Severe Health issue on my site through Webmaster tools

[VictorVC]

Unfortunately no. The edit page section of Website Tonight only shows the newer homepage.com/shakeology.html version and not the original homepage.com

I am afraid to delete the homepage.com/shakeology.html in fear that I will be left with neither one.

You probably aren't seeing the preview of the .com/shakeology.html because it is not the indexed homepage. It shows for the homepage.com version. The canonical tag was me trying to redirect search engines from the new (unwanted) homepage to the original because Website tonight won't allow me to 301 it.

[Dr-Pete]

Unfortunately, there just comes a point where sometimes these very narrow CMS systems hit their limits, and it can start to harm you. I don't know Website Tonight well enough to help on that (hopefully someone else does), but there may come a point where you want to consider to a more advanced platform. These days, there are a lot of options that aren't budget-breakers, although switching is always a bit tough.

[VictorVC]

My original wanted homepage is www .hompage .com

My duplicate is www. hompage .com/shakeology.html

Would it be possible and/or advisable to use a Parameter in Web Master tools to ignore the /shakeology.html?

[Dr-Pete]

It's a bit dangerous to simply block "shakeology.html", if Google has preferred it for a reason - you could end up getting your root page back in the rankings, or you could end up just falling out completely. I think you'd be better off leaving it and having the "wrong" page rank, if that's the only viable option.

I'm actually still showing your root home-page ranking, though, and now the "shakeology.html" page isn't even appearing in the index. Did you already make a change?

[VictorVC]

No I have not made any changes yet. Google has never preferred the /shakeology.html page. I don't think it's ever been indexed. My only problem is that since I tried to CHANGE the root url not CREAT ANOTHER VERSION my serps have seemed to tank and I am trying to avoid the duplicate content issues that I believe the /shakeology.html is causing.

[VictorVC]

No I have not made any changes yet. Google has never preferred the /shakeology.html page. I don't think it's ever been indexed. My only problem is that since I tried to CHANGE the root url not CREAT ANOTHER VERSION my serps have seemed to tank and I am trying to avoid the duplicate content issues that I believe the /shakeology.html is causing.

[Dr-Pete]

While creating the copy of the home-page isn't ideal, if Google hasn't indexed it, it's very likely not creating duplicate content problems. Either they're filtering it out or haven't indexed it at all (since it probably has no links/paths).

I don't think that this alone is the cause of your ranking drop, but you've got a few things going on, so it's tough to say. Unfortunately, most of the ideal solutions seem to be impossible in the Godaddy system, and that's going to continue to cause you some problems.

[VictorVC]

For anyone else with Website Tonight, I have finally found a work around if not a fix. Being that Website Tonight will not allow you to do a 301 Redirect of an old page, I have figured out that if you re-create the deleted page (just the URL not the content) and use the Meta Tag to do a REFRESH to the new page, anytime the old page is clicked on it will bring them to the new page. Not ideal, of course, for SEO purposes but at least they are no longer going to a 404 and HOPEFULLY your old link juice will pass on.

[Dr-Pete]

Thanks for letting us know, and glad you found a work-around. A 0-second META REFRESH sometimes acts like a 301 - it's not ideal, as you said, but it's something.

[edwardrj]

I would just like to add: If you're considering signing up for something (SEV), you may as well get a real hosting package.