5

I have plenty of duplicate titles

http://example.com/?attachment_id=1678/feed/

http://example.com/?attachment_id=1678/

The first link triggers a 301 redirect to the second link. So why does Google Webmaster Tools interpret this as duplicate content and title?

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7

GWT is known for not refreshing some parts of their data very often. Chances are your site got crawled before the 301's and what was reported at that time got stuck.

Usually it will go away after a while but in some cases it will stay the same. I have about 40 error that haven't changed in over a year. All have 301's set on them.

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6
  • 2
    that's not good :( It makes it very hard to find actual duplicate content... Moreover, it is confusing because it mentions the last crawl date, which was yesterday. But the 301 has been there for a while already.
    – Sam
    May 26 '15 at 14:24
  • 2
    @Sam I wouldn't worry about it. As long as your 301's are in place you are good to go. Last crawl date will refresh your Search Analytics data but even that is usually 3-4 days behind.
    – dasickle
    May 26 '15 at 14:26
  • ok, I'll stop worrying :) but I still find Google should improve this.
    – Sam
    May 26 '15 at 14:27
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    @Sam To backup what dasickle has said, duplicate titles are just notices for your information and nothing that stops Google from doing it's work or your site from appropriate placement in the SERPs.
    – closetnoc
    May 26 '15 at 15:18
  • I would suggest asking Google to re-index the URL using GWT.
    – BernardA
    May 26 '15 at 21:21
2

Short answer: Google doesn't update things quickly.

What you can do to help rectify the problem sooner, provided you did everything right at your end, is visit Google Webmaster Tools and go to the section where you can fetch pages using Google and put in both URLs you mention to see if it can pick up each page correctly. One should report a redirect.

Then choose the gear icon at the top right and visit Site Settings. In it you can change the crawl rate of your website. Choose the option to specify your own crawl rate and move the slider all the way to the right.

You should see better results overtime if all goes well, and if your site is small enough, then the results should happen within a week.

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2
  • adjusting your crawl rate is really advisable in opinion. Not only could this result in bandwidth issues but also keep in mind that G will most likely still do things on its own schedule anyway. Lastly, if the redirects are set who cares is GWT report is wrong?
    – dasickle
    May 27 '15 at 0:25
  • I didn't know one could adjust the crawling speed... I will give it a go just for the sake of curiosity :p
    – Sam
    May 27 '15 at 7:53

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