Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Google Canonical Tag Doesn't Work

Google Supplied Code Doesn't Work With Google Supplied Blogger


Google tells us to use a certain code, they even provide us with that code syntax.
They specifically say "use this and you'll be alright", Matt Cutts went on WebProNews and told us "do this".

Well I did "do that", just as Google described, I tried it on Google's own blog platform: Blogger.com

umm, one Google hand apparently doesn't know what the other Google hand is doing?


I added this line of code:

(link rel="”canonical”" href="”http://www.northcarolinainternetadvertising.blogspot.com”")

to the head tags of http://northcarolinainternetadvertising.blogspot.com
(I had to use parenthesis instead of brackets to get the code to show up in this post, if you're trying this substitute brackets <> in place of what I have up here (code) )

and got the following error message when it failed to save within blogger control panel:

From Maryland Search Engine Optimization



Umm... Little Help Here?

This isn't the first time Google provided code didn't work "out of the box", and Yahoo does the same thing with Yahoo Site Explorer

The "fix" is to add a forward slash and a space to the end of the line of code. If you are familiar with PHP programing (I'm not) you'd know that.

Google's provided meta tag string that we're told to insert into our bloggers head tag (look at my screen shot and you'll see said verification string above the offending canonical code) and that code is provided BY Google for use on another Google product

... and it doesn't work out of the box

the fix is to edit the ass end of the line of code, put your cursor just before the end tag (>)
add a space
then add a forward slash (/)

that looks like this:
doesn't work

so we end up with

NOT (you gotta have that SPACE before the / or you wont be able to save it and you'll just be frustrated and muttering curses to the Google engineer!!

enjoy and kick your competitors ass in the search ranking war!!!!


Maryland Search Engine Expert David Bruce Jr.

Local Google Advertising-
Google that phrase, then Call 240 315-1515 If you want YOUR company website to perform that well in Google.

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