Should I add the canonical URL/homepage (http://www.domain.com) in the secured version of my home URL (https://www.domain.com)?

[esiow2013]

Thanks in advance!

[webmethod]

Hi,

I understand the question as: In the SSL (HTTPS) version of my homepage, should I add a rel=canonical link to the markup which points to the non SSL version of my homepage?

If your SSL pages are only accessible to authenticated users (i.e. not crawlers) then I can't see that it would make much difference as you won't suffer from duplicate content. However, if your SSL page is accessible to crawlers (as is becoming more common recently) then adding the canonical tag to non SSL is a good idea. In addition to preventing duplicate content issues, there's a good chance that your SSL page might get linked to, and blocking crawlers to it (using noindex / robots etc) means you won't get the benefits of those links.

One thing to bear in mind first is that you should decide on whether the single canonical version for your site is your HTTP or HTTPS pages. Then canonicalise accordingly.

George

[esiow2013]

Thanks for the help George!