• majorAlexa

        See all notifications

        Skip to content
        Moz logo Menu open Menu close
        • Products
          • Moz Pro
          • Moz Pro Home
          • Moz Local
          • Moz Local Home
          • STAT
          • Moz API
          • Moz API Home
          • Compare SEO Products
          • Moz Data
        • Free SEO Tools
          • Domain Analysis
          • Keyword Explorer
          • Link Explorer
          • Competitive Research
          • MozBar
          • More Free SEO Tools
        • Learn SEO
          • Beginner's Guide to SEO
          • SEO Learning Center
          • Moz Academy
          • MozCon
          • Webinars, Whitepapers, & Guides
        • Blog
        • Why Moz
          • Digital Marketers
          • Agency Solutions
          • Enterprise Solutions
          • Small Business Solutions
          • The Moz Story
          • New Releases
        • Log in
        • Log out
        • Products
          • Moz Pro

            Your all-in-one suite of SEO essentials.

          • Moz Local

            Raise your local SEO visibility with complete local SEO management.

          • STAT

            SERP tracking and analytics for enterprise SEO experts.

          • Moz API

            Power your SEO with our index of over 44 trillion links.

          • Compare SEO Products

            See which Moz SEO solution best meets your business needs.

          • Moz Data

            Power your SEO strategy & AI models with custom data solutions.

          Let your business shine with Listings AI
          Moz Local

          Let your business shine with Listings AI

          Learn more
        • Free SEO Tools
          • Domain Analysis

            Get top competitive SEO metrics like DA, top pages and more.

          • Keyword Explorer

            Find traffic-driving keywords with our 1.25 billion+ keyword index.

          • Link Explorer

            Explore over 40 trillion links for powerful backlink data.

          • Competitive Research

            Uncover valuable insights on your organic search competitors.

          • MozBar

            See top SEO metrics for free as you browse the web.

          • More Free SEO Tools

            Explore all the free SEO tools Moz has to offer.

          NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic
          Moz Pro

          NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic

          Learn more
        • Learn SEO
          • Beginner's Guide to SEO

            The #1 most popular introduction to SEO, trusted by millions.

          • SEO Learning Center

            Broaden your knowledge with SEO resources for all skill levels.

          • On-Demand Webinars

            Learn modern SEO best practices from industry experts.

          • How-To Guides

            Step-by-step guides to search success from the authority on SEO.

          • Moz Academy

            Upskill and get certified with on-demand courses & certifications.

          • MozCon

            Save on Early Bird tickets and join us in London or New York City

          Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints
          Moz API

          Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints

          Find your plan
        • Blog
        • Why Moz
          • Digital Marketers

            Simplify SEO tasks to save time and grow your traffic.

          • Small Business Solutions

            Uncover insights to make smarter marketing decisions in less time.

          • Agency Solutions

            Earn & keep valuable clients with unparalleled data & insights.

          • Enterprise Solutions

            Gain a competitive edge in the ever-changing world of search.

          • The Moz Story

            Moz was the first & remains the most trusted SEO company.

          • New Releases

            Get the scoop on the latest and greatest from Moz.

          Surface actionable competitive intel
          New Feature

          Surface actionable competitive intel

          Learn More
        • Log in
          • Moz Pro
          • Moz Local
          • Moz Local Dashboard
          • Moz API
          • Moz API Dashboard
          • Moz Academy
        • Avatar
          • Moz Home
          • Notifications
          • Account & Billing
          • Manage Users
          • Community Profile
          • My Q&A
          • My Videos
          • Log Out

        The Moz Q&A Forum

        • Forum
        • Questions
        • My Q&A
        • Users
        • Ask the Community

        Welcome to the Q&A Forum

        Browse the forum for helpful insights and fresh discussions about all things SEO.

        1. Home
        2. SEO Tactics
        3. On-Page Optimization
        4. Do we need to use the canonical tag on non-indexed pages?

        Moz Q&A is closed.

        After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.

        Do we need to use the canonical tag on non-indexed pages?

        On-Page Optimization
        4
        10
        2907
        Loading More Posts
        • Watching

          Notify me of new replies.
          Show question in unread.

        • Not Watching

          Do not notify me of new replies.
          Show question in unread if category is not ignored.

        • Ignoring

          Do not notify me of new replies.
          Do not show question in unread.

        • Oldest to Newest
        • Newest to Oldest
        • Most Votes
        Reply
        • Reply as question
        Locked
        This topic has been deleted. Only users with question management privileges can see it.
        • oneresult
          oneresult last edited by

          Hi there

          I have been working in / learning SEO for just over a year, coming from a non dev background, so there are still plenty of the finer points on-page points I am working on. Slowly building up confidence and knowledge with the great SEOMoz as a reference!

          We are working on this site http://www.preciseuk.co.uk (we are still tweaking the tags and content by the way- not finished yet!)

