Canonical help

[whitemonkey]

Need some advice

i normally put: 

<link rel="canonical" href="https://www.nomadicbackpacker.weebly.com">

in the header code (on the home page in this example)

but...

the home page also has a url with /index.html  ..  

is that so ?

as 

i am getting an error on google    (see attatched photo...)    for   https://www.nomadicbackpacker.com/index.html

so my Q is.     what canonical should i be putting in the header code box....

just  xxxxx.com 

or   

xxxx.com/index.html

best regards   and thank u in advance

[Bernadette3]

Are you just putting this code on the page headers or do you also have it under Settings>SEO>Header? I believe there is another thread on here with an explanation if you search "canonical tag". I'll see if I can track it down.  

[whitemonkey]

hi @Bernadette 

yes   under the page    footer header,   not  SETTINGS   SEO  HEADER...

just curious as to what i should put    AND   is the home page actually    /index.html     cos of the queries  GA thows up  AND the fact that  my home aint been indexed..

[whitemonkey]

correction      home     has been indexed   but   not submitted in site map  

[whitemonkey]

i tried something  using editortricks   as they use weebly.

their home page is    editortricks.weebly.com

BUT   weirdly    if u type   editortricks.weebly.com/index.html   you ALSO get the home page.

as it does on my site.

will edit the canonical tag  for the  home page to 

<link rel="canonical" href="https://www.nomadicbackpacker.com/index">  

and see if/how GA  indexes it

[whitemonkey]

correction  

added this:

<link rel="canonical" href="https://www.nomadicbackpacker.com/index.html">  

for the canonical tag  for the HOME PAGE

[Bernadette3]

I found the thread I was thinking of, although it looks like you had already commented on it at one point.. https://community.weebly.com/t5/SEO/Canonical-Tags/td-p/46085/page/2

[whitemonkey]

yup.....i ended up putting just <link rel="canonical" href="https://www.nomadicbackpacker.weebly.com">

in the header code

not

<link rel="canonical" href="https://www.nomadicbackpacker.weebly.com/index.html">

still confused about canonical tags  but it seems to work

thanks @Bernadette 

---

[Bernadette3]

Honestly, it confuses me too. I can try to see if Adam can clarify for us!   

[whitemonkey]

yup he needs to     lol

got a hit  on the index.html page    (which is the same/equal to/a carbon copy of the HOME page)   this ads to the confusion   

how  is /index.html even on Google ???

u need a massive CANONICAL help page on WEEBLY SEO  with lots of EGs   

)

[Bernadette3]

@Adam Do you have any thoughts on this? 

[Adam7 · Accepted solution]

I think this is a case of Google just being dumb. A web-accessible directory almost always will load as either / or as /index.html, or /index.php, or whatever the filename of your index file is. For your canonical I would use whichever version it is you link to the most, since those are what Google will use when crawling and indexing. 

[whitemonkey]

hi 

@Adam     &  @Bernadette 

thank u for the explanation....   seems logical i guess..  i have set he canonical tag   as  just  <link rel="canonical" href="https://www.nomadicbackpacker.weebly.com">

on the blog pages,   blog.html   hostel-reviews.html    etc   i do not add any canonical tag.

thank u again..

in 7 days im going to Moldova.     10 posts  loaded with SEO  are in the pipe line.    am enjoying my upgrade to my own domain.

)

[Adam7]

Not a problem. Have fun in Moldova!