Question regarding two versions of a page (redirect)

[NoahsDad]

At one point in my SEO journey I had noticed some duplicate issues going on in Google webmaster tools (I could have been reading it wrong.)

It looked like WMT was saying I had 2 versions of some of pages...it looked like pages that ended in a '/' ranking differently than pages that have no slash at the end.

So I downloaded the redirect plugin and redirected many non / pages to the page that end with the "/".  This was probably a mistake. but I'm trying to clean all of that up. (I'm also noticing that SEOMoz tools tells me my site has many, many redirected url's. I'm not sure why.

I was looking at http://www.opensiteexplorer.org/pages?site=noahsdad.com%2F this morning at my top pages and it shows 2 versions (one being redirected) of the page about my son who was born with Down syndrome. (Noahsdad.com/story and Noahsdad.com/story/) I don't know if I've built rankings for those pages separately and it would now hurt me if I did away with the redirect. I'm not sure why I did the redirects (I must have read something online somewhere.)

I'm wondering if someone wouldn't mind looking at the report and letting me know what the best way to 'clean' this stuff up...Should I go into the redirect software and delete all of the redirects where the non / page is being redirected to the / page?

Thanks.

[SimonCullum]

Hi there,

You have a fab website dedicated to your son and his amazing progress, you must be very proud of the little chap.

Your question;  there is some tidying up required moving forwards.

An example of a good redirect that you have is:

www.noahsdad.com/  is being 301'd to  www.noahsdad.com

You apparently have 23 other pages being redirected from a version without  /  at the end to a version with  /  at the end, e.g. http://noahsdad.com/story  301'd to  http://noahsdad.com/story/

The main issue with redirects this way round (non / pointing to a page with / at the end) is that with inbound links, the vast majority will point to pages without  /  at the end, so you'll be loosing some link juice through the redirects.

However, you already have many links pointing to your pages with a  /  at the end, some of this link juice would be lost if those pages are redirected.  Though looking to the future, it could still be worth doing this sooner rather than later, so long as you try and request that your most valuable inbound links kindly have the  /  removed from the link, a time consuming process.

So an option is to remove the redirects that are in place, then 301 redirect the URLs with a  /  at the end to the corrosponding URLs without the  /  at the end.

You'll also need to update your sitemap.xml ( http://noahsdad.com/sitemap.xml ) to remove the  /  at the end of URLs once the 301 redirects are in place.

Over time, the URLs with a  /  at the end will disappear from search engine indexes.

So it's a calculated decision to make really, whether or not to change your Redirects around.  It will likely result in some ranking drops (and more importantly, some visitor reduction) in the short-term, however would likely be more beneficial to do so in the medium & long term.

I hope that helps,

Regards

Simon

[NoahsDad]

Thanks for the info, it helps a lot.

I was under the impression that it was always best to use the / at the end of the domain when linking, etc. Is this not the case?

When I go to my wordpress settings I see that under general settings my wordpress address and site address both have http://noahsdad.com (no slash) - just wanted to add that bit of info just in case it made any difference.

Also, when you do a redirect I was under the impression that the link juice from the redirected page would be passed on to the page it is redirected to. Is this not the case?

I made a change last night regarding a redirect to http://noahsdad.com/down-syndrome and http://noahsdad.com/down-syndrome-1 (both with and without the slash) I'm not sure if it was something with a slug I changed or something, but I had about 4 different redirects going to one page. I deleted some of those redirects but left the /down-syndrome-1 there...I have no idea how a url was generated with the -1 at the end, but it did.  So i left it there (I may need to do something with that.)

[ResslerMotors]

I was under the impression that it was always best to use the / at the end of the domain when linking, etc. Is this not the case?

Either way is fine.  However, I choose to use the no "/" pages rather than the "/" pages.  I do this because I get more links pointing at my site without the "/," and I want to retain as much link juice as possible.

Also, when you do a redirect I was under the impression that the link juice from the redirected page would be passed on to the page it is redirected to. Is this not the case?

A portion of it does pass.  I've heard as high as 90% passes on.

I deleted some of those redirects but left the /down-syndrome-1 there...I have no idea how a url was generated with the -1 at the end, but it did.  So i left it there (I may need to do something with that.)

Is it an exact duplicate of another page?  If so, redirect.

Are you utilizing a "canonical" tag on the pages you want to be the "true" source?  As it, using the "canonical" to say, "hey, this is the original!"

[NoahsDad]

I'm not sure. I believe the wordpress theme I have does this...

[SimonCullum]

Using the  /  at the end when linking;  if it matches the URL being linked to, then absolutely.  If it differs to the URL being linked to, then it's linking to a different page essentially.  Best to choose one method and to stick with it for consistency, whichever that ends up being.  Usually, without the  /  is the better option.

You're right, with redirects, link juice is passed to the page being redirected to, however not 100% of it.  Usually varies between 60% and 90%, as a guide, so some loss for sure.

With those new pages and redirects from last night;  have you considered using the Canonical tag?  Sounds like it's something that your website would benefit from using.

Here you'll find a **Guide to Canonical Tags**and here you'll find a Post & Discussion on 301 Redirects vs the Canonical tag  which will explain everything you need to know about Canonicals.

Regards

Simon

[NoahsDad]

Thanks. Like I said above I think my theme adds the canonical tag, because in the seo tools I can see many of links showing 'canonical.'

[SimonCullum]

Yep, some Canonical tags are being used.  Will need to change the canonicals if you change your redirects ( removing the / ) unless it's automated that is.

Good luck with whatever you decide to do

[NoahsDad]

Thanks!

So when I remove the redirect how can I check to make sure the new page gets the canonical? There will only be one page if I remove the redirect, right? So since it is just one page, wouldn't that page be the canonical?

[SimonCullum]

You'll need to check the source code, as you'll be changing redirects rather than removing them, redirects will still be in place.

rel="canonical" href="http://noahsdad.com/story/" /> is a current Canonical.

rel="canonical" href="http://noahsdad.com/story" />  would be the new Canonical ( without the / )