audette, Outrider
President at AudetteMedia, Inc
Search Marketing Boutique
Oversee SEO at Zappos
With Zappos since 2001
Lead SEO Strategy for International Agency
Key partnership with AudetteMedia

“ That new link canonical guy looks cool!”

“ What’s the latest on Sphinn...?”

“ Just a sec, I gotta tweet that lunch we had....”

The Link Canonical Tag
It’s a tad confusing
For duplicate content, but...
...can be used in other creative ways
It has potential to break your site

The Good
Darn easy to implement
Appears to work
Allegedly passes anchor text and PR
Useful for faceted / sorted URLs
Can be good for temporary fixes

The Bad
Like a ‘poor man’s’ 301
Powerful + New/Untested + Easy to implement = Potential for FAIL
Not a replacement for fundamental URL structure
Doesn’t actually solve duplicate content
May be better to redirect

Watch out for “Mr Bad Guy”

“ The name’s LC...”

“ Pa, LC’s got me all tied up!”

“ It says here comment tags work good for SEO!”

“ Aw crap, printing out twitter feeds just don’t work!!”

Ideas & Examples from the Field

ZFC URL handler
Does fancy stuff with URLs
But duplicate content will still happen
And doesn’t address certain scenarios

Possibly deploying link canonical:
Plurals
Faceted / sorted URLs
Sub-domains

Possible link canonical usage:
Artist pages (PageRank split)
Main Category Pages
Temporary solutions

125 backlinks 120 backlinks

Possible deployment:
Sub-domains
reviews.motosport.com
answers.motosport.com
motocross.motosport.com
etc...

Google can use it:
http://directory.google.com/alpha/Top/Shopping/Clothing/Footwear/
http://directory.google.com/Top/Shopping/Clothing/Footwear/
http://www.google.com/alpha/Top/Shopping/Clothing/Footwear/
http://www.google.com/Top/Shopping/Clothing/Footwear/

What if…
What if a redesign was being deployed in ~6 months?
What if you needed some quick-wins?
What if URLs were going to change?

“ Try it... if ya got the guts!”

www.mydomain.com/catID/detail.asp?ID=42&nav=sidebar %22_ref www.mydomain.com/ride-bikes = 200 Link canonical target = www.mydomain.com/ride-bikes (sort of a 301) 200 404 301 302 The search result updates

www.mydomain.com/catID/detail.asp?ID=42&nav=sidebar %22_ref www.mydomain.com/ride-bikes = 404 Link canonical target = www.mydomain.com/ride-bikes (sort of a 301) 200 404 301 302 Probably a bad idea

www.mydomain.com/catID/detail.asp?ID=42&nav=sidebar %22_ref www.mydomain.com/ride-bikes = 301 Link canonical target = www.mydomain.com/ride-bikes (sort of a 301) 200 - finished 404 - bad idea 301 302 Canonical target 301 redirects back to parent URL Does this create a loop? www.mydomain.com/catID/detail.asp?ID=42&nav=sidebar %22_ref

www.mydomain.com/catID/detail.asp?ID=42&nav=sidebar %22_ref www.mydomain.com/ride-bikes = 302 Link canonical target = www.mydomain.com/ride-bikes (sort of a 301) 200 - best case 404 - bad idea 301 - loop? 302 Canonical target 302 redirects back to parent URL Search result should remain www.mydomain.com/catID/detail.asp?ID=42&nav=sidebar %22_ref

“ Rescue me from LC’s trap!”

“ Let’s redirect the old way from now on, Joe.”

Thank you! Adam Audette @audette www.audettemedia.com

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The Link Canonical Tag: Good Guy or Bad Guy? by Adam Audette - SMX Advanced 2009

by Adam Audette on Jun 11, 2009

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The Link Canonical Tag: Good Guy or Bad Guy? by Adam Audette - SMX Advanced 2009 — Presentation Transcript