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base href instructions incorrect?

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    Lucas Reply #11, 15 years, 6 months ago
    markg - if you’re concerned about the impact of the <base> tag in terms of getting your site indexed, you could add the following between your <head></head> tags (assuming you’re using Evo):
    <link rel="canonical" href="[(site_url)][*id:isnot=`[(site_start)]`:then=`[~[*id*]~]`*]" />


    This is accepted amongst the SEO community as the best way to tell search engines which version of a given page you would like them to index, and is actively supported by Google. It’s intended to be applied when you may have multiple versions of the same page and want to specify which one should be indexed, but it should have the same effect for your situation. The ’:isnot’ modifier just ensures that your home page is displayed as ’site.com’ instead of ’site.com/home’.

    Back to basics, but have you created an account on Google Webmaster Tools and submitted an XML sitemap? Is the content on those trouble pages unique or fairly similar? Are those pages well interlinked and can they be reached with 1 or 2 clicks from the home page? I’m quite well read up on SEO so would be happy to give you suggestions if you drop me a link smiley
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      MarkG Reply #12, 15 years, 6 months ago
      Lucas,

      not so much concerned as just exploring and trying to resolve some things. As I said earlier I’m trying to sort out some strange indexing problems and this conversation has got way more involved than I expected.

      Been interesting though.

      Yes I already have a canonical tag in my homepage template, but just a little different than yours
      <link rel="canonical" href="[(site_url)]" />


      The only place where I do have duplicate content is in my blog. Well it’s not actually duplicate, it’s just the same article stored under several categories. And I’m pretty sure the article always resolves to the same url

      As to your other points, yes I have done the whole GWT and XML thing. That’s partly where I’m getting the strange indexing errors. GWT is actually saying it can’t find pages that never existed and are not even in the sitemap. So I’m not sure how it can get a not found from a sitemap when the particular link isn’t even in the sitemap.

      But all that’s getting off topic and I’ve been exploring those problems elsewhere.

      Thanks for the advice.
      smiley
        Content Creator and Copywriter
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        Lucas Reply #13, 15 years, 6 months ago
        Hey, no problem smiley

        GWT’s reports are not the most reliable to go by so if the pages you want indexed are showing up in search results I wouldn’t worry about it.
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          Eoler Reply #14, 15 years, 6 months ago
          Quote from: markg at Mar 16, 2011, 04:32 AM

          Yes I already have a canonical tag in my homepage template, but just a little different than yours
          <link rel="canonical" href="[(site_url)]" />

          This is a grave error if you have this on every page’s header...
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            MarkG Reply #15, 15 years, 6 months ago
            NO JUST THE HOMEPAGE
            grin
              Content Creator and Copywriter
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              opengeek Reply #16, 15 years, 6 months ago
              Quote from: markg at Mar 15, 2011, 07:23 PM

              I get it, but it sure sounds a bit Monty Python like.
              I’m sorry, I love Monty Python, but I do not get the reference. (Nor understand why everyone has such a problem with this base href thing; it does NOT affect SEO, period)
                Jason Coward
                Chief Architect @ MODX
                http://www.jasoncoward.com | http://twitter.com/drumshaman | https://github.com/opengeek
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                MarkG Reply #17, 15 years, 6 months ago
                I’m sorry, I love Monty Python, but I do not get the reference

                Probably should have that conversation outside of this forum over a beer.

                or understand why everyone has such a problem with this base href thing;

                I don’t think everybody does have "such a problem" While I can’t speak for everybody else, I was merely asking the question and seeking clarification.

                And you’re answer cleared it up perfectly.

                As far as I’m concerned the initial question has been resolved by your answer, so thanks.

                Some of the other comments were going off on a tangent, but still interesting and helpful.

                And if others want to continue the base href discussion, that’s fine by me.

                Never know what I could learn.
                wink wink





                  Content Creator and Copywriter
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                  sottwell Reply #18, 13 years, 1 month ago
                  Just to throw in a bit of possibly useful information for anyone searching on this topic - using a base tag will break the JQuery UI Tabs widget. They have decided that the base tag is evil, and will no longer code their widget to work with it. When using their Tabs widget with a base tag, the contents of the entire page will be loaded into the tab content area, instead of just the content of specified elements within the page. There are some workarounds for this problem. http://tjvantoll.com/2013/02/17/using-jquery-ui-tabs-with-the-base-tag/

                  This same thing was reported as a bug some years ago, and was fixed. But as of version 9, the JQuery UI developers have decided to no longer work with the base tag.
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