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HI,

So a number of different things:

1. You do not HAVE to specify the hreflang in your sitemap if your are doing it correctly in your page code. If you want to anyway then see this page for details on how to do it.

2. In your pages you should NOT have 2 hreflang meta tags. Each page should only have one tag. In the thai page a tag pointing to the english version and in the english page a tag pointing to the thai version. Right now you have 2 hreflang tags on each page.

3.  For the %20, this is from having spaces in your file names. You should ideally not have these. If you change the page urls you should 301 redirect the old page with the %20 to the new page. See here for details on how to do that.

Generally I would suggest that you make sure your english urls are in your sitemap (I did not see any) and then use Google webmaster tools to make sure all your pages in both thai and english are being indexed properly. If your pages are being indexed ok then I would try to make sure that there is no thai content on the english pages, this could be confusing to google especially since the two languages are so different (completely different characters).

Hope that helps!

Hi,

I would do it all at once, nothing unusual about it and google may not see the change on all pages at the same time anyway.

For the rankings it is really impossible to say, you might get lucky, you might have to be patient, its not exactly like starting over again, especially if you have a couple of existing external links but....

For the canonical tags, there is a way to do it depending on your setup. Have you got canonicals being automatically added to the category pages as well as the product pages? If yes then you can overwrite them on a case by case basis by putting the following code in the 'custom layout update' box (this works for both products and categories actually).

<reference name="head"><action method="removeItem"><type>link_rel</type>
<name>http://www.domain.com/oldurl</name></action></reference>

<action method="addLinkRel"><rel>canonical</rel>
<href>http://www.domain.com/new-url</href></action>

You will need to identify the canonical url being inputted into the code, add it to the oldurl bit above to remove it and then put in the new canonical url you want. Needless to say, it pays to be sure about what you are trying to achieve and why before implementing this setup on a lot of pages.

Hope it helps!

Hi,

Following some testing, you can actually use the xml update feature for both categories and products individually, the trick is to first remove the existing rel=canonical that is put in if you have those settings turned on for that in the magento admin. So:

<reference name="head"><action method="removeItem"><type>link_rel</type>
<name>http://www.domain.com/oldurl</name></action></reference>

<action method="addLinkRel"><rel>canonical</rel>
<href>http://www.domain.com/new-url</href></action>

You will need to identify the canonical url being inputted into the code, add it to the oldurl bit above and then put in the new url. You can do this in products and also for categories in the custom design tab and then the custom layout update box.

Hope that helps!

Hi Andrea,

I am not sure exactly what dup content issues you are trying to correct...

If you have ftp access then you can simply take out the last lines that were added through cpanel and that should then let you login again. As for the correct setup, give us a few more details on what exactly you are trying to achieve.

HI,

This one is pretty good: http://www.noupe.com/php/htaccess-techniques.html

And the boilerplate htaccess file often gives a good starting point (and its commented): https://github.com/h5bp/html5-boilerplate/blob/master/.htaccess

For redirects Lesley is right, they can get complicated and often need a bit of fiddling to avoid server 500 errors.

Hi Steve,

htaccess can be tricky! That link above is a good overview of the options. What you want in your case I think is to make sure that the specific individual page url rewrites are before the generic domain rewrite so they are triggered first and the generic redirect is only triggered if none of the individual page urls above it are hit.

Actually I take back that bit about the filtered urls. Just checked and indeed they should canonical back to the base category url, so if you find out why the canonical is not showing up you should be good

Hi Gianluca,

What an honour

For the product canonical meta tag you have set it up correctly, I assume you have cleared the magento cache, are you sure there is not a php cache/accelerator running also (like apc or similar)? This would also prevent the changes you have enabled from immediately showing up.

The second option in the link you mention will also work, but really the first option (which you are trying now) is more efficient and automatic as long as you do not have duplicate content across different products which ideally you wont. That being said it is worth trying the second option on your sub categories, I believe you can do custom layout updates at the category level also and that should help you!

One thing to clarify: You say you expect to see canonicals on urls with sort parameters, but in my experience you will not. I cannot think of a commercial seo module for magento off the top of my head that will handle correct canonical tags for search and filtering parameters. The easiest way to do it is some custom development work which is not that difficult to do if you find someone comfortable with Magento.

Hope that helps!

Hi,

Well that does sound a bit odd but it could be for a number of reasons depending on the version of google you are using (.com or .co.th) at the time and the keyword. One thing I notice is that some of your english pages have some thai content on them (check out the results doing a search like: site:wearyouwant.com/en/). Maybe this has something to do with it?

