Rails - Oct 2010 - Converting an Existing Website: Removing Duplicate Meta Data

Hi,

I have searched the forum to see if this has come up before.  If it has
and I missed it I am sorry.

I''m fairly new to Ruby on Rails and have converted an existing site. 
To
avoid annoying redirects and disrupting search engine results I updated
the routes.rb file so that the old file name renders the correct rhtml
file.  For example, photos.html renders /photos.

It works but the problem is that Google Webmaster Tools sees duplicate
meta data and titles for each page. I would really appreciate
information on how to correct this. I have been trying to figure out how
to get google to ignore .html files or treat them as duplicate data but
have had no luck so far.

Thanks,

Christine
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Christine Nyb wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I have searched the forum to see if this has come up before.  If it has
> and I missed it I am sorry.
> 
> I''m fairly new to Ruby on Rails and have converted an existing
site.  To
> avoid annoying redirects and disrupting search engine results I updated
> the routes.rb file so that the old file name renders the correct rhtml
> file.  For example, photos.html renders /photos.
> 
> It works but the problem is that Google Webmaster Tools sees duplicate
> meta data and titles for each page. 
What''s an example of what you''re seeing, and how is it not
what you
want?
> I would really appreciate
> information on how to correct this. I have been trying to figure out how
> to get google to ignore .html files or treat them as duplicate data but
> have had no luck so far.
This may be a Google Webmaster Tools question, not a Rails one.

But...you could set things up so that instead of photos.html routing to 
the same place as photos, it simply makes a 301 or 302 redirect. 
Presumably Google will then understand that the two URLs are the same 
page, though you should check their docs to make sure.  And for human 
users, the browsing experience will be essentially the same as before.
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Christine
Best,
--
Marnen Laibow-Koser
http://www.marnen.org
marnen-sbuyVjPbboAdnm+yROfE0A@public.gmane.org
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Marnen Laibow-Koser wrote:
> What''s an example of what you''re seeing, and how is it
not what you
> want?
It''s just a message saying pages have duplicate title tags and meta
data
and that each page should be unique.
> This may be a Google Webmaster Tools question, not a Rails one.
The only information I could find through that route was regarding 
multiple domains with duplicate information. I was just wondering if 
there was a way to handle it with rails.

Thanks for your suggestion.  Right now it doesn''t appear to be
affecting
search engine ranking.  This is my site and it is not a commercial site 
so that''s why I decided to convert it first as a test.

I do have one for a local business that needs to be converted.  The rest 
are new sites and were published with ruby on rails.

Thanks,

Christine

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Hi,

you could try putting a canonical tag into your view. Saying google that
/photos is the same content as /photos.html.

http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2009/02/specify-your-canonical.html

Greets, Max.



Am 06.10.2010 16:49, schrieb Christine Nyb:
> Hi,
> 
> I have searched the forum to see if this has come up before.  If it has
> and I missed it I am sorry.
> 
> I''m fairly new to Ruby on Rails and have converted an existing
site.  To
> avoid annoying redirects and disrupting search engine results I updated
> the routes.rb file so that the old file name renders the correct rhtml
> file.  For example, photos.html renders /photos.
> 
> It works but the problem is that Google Webmaster Tools sees duplicate
> meta data and titles for each page. I would really appreciate
> information on how to correct this. I have been trying to figure out how
> to get google to ignore .html files or treat them as duplicate data but
> have had no luck so far.
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Christine
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> you could try putting a canonical tag into your view. Saying google that
> /photos is the same content as /photos.html.
> 
>
http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2009/02/specify-your-canonical.html
> 
Hi Max,

Thank you for your suggestion. I did come across this but thought it 
applied only to existing pages not preferred links.  I will take a much 
closer look to see if this is a good option.

Take care,

Christine
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