Correct use of Canonical link vs 301 redirect

[wedmonds]

Hi All,

Seeking yet more advice.

SEOMOZ tools have told me I have duplicate content on one of my sites and I am keen to clean this up.  I am not to familiar with the following so thought I would ask.

The duplicate content is shown on :

www.mysite.com

www.mysite.com/index.html

Obviously I only see index.html when I check the code so what is the best method of resolving the duplicate content, Canonical or 301?

Can you give me an example

Thanks all

[seanmccauley]

Use a 301 Redirect with .htaccess. Use the following code in your 'htaccess file:

Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} ^./index.html
RewriteRule ^(.)index.html$ http://www.yoursite.com/$1 [R=301,L]

[RyanKent]

Wayne,

A 301 is always preferred over a canonical when given the choice. You would use a canonical if you did not have access to your web server and did not have a better option.

The method of redirect depends on the hardware and software of your server. The most common shared servers use Apache and cPanel where there is a Redirect tool which allows you to perform this redirect. The Redirect tool writes the htaccess code for you.

You are also welcome to use the code Sean shared but if you have not modified your file before please understand any mistake can make your site inaccessible. Always back up the current file, make the change, and thoroughly test it.

[wedmonds]

Thanks guys, exactly what I was looking for