Rel="canonical" What if there is no header??

[momof4]

Hi Everyone!

Thanks to moz.com, I just found out that we have a duplicate content issue: mywebsite.com and mywebsite.com/index.php have the same content. I would like to make mywebsite.com the main one because it already has a few links and a better page rank.

I know how to do a 301 redirect (already have one for www.mywebsite.com) but I am aware that a 301 redirect for my index file would create a loop issue. I have read the article about redirecting without creating a loop (http://moz.com/blog/apache-redirect-an-index-file-to-your-domain-without-looping) but quite frankly I don't even have a clue what he's trying to tell me (e.g. "Create an apache DirectoryIndex directive for your document root." What????!)… So I figured a rel="canonical" tag for my index file would be easier and fix the problem, too (right??)

In every "How to" description they always say you have to put the  rel="canonical" tag in the header of your duplicate content file. But: My index.php has no header (or nothing that looks like a header to me)! This is what it looks like:

foreach($_GET as $key => $value)
{
$$key = $value;
}
foreach($_POST as $key => $value)
{
$$key = $value;
} 
$page_title="my title";
$page_description="my description";
$page_keywords="keywords";
//echo $link;
//exit;
if (!isset($link)):
$page_content="homepage.php";
else:
if ($link=="services"):
$page_content="services.php";
$page_title=" my title for services page";
$page_description="description for services.";
endif;
… ect. for the other pages

So where do I put the rel=canonical tag?

Or is there another solution for the whole problem? Like delete the whole index file (lol)

Thanks in advance for any answers!

[Martijn_Scheijbeler]

What is in your homepage.php file? It sounds like there could be a header from the code snippet that you've copied in.

[momof4]

Hi Martijn!

Yes there is a header in my homepage.php file. Does that help? I thought the rel=canonical tag has to go in the file you want to "redirect"?

[alrockn]

Sounds like you've got a php site that's dynamically creating pages.  You have to find the person who wrote the script and have them edit the template to add a canonical tag that inserts the correct url when the page is generated.  Your not going to be able to insert a static canonical tag.

[momof4]

You are right about the site dynamically creating pages. But the only one with the duplicate content issue is the homepage. I only need a rel=canonical tag for this one

Unfortunately contacting the people who originally wrote the code for the website and have them make changes is not an option

I will either have to figure this out on my own or find someone who can help me

[momof4]

Just fyi and for anyone who might be interested: That was the solution! I put the rel=canonical tag in the homepage header and my duplicate page content problem was gone!

Thanks!!!