          Because a lot of the information is within accordians, a page is generated for each tab of the accordian expanded, for example:

          http://www.preciseuk.co.uk/facilities-management.php is the main page

          but then you also have:

          http://www.preciseuk.co.uk/facilities-management.php?tab=0 http://www.preciseuk.co.uk/facilities-management.php?tab=1 http://www.preciseuk.co.uk/facilities-management.php?tab=2 http://www.preciseuk.co.uk/facilities-management.php?tab=3 http://www.preciseuk.co.uk/facilities-management.php?tab=4 http://www.preciseuk.co.uk/facilities-management.php?tab=5

          All of which are in the same file.

          According to the crawl test, these pages are not indexed.

          Because it is all in one file, should we add the canonical tag to it, so that this is replicated in all the tab pages that are generated? eg.

          Thanks in advance for your help!

          Liz

          OneResult
          [email protected]

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
          • oneresult
            oneresult @StalkerB last edited by

            Ok, this may be a better option in Webmaster tools, since you need to have added robots txt or "nofollow, noindex" to the pages...which we can't do because they are all one file.

            Many thanks everyone 🙂

            Liz

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • StalkerB
              StalkerB @oneresult last edited by

              Sounds fine. You could also go into webmaster tools as well and tell them to ignore the 'tab' parameter

              Site Configuration > Settings > Parameter Handling

              Although if you're changing it to # you shouldn't need to 🙂

              oneresult 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
              • oneresult
                oneresult last edited by

                Having talked to the guys and developers, while re-coding the whole site is not feasible for this project, we are going to prevent these pseudo pages being an issue by:

                • adding a rel canonical tag to the main pages
                • add the # symbol after the .php section of the code so that the search engines ignore it
                • request that Google remove the few URLs that may have been indexed
                StalkerB 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                • oneresult
                  oneresult @oneresult last edited by

                  Yes on second thoughts the URL structure would only need to be changed if the individual tabs were meant to be different pages, it's just that the coding has split them up, as you say. 🙂

                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • StalkerB
                    StalkerB @oneresult last edited by

                    Yeah, definitely speak to the developers, see what they can do. You'll learn that SEO often requires us to box clever around what developers do 😉

                    Your url structure isn't bad, it's simply that these tabs shouldn't be seperate pages at all.

                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                    • Gareth_Cartman
                      Gareth_Cartman @StalkerB last edited by

                      Hi Barry,

                      Yeah I use yootheme templates for Joomla and Wordpress and they seem to use some sort of javascript to do it really well, i think its called MOOtools

                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • oneresult
                        oneresult @StalkerB last edited by

                        Thanks everyone so far, great stuff.

                        I did not build this site so I cannot speak for the way it was put together! I am not a developer at all but I can tell it is not the best solution.

                        So the best course of action seems to be, use the tag and then look into the time and costs associated with converting the URLs to a more friendly structure...

                        StalkerB oneresult 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                        • StalkerB
                          StalkerB last edited by

                          Eh, yes, you probably should.

                          However, why are you building your pages that way and not making the tabs javascript (or similar)?

                          There has to be a better way of doing it than making each it's own php file, because you're just deliberately giving yourself duplicate content issues. I'm not much of a coder though so perhaps somebody who is can wade in with an actual alternative solution.

                          If you really have to make it that way, then definitely use the canonical to the non-tabbed version.

                          oneresult Gareth_Cartman 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • Gareth_Cartman
                            Gareth_Cartman last edited by

                            I think it would be safer to add the tag, although search engines are getting more clever this way you would be making sure search engines recognise the link you want to be indexed. Hope that makes sense.

                            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                            • 1 / 1
                            • First post
                              Last post

                            Browse Questions

                            Explore more categories

                            • Moz Tools

                              Chat with the community about the Moz tools.

                            • SEO Tactics

                              Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers

                            • Community

                              Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!

                            • Digital Marketing

                              Chat about tactics outside of SEO

                            • Research & Trends

                              Dive into research and trends in the search industry.

                            • Support

                              Connect on product support and feature requests.

                            • See all categories

                            Related Questions

                            • laurentjb

                              How do I carry out a redirect? Is there a code I need to use?

                              redirect redirect chain

                              How do I carry out a redirect? Is there a code I need to use? Thank you in advance.

                              On-Page Optimization | | laurentjb
                              0
                            • KenW

                              Is it better to keep a glossary or terms on one page or break it up into multiple pages?

                              We have a very large glossary of over 1000 industry terms on our site with links to reference material, embedded video, etc. Is it better for SEO purposes to keep this on one page or should we break it up into multiple pages, a different page for each letter for example? Thanks.

                              On-Page Optimization | | KenW
                              0
                            • AMATechTel

                              Listing all services on one page vs separate pages per service

                              My company offers several generalized categories with more specific services underneath each category. Currently the way it's structured is if you click "Voice" you get a full description of each voice service we offer. I have a feeling this is shooting us in the foot. Would it be better to have a general overview of the services we offer on the "Voice" page that then links to the specified service? The blurb about the service on the overview page would be unique, not taken from the actual specific service's page.

                              On-Page Optimization | | AMATechTel
                              0
                            • conversiontactics

                              How to peroperly use h1 , h2 and h3 tag on your website.

