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Andrew T.
Andrew T.
User

Footer on Home Page - Special character (unintentionally) inserted before the copyright symbol  en

Autor: Andrew T.
Visitado 1262, Followers 1, Compartido 0  

Since the last update for Website X5 Pro; when I try insert a copyright symbol: '©' into the Template Content 'footer', a special character keeps being automatically inserted directly in front of it.

Please Note: This doesn't appear when I type it into the template content, just when I view or upload the update to my webspace.

Please also note: This only shows on my Home Page, and not any of the other pages!

Any advice would be welcome, thank you.

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13 RESPUESTAS - 5 úTIL - 1 CORRECTO
Paul M.
Paul M.
Moderator

Hello Andrew,

Delete the text content you added originally to the footer, including any spaces.

Then hold down the ALT key whilst typing 0169 on the numeric part of your keyboard (don't use the numbers above the letters to do this...  you must use the number keypad section only)...  this will generate the © symbol without adding unwanted characters.

Kind regards,

Paul

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Andrew T.
Andrew T.
User
Autor

Hi Paul,

Many thanks for the advice, which I followed carefully, but unfortunately didn't resolve the issue. Any other advice would be welcomed.

With kind regards,

Andrew

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Paul M.
Paul M.
Moderator

Whilst looking more closely at your issue I believe I have discovered the precise cause.

You have a malformed metatag on this page (http://www.3dsculptor.com/index.html):

<link rel="canonical" href="

You should either delete this or correct the error by adding a fully qualified URL, and closing the link tag.  Else it may cause trouble with your search ranking/indexing in the future.

But you will also find that by doing so you resolve your present problem with the unwanted character before the copyright symbol.

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Andrew T.
Andrew T.
User
Autor

Thanks Paul... It's interesting that you picked up on the above issue you mentioned (<link rel="canonicalhref="), as I have had a previous problem that hasn't been resolved properly, please have a quick read here: https://helpcenter.websitex5.com/es/post/218227#17

I have been experiencing exactly what you have described "Else it may cause trouble with your search ranking/indexing in the future."     So perhaps the two issues are linked?

I think that I have deleted the <link rel="canonicalhref="but still have the same issue; the special character is still there.

Please could you check that I have done this correctly and if not, please give me an example of what I must do?

And then any further thoughts or advice would be most appreciated.

With kind regards,

Andrew

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Paul M.
Paul M.
Moderator

Unfortunately the malformed metatag is still showing in your source code, Andrew, so it is yet to be removed.

You will probably find it in Step 3 Sitemap Creation.  Click on your Home Page (index page) once only in the sitemap to give it focus, then click the Properties button on the edit toolbar above.

In the new screen which opens go to the Expert tab.  Select 'After opening the HEAD tag' from the Custom Code dropdown menu, and you will probably see the metatag listed there.  Delete it in full, then close the screen by clicking the green tick/OK in the top right hand corner.

Hold down the CTRL key whilst entering the Preview mode...  once the Preview has been generated go to Step 5 and upload your project to the server.

Clear your browser cache before testing that the issue is now resolved.

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Andrew T.
Andrew T.
User
Autor

Hi Paul,

Many thanks indeed for walking me through that, it worked!! 

I hadn't quite understood and deleted this tag: <link rel="canonical" href="http://www.3dsculptor.com/index.html" /> , which was in the 'Before closing the HEAD tag'. Do you think I should place it back in there again?

Did you have a chance to read the thread from my other issue? I still have this... Please see screen image attached.

I very much appreciate your patience and help is solving this issue, thank you.

Very best,

Andrew.

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Andrew T.
Andrew T.
User
Autor

Good morning Paul, 

I am not sure if it's good practice or not, but I deleted all of the files from my server and uploaded the complete website again, as opposed to "Export only the files modified after last export"?

The URL Inspection tool gave a slightly different reading after the fresh upload - Please see attachment compared to the one in my last message?

Am I correct in thinking that this is infact just how it works with google, meaning that it is indexing my listing as http://www.3dsculptor.com and therefore can not also list the http://www.3dsculptor.com/index.html? Or should it actually list both?

With kind regards,

Andrew.

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Paul M.
Paul M.
Moderator
Andrew T.
I am not sure if it's good practice or not, but I deleted all of the files from my server and uploaded the complete website again, as opposed to "Export only the files modified after last export"?

There's nothing wrong in doing that, Andrew.  It won't do any harm whatsoever.

The duplicate pages/canonical issue often causes a lot of confusion and misunderstanding.  I will try and explain what is happening here as best I can.

Consider the following URLs:

http://www.3dsculptor.com/

http://www.3dsculptor.com/index.html

http://3dsculptor.com/

http://3dsculptor.com/index.html

These URLs are all unique and different, and for all Google knows they might well be completely different pages on the web.  Except in this case they are not.  They all reference exactly the same page, the home page on your website.

At some point Google has been made aware of the extra URLs, possibly because you submitted one or more of them via the Search Console, or perhaps via a link from another site, etc.  -  the exact reason is immaterial.  What matters is that the Google crawler will study the content in these URLs, notice that it is not only similar, it is in fact identical, and quite understandably it comes to the conclusion that it has discovered a duplicate page.

For various different reasons Google tends to view duplicated content in a negative light...  after all plagiarism is rife on the internet.  However, in certain cases (such as this) there is a valid reason for the apparent duplication, and there are mechanisms in place to deal with this.

One of these mechanisms is the use of canonical metatags, which you can use as the website author to instruct Google which URL is the 'correct' one...  the one you want your site visitors to use in their browser and bookmark...  the one you want Google to index and appear in search results.  Generally speaking for the home page this will be the 'fully qualified domain name' of your website, without the page name and file extension.

For example, when visiting the eBay website it is common to type into the browser:

ebay.co.uk

as opposed to

ebay.co.uk/index.html

Your warning message in the Google Search Console has been generated after you have manually submitted an alternative URL for indexing...  by alternative I mean an alternative to the one which Google prefers, which it has stated as being http://www.3dsculptor.com/

If you really want to select an alternative URL as the definitive URL for your site, then the correct way to do this is by issuing a 301 redirect on the server.  This will instruct all browsers (and importantly all webbots and crawlers) that there is a permanent redirection to a specific page.  If done correctly this will have the effect of leaving only one authoritative page accessible on the net for viewing and indexing.

However, it does not make much sense to specify a longer URL over a shorter one.

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Andrew T.
Andrew T.
User
Autor

That makes perfect sense Paul, thank you so much for taking the time to explain it clearly. So in short, there is no issue there and it would be wise to leave things listed as they are? http://www.3dsculptor.com/

Very best,

Andrew.

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Paul M.
Paul M.
Moderator

Yes, that's right! smile

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Andrew T.
Andrew T.
User
Autor

Thanks mate, you have been a really great support, very much appreciated indeed. 

All the very best,

Andrew

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