Canonical / 301 Redundancy

[ahirai]

Suppose I have two dynamic URLs that lead to the identical page:

www.example.com/product.php?x=1&y=1

and

www.example.com/product.php?y=1

The x=1 parameter had some historical meaning, but is now unused. All references to the x=1 parameter have been removed from internal links and sitemaps.

I have implemented two solutions:

First, the header of www.example.com/product.php?x=1&y=1 includes:

Second, the .htaccess file includes the following:

Redirect permanent /product.php?x=1&y=1 http://www.example.com/product.php?y=1

Questions:

1. I assume that since canonical is still relatively new, it's best to play it safe and implement both solutions. Is this correct?

2. When I point my browser to www.example.com/product.php?x=1&y=1, it does NOT redirect to www.example.com/product.php?y=1. The address bar continues to show the non-canonical URL. Is this because the canonical tag somehow takes precedence over the 301 redirect?

3. How long will Google Webmaster Tools continue to show these as duplicates, even though I've implemeted BOTH canonical and 301? It's been a few weeks and I thought it would have rolled off by now.

Thanks!

[Dr-Pete]

(1) Honestly, I tend not to double-up, if for no other reason that you can't really tell what's work and what isn't. Keep in mind, too, that these tools do have different purposes. 301-redirects impact everyone (users and bots), whereas rel-canonical is only for search. If a 301 is appropriate, then just use a 301.

(2) If the address bar isn't changing, your 301-redirect isn't working. Test it with a header checker:

http://tools.seobook.com/server-header-checker/

A rel-canonical tag will not override browser behavior (at least, not at this point in time).

(3) It can take weeks to clear, and it sounds like your 301 isn't working right, so that's going to exacerbate the problem. The page has to re-crawl and re-cache, and GWT may still show the message for a couple of weeks after that.

Personally, I'd drop the canonical and fix the 301-redirect.

[ahirai]

Dr. Pete,

Thanks for the very helpful answer. I've gotten rid of the rel-canonical tag for this part of the site and I'll try to figure out what's up with the 301s.

BTW, I listened to the recorded version of your "future proofing" webinar this morning and learned a lot.

Akira

[ahirai]

Note to self, and to others who see this thread later, the 301 for this situation is:

RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} x=([0-9]+)&y=([0-9]+)

RewriteRule ^product.php$ http://www.example.com/product.php?y=%2 [r=301,nc]