Forum Moderators: phranque
a)
/this_directory/page.html
and b)
/this_directory/page
"b" always shows as an indentation under "a".
I'm looking at making a 301 redirect from "b" to "a".
All my links use "a" but it seems like "b" is the only one getting its google cache refreshed. beddy strayange
One of my main concerns is having google penalize thinking they are duplicate pages.
I'd love to see what other people have to say about this.
Thanks!
--q
> All my links use "a" but it seems like "b" is the only one getting its google cache refreshed. beddy strayange
Yes, that is strange... Somebody must be linking to "b"
A 301 should fix this.
As to duplicate content, a situation like this happens all the time, and I wouldn't be too worried about it, except that it is "not tidy." Duplicate content like this is resolved when G takes a look at the two pages, realizes they're the same, and keeps whichever one has the higher PR.
Duplicate content "penalties," I believe, are assesed when more than one or a very few "unrelated" pages have the same content and the "offense" is not excusable by reason of multiple extensions (like your case), "index.html" aliased to "/", and www- vs. non-www domain duplication. I suspect, but cannot prove, that duplicate-content penalties are primarily triggered by spam reports, and not automatically. It is also my opinion that only sites that duplicate pages intentionally to gain unfair competitive advantage need to worry about it.
If this were my site, I'd do the 301 just to clean up the ambiguity, and try to find out who is linking to "b" and why, and get them to fix it.
Jim
I couldn't find any links to the "b" scenario but went ahead with the redirect. I'll do a quick post with results after things get updated for anyone else that might run across a similar situation.
--q
