Canonical Link Issue - Index.html and Variable

[TheSkylight]

Did you publish to web ? and did you force the browser to refresh the page rather than using the cache?

Yes, published to web and cleared cache/forced refresh to be sure.

I fear it might have been an error on my behalf, but I followed the instructions as best as I could!

Does the attached make sense?

[Mike Hughes]

Yes. That's the right place.

Did you click 'apply' after making the changes? I tested the blockif on my website and it triggered fine on the homepage.

[TheSkylight]

Yes. That's the right place.

Did you click 'apply' after making the changes? I tested the blockif on my website and it triggered fine on the homepage.

Well, I have just tried again...

view-source:https://www.theskylightcompany.co.uk/

Hmmm...

[Mike Hughes]

Odd. I've just copied, pasted and applied the code you posted in post 12 into my meta tags layout, did a site update and it does exactly what it was supposed to including putting the canonical for your home page on my home page. (I've now removed it again as I don't want to confuse Google any more than is necessary.)

What do have set under Design > Design Options > Home Page Link ? is it set to Brochure ?

[TheSkylight]

Odd. I've just copied, pasted and applied the code you posted in post 12 into my meta tags layout, did a site update and it does exactly what it was supposed to including putting the canonical for your home page on my home page. (I've now removed it again as I don't want to confuse Google any more than is necessary.)

What do have set under Design > Design Options > Home Page Link ? is it set to Brochure ?

Mike,

It is set to URL. Which I have put as the Home Page.

Would this be the reason do you think?

[Mike Hughes]

Possibly. It's the only thing I could think of that might be confusing it as to which page is the front/home page. I have mine set to 'Brochure' and it works perfectly.

[TheSkylight]

Possibly. It's the only thing I could think of that might be confusing it as to which page is the front/home page. I have mine set to 'Brochure' and it works perfectly.

I think I changed it to URL because the Home Page links were pointing to /index.html and although it redirected fine I just wanted the links to go straight to the redirect page.

Maybe I will change it to brochure, test it and then manually change the Home Page links. Might be easier.

I will try it shortly and report back!

PS - I wasn't supposed to delete any of the original canonical code was I? My image explanation of what I did made sense?

[TheSkylight]

Ok so I tried that and we have change but wanted to check if this was correct... In the Page Source it has

 <link rel="canonical" href="https://www.theskylightcompany.co.uk"><link rel="canonical" href="https://www.theskylightcompany.co.uk/index.html">

[Mike Hughes]

The first Canonical is correct.

The second one shouldn't be there and is presumably happening because the code that generates it hasn't been included in the second blockif.

[TheSkylight]

Is this how it should look?

EDIT: I think we are good! Could you check the page source to confirm for me Mike?

[Mike Hughes]

Yep. Your pages all look good.

[TheSkylight]

Yep. Your pages all look good.

Perfect!

Now... without the risk of turning your headache into a migraine... Would there be a simple fix to add to this code to turn the canonical acatalog/index.html into /acatalog/

It's the last one I promise!

[Mike Hughes]

Personally, I would give that page a useful name (such as skylights.html) and use that rather than just linking to the catalog folder.

- It's an important page as it's linked to from all your other pages
- You can also change the breadcrumb links to go there directly using some decent keywords ('skylight Products' ?) in the anchor text rather than 'Online Catalogue'
- It's probably easier than changing the canonical.

If you want to change the canonical the pseudo code would be:

If homepage

<link rel="canonical" href="https://www.theskylightcompany.co.uk">

If top of catalog

<link rel="canonical" href="https://www.theskylightcompany.co.uk/acatalog/">

If not homepage AND not top of catalog

Standard sellerdeck canonical code

All you have to do is work out the relevant blockif for top of catalog :-)

[TheSkylight]

Well I just never understood why you needed /acatalog and acatalog/index.html. Both lead to the same thing, so I have always redirected one.

[Mike Hughes]

The only reason you get away with not specifying a page is because in that case the server will first look for a default page to show rather than listing all the available files and index.html is the typical one.

My main view is that as you have a page with lots of internal links to it and that links out to your main product sections then it makes sense to do at least a little SEO to boost its relevance and authority scores.