Google also indexed trailing slash version - PLEASE HELP

[Jvalops]

Please can you tell me how to redirect urls with slash to non slash urls using .htaccess.

[RanjeetP]

I think some of these posts can help you understand:

http://html5boilerplate.com/docs/Proper-usage-of-trailing-slash-redirects/

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4167539/remove-trailing-slash-using-htaccess-except-for-home-landing-page

Do try this a test environment and take a backup of the .htaccess file before making any changes, Have it go through a programmer.

Cheers,

[Jvalops]

RewriteRule ^([^/]+/)*([^/.]+).html/ http://www.mydomain.com/$2.html [R=301,L]

Looks like above did the trick

[RanjeetP]

Sounds good, do keep a check to make it 100% sure. I believe the SE's will be fine now.

Cheers,

[Jvalops]

I checked with this website: http://www.internetofficer.com/seo-tool/redirect-check/

It says:

http://www.mydomain.com/jason.html/

Type of redirect: 301 Moved Permanently

http://www.mydomain.com/jason.html

So looks as if it's done the job. Right?

[RanjeetP]

Yups, its done. Just need to be sure if the Home Page is fine. The indexed version of the Home Page stays as it is without any redirection.

Cheers,

[Jvalops]

Thanks a lot.

Now when i click the slash version of the indexed URL from google goes to nonslash version. So it seems we're safe now.

The other thing is when I submitted the sitemap.xml after launch it was without slash. Also all internal links are targeting nonslash URLs. I think google should understand that this is a technical issue and now it has been solved.

When should i remove that redirect?

[RanjeetP]

You are welcome.

Well, the first time you did submit the sitemap right, but now since Google has found new URLs on your website and indexed them, it would be good to notify the big G that they are no longer a part of your website and resubmitting would not hurt.

About the redirections, Google does take a bit of time to understand that the URLs have permanently moved and will gradually remove them from the index. So, keep checking the index for the trailing slash URLs and when they are gone, you can remove the redirections.

Cheers,

[Dr-Pete]

Could you clarify a couple of things:

(1) When you say canonical URLs, do you mean your internal links, or the actual URLs in your rel="canonical" tags?

(2) If it was just the canonical tags, is everything consistent now (tags, internal links, etc.)?

Since both version will resolve, just fixing the canonical tags (if that's the issue) should be enough - it's just going to take a little time. They should be as effective as a 301-redirect in this case. Either way, though, it can take Google a while to kick out the duplicates. I'd just monitor the index closely and make sure the top-level pages are clearing up (i.e. your home-page and major category duplicates should be disappearing). If that's happening, you're ok - you just need to wait a bit. If that's not happening, then you may have some other mixed signals in play.

[Jvalops]

1. Actual rel="canonical" tags.

2. As soon as we relised everything was fixed. Canonical tag is showing urls without slash and also aplied to htaccess to redirect slash version to non slash version.

<cite>we're using www.shopify.com</cite>

[Dr-Pete]

Seems like you got the 301-redirect resolved below - if you've got that in place and fixed the canonical tag, it should be ok. It'll just take some time (usually longer than you'd like) for Google to clear out the pages, especially the deeper ones. If you see gradual de-indexation, though, you'll probably be fine.

[RanjeetP]

Thats great! The canonical URLs are showing URLs without slash as they are probably reflecting their original URL which is without slash. Hope Google clears them soon..