                              Is it better to have different h1 for each page or have the same h1 across the site. I am using h1 fin wordpress for beside that  I have 4 more h1 in the same page how to properly use h2 and h3 can we have muliple h2 on a page. what would be an ideal hx tag order be ? h1
                              h2
                              h2- h3 h3 If anyone can provide some answers Many thanks

                              On-Page Optimization | | conversiontactics
                              0
                            • GRIP-SEO

                              How will it effect SEO to have multiple h1 tags on a page?

                              I have a client who recieved this advice from his marketing consultant: "If there are multiple h1 tags on a page, this can confuse Google and it may have a negative impact on the keyword rankings. If you could ask your web developer to go in and remove the h1 tags on the header images that would be helpful. This way it will be easier for Google to index your site and will help your keyword rankings." How will it effect SEO to have multiple h1 tags on a page?

                              On-Page Optimization | | GRIP-SEO
                              0
                            • Webrevolve

                              Using phrases like 'NO 1' or 'Best' int he title tag

                              Hi All, Quick question - is it illegal, against any rule etc  to use phrases such as 'The No 1 rest of the title tag | Brand Name' on a site?

                              On-Page Optimization | | Webrevolve
                              0
                            • CKerr

                              Trying to SEO a site that used Header Tags for Design

                              I am trying to SEO a website that was built years ago and uses Header tags for design.  The site must have 25 and tags used for design purpose. Is there any way to work around this problem?  Perhaps a code that tells Google to ignore these as Headers?  The web designers say that they are looking to fix the problem sometime this summer but you never know if that means it a month away or years away.  I really want to help this website but I believe that the Header tags are one of the reasons that his site does not show in the top 100  rankings for any keywords.  Any help would be great. www.wallybuysell.com Chris.K

                              On-Page Optimization | | CKerr
                              0
                            • smaavie

                              Avoiding "Duplicate Page Title" and "Duplicate Page Content" - Best Practices?

                              We have a website with a searchable database of recipes. You can search the database using an online form with dropdown options for: Course (starter, main, salad, etc)
                              Cooking Method (fry, bake, boil, steam, etc)
                              Preparation Time (Under 30 min, 30min to 1 hour, Over 1 hour) Here are some examples of how URLs may look when searching for a recipe: find-a-recipe.php?course=starter
                              find-a-recipe.php?course=main&preperation-time=30min+to+1+hour
                              find-a-recipe.php?cooking-method=fry&preperation-time=over+1+hour There is also pagination of search results, so the URL could also have the variable "start", e.g. find-a-recipe.php?course=salad&start=30 There can be any combination of these variables, meaning there are hundreds of possible search results URL variations. This all works well on the site, however it gives multiple "Duplicate Page Title" and "Duplicate Page Content" errors when crawled by SEOmoz. I've seached online and found several possible solutions for this, such as: Setting canonical tag Adding these URL variables to Google Webmasters to tell Google to ignore them Change the Title tag in the head dynamically based on what URL variables are present However I am not sure which of these would be best. As far as I can tell the canonical tag should be used when you have the same page available at two seperate URLs, but this isn't the case here as the search results are always different. Adding these URL variables to Google webmasters won't fix the problem in other search engines, and will presumably continue to get these errors in our SEOmoz crawl reports. Changing the title tag each time can lead to very long title tags, and it doesn't address the problem of duplicate page content. I had hoped there would be a standard solution for problems like this, as I imagine others will have come across this before, but I cannot find the ideal solution. Any help would be much appreciated. Kind Regards

                              On-Page Optimization | | smaavie
                              5

                            Get started with Moz Pro!

                            Unlock the power of advanced SEO tools and data-driven insights.

                            Start my free trial
                            Products
                            • Moz Pro
                            • Moz Local
                            • Moz API
                            • Moz Data
                            • STAT
                            • Product Updates
                            Moz Solutions
                            • SMB Solutions
                            • Agency Solutions
                            • Enterprise Solutions
                            • Digital Marketers
                            Free SEO Tools
                            • Domain Authority Checker
                            • Link Explorer
                            • Keyword Explorer
                            • Competitive Research
                            • Brand Authority Checker
                            • Local Citation Checker
                            • MozBar Extension
                            • MozCast
                            Resources
                            • Blog
                            • SEO Learning Center
                            • Help Hub
                            • Beginner's Guide to SEO
                            • How-to Guides
                            • Moz Academy
                            • API Docs
                            About Moz
                            • About
                            • Team
                            • Careers
                            • Contact
                            Why Moz
                            • Case Studies
                            • Testimonials
                            Get Involved
                            • Become an Affiliate
                            • MozCon
                            • Webinars
                            • Practical Marketer Series
                            • MozPod
                            Connect with us

                            Contact the Help team

                            Join our newsletter
                            Moz logo
                            © 2021 - 2025 SEOMoz, Inc., a Ziff Davis company. All rights reserved. Moz is a registered trademark of SEOMoz, Inc.
                            • Accessibility
                            • Terms of Use
                            • Privacy

                            Looks like your connection to Moz was lost, please wait while we try to reconnect.