That Yoast plugin is only developed up to Magento version 1.4 which is pretty old now. The good news is you can get  some of this functionality out of the box now at Admin -> Configuration -> Catalog -> Search engine optimizations. If you set the use canonical meta tag link on products to yes then all product pages are given a canonical link back to a base url with no category in it. Baring a more advanced paid module or custom development, this is going to be your best bet.

Certainly change your category pages back to index, follow. Depending on your setup and how many common categories/products you have any duplicate content issue you have would usually be on a product more than a category level anyway. For category pages look at getting some good descriptions and other unique content on them. Check out this video for more details.

I guess it might depend a bit on what are the most important features of each product. Are the differences most important or the generic (but important) features across all products more important? If the first then separate pages makes sense, if the second then maybe consolidating onto one page makes more sense. You could also try giving a full feature rundown on your most important/visible product page and then give a shortened version on the other two referencing the first one with a "for a complete rundown of all features" type link.

I know it can be tough but even in the car example I don't think it is so difficult to get unique content. Different cars = different target groups with different interests, needs etc. It forces you to try to get inside the mind of your various target audiences, but that is a good thing right?! I wouldnt often consider trying to hide the content with javascript etc, I am sure you can get enough unique content to make it non duplicate with a bit of brainstorming about what each product means to each group.

Hi,

If the 3 products are aimed at solving three different problems then I would think you could write enough unique content for each page that you wont have a problem. Explain what each product is good for, how it differs from the others, what kind of customer it is aimed at etc. As long as you dont have just one unique sentence at the top of each page and then a massive list of features duplicated across the pages you should be ok.

Hi Alexander,

The hreflang link in the header is probably the best way to do it. As to if it is impacting you, it depends on how much duplicate content there is to some degree. If you have set up both sites in GWT with separate sitemaps you can keep an eye on how well both sites are being indexed, a lot of unindexed pages on one or the other might indicate a problem. Best practice would be to put in the hreflag as you mention if in doubt.

Hi,

As you mention Panda is not a link based update so it is unlikely that the links are related to your issues, if (an important if) you are sure your problems are Panda based. Check out this useful analytics overlay tool to see if any important dates pop out of your analytics data and confirm traffic drops around known google updates.

As Guillermo mentions, reciprocals in themselves are not inherently bad and as you say they have brought you direct referral traffic so nothing wrong with that. That being said, bunches of them on 2000+ pages, especially if they are anchor text rich and do follow could be a fine line. If in doubt I would no follow them, but make sure you have identified as best as possible the original cause of your problems before you start making wholesale changes.

Hi Dario,

Are you sure you are seeing video results for the search? If you are then what thumbnail is showing if not your declared one?

Be that as it may it might be worth adding the meta thumbnail as well as thumbnailUrl like so:

Check out the comments here for a bit on which thumb seems to be getting shown and if you really want to get confused check out the source of the youtube video and see what the have done there! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQk5AQsSI9Y, something like this:

Hope it helps!

Hi Des,

You will probably want to look at implementing rel=alternative hreflang="xx" in this case and you usually do not want to be putting a rel=canonical pointing at the .com site from the .co.uk site. Google has removed the text referring to the canonical tag from the relevant help page on hreflang exactly due to the confusion you mention in your question. As I understand it you can still use a self referencing rel=canonical tag if you like, but the hreflang is the best way to declare to google that you have language/region specific content available on other urls. Having both hreflang and a canonical tag pointing to the .com site might get you UK searches showing the .co.uk site url (from the hreflang) but showing title and description text from the .com site (because of the canonical tag). Check out these 2 links for a bit more info:

https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/189077?hl=en
http://dejanseo.com.au/canonical-vs-hreflang/

Hope that helps.

Agree with EGOL in regards paying attention to your content first and foremost.

That being said,  you might want to have a quick look at the 2013 ranking survey here: http://moz.com/blog/ranking-factors-2013. Still a lot of factors in play of which social is only one.

Hi,

Your code looks ok, what makes you think that the .com is not being indexed? When I search for the brand on google.com I see the .com/en, on google.co.th i see the main thai site.

Hi Carla,

I have never heard of one file type being better or worse for image ranking, I would think it makes no difference so use the type that makes the most sense for the kind of image it is (ie jpg for photos, png for logos and generally whichever will give you a lower file size). That being said, I did a search for 'Línea Solarium Recto' and your images are the first ones shown so it might depend on what phrase you are trying to rank for with certain images, the pngs in other words are certainly showing up for quite specific searches.