Duplicate Home Page

[JonRaubenheimer]

Hi,

I have a question around best practise on duplicate home pages. The /index.aspx page is showing up as a top referrer in my analytics. I have the rel=canonical tag implemented for the www.mysite.com on both pages.

Do I need to 301 the /index.aspx to the mysite.com? I have a lot of links pointing to the /index.aspx (half of those are coming from the mysite.com).

www.mysite.com/index.aspx

www.mysite.com

Many thanks

Jon

[TomRayner]

Hey Jon

A quick note about analytics - it will always report your homepage as /index.aspx etc.  So, even if you have a mysite.com, www.mysite.com or www.mysite.com/index.aspx structure, GA will report the landing page as /index.aspx.

Therefore, I would choose the URL structure that you would prefer to keep and what you think looks best.  301 the other URL versions to your chosen domain to avoid duplicate content and to pass on all the link equity from those URLs.  If you do redirect the /index.aspx version on your domain a 301 will pass on all the 'strength' so not a lot to worry about there.

When you're done, it's worth checking that all the links on your site link to the homepage in the same way, including your logo if applicable.  Also update your XML sitemap and resubmit to Googe/Bing.

Hope this helps.

[WorldText]

I'd be inclined to make the equivalent of a URL rewrite rule in the ASP equivalent of htaccess to only serve www.mysite.com.  Sorry I don't know ASP so can't help with syntax there.

Then I would use canonical url to tell bots which page is actually the index.

Lastly I'd scan your site and ensure that all links on your site, which link to the home page have just a slash, as it's very likely there's a few of each:

Home

This way all to the home page that crawlers see are just the canonical URL.

[JonRaubenheimer]

Thanks Guys,

Great answers.