How To Get Rid Of Unwanted Hair Naturally

Hair on our body is a normal condition but excessive hair is seen as an obstacle toward looking flawless and beautiful. Body hair is known to have vital functions. It helps to protect the skin from the dust particles. It acts as a protective layer over the fine and delicate skin cells and to preserve the body heat. However, it is seen as unsightly when the hair is in excess. Thus, nowadays men and women are obsessed about removing body hair in order to flaunt their skin and complexion. It is seen that excess body hair makes one appear dark. As fairness is seen as a mark of beauty and good grooming, everyone wishes to get rid of excess body and facial hair.

Causes Of Excess Body Hair

It is common to have body hair. Some people have more hair growth on their body than others. However, there are certain hormonal conditions that bring on excess hair growth:
•    Hirsutism is a condition that is caused by a hormonal disorder; it leads to excessive hair growth.
•    Excessive hair growth or abnormal hair growth on the face or other areas of the body is mainly caused by hormonal changes.
•    An increase in the level of androgen in women can increase facial hair growth
•    Polycystic ovary syndrome can lead to excessive hair growth
•    Tumor in the adrenal gland
•    Insulin resistance
•    Cushing’s disease
These are some of the many causes that lead to excessive body and facial hair growth.

Symptoms Of Excess Hair Growth

If one is suffering from excessive hair growth they will see the following symptoms:
•    Abnormal hair growth on the face
•    The hair growth occurs within a short period of time
•    The body hair also increases
•    Such hair growth may be accompanied with increased muscle mass, changes in voce and acne flares

How To Get Rid Of Unwanted Hair Naturally

Nowadays there are many cosmetic methods and devices that help one to control their body hair and facial hair growth. Most men and women nowadays frequent clinics in order to get waxing treatments done as well as other procedures like electrolysis, laser hair removal and other more permanent solutions. However, such procedures prove costly and time consuming. They need one to make several visits to the dermatologist or the clinic and spend a lot of money in getting the desired effect. Instead, one can pursue many simple and effective home remedies to get the body hair removed and keep the growth under control.

1.    Using A Home Made Scrub

It is known that a mixture of:
•    Turmeric powder
•    Gram flour
•    Water
Such a paste needs to be applied on the body and face and allowed to dry. It should then be rubbed off gently. It helps to remove excess facial and fine body hair.

2.    Use Of Pumice Stone

This stone is known to help scrub off fine hair when used regularly:
•    While taking bath it should be used to scrub the hands and legs
•    Unwanted body hair will be rid off in this way

3.    Home Made Wax Treatment

One can pursue a home made version of waxing which will be effective but painful:
•    Make a mixture of honey, lemon and sugar
•    Apply the heated mixture on the areas where the hair has to be removed
•    The hair should not be too long or dense
Once the mixture is applied, a strip of cellophane or fabric can be used to pull off the hair from the roots. The fabric or cellophone should be pulled in the opposite direction of hair growth.

4.    Using Wax For Male Chest Hair

When one wishes to remove male chest hair they can use home waxing treatment:
•    Hot, molten wax should be used
•    Once it is applied cloth should be used or cellophane to pull off the hair

5.    Plucking Or Tweezing
When one has few hair on the chin as some women do, it is best to:
•    Pluck off the hair with a pair of tweezers
•    Use of home made wax consisting of sugar, lemon juice and water will also help to eliminate the hair

6.    Removing Hair From The Chin Area

Some women have more hair on the chin area and they wish to remove the same:
•    The home made wax solution can be used

•    A mixture of honey and lemon juice can be applied and then rinsed off after ten or fifteen minutes
Such a home remedy should be done twice a week.

7.    Shaving

While shaving is an easy way to get rid of excess body hair, it has certain limitations. It will make the hair grow back fast and the hair will be dense, unlike the waxing process:
•    A simple razor can be used to shave off unwanted hair from hands, legs and even underarms while taking bath
•    One should lather up well with soap
•    It is best to use warm water before doing the shaving as it helps to open up the pores
•    Once the shaving is done, cold water will help to close the pores

8.    Removing Hair From Eyebrows

•    Tweezing or plucking will help to remove excess hair from the eyebrows
•    Using a small scissor could also do the rick

9.    Different Home Made Scrubs

There are different ingredients that can act as effective scrubs to help reduce body hair:
•    Yoghurt
•    Milk cream
•    Gram or chick pea flour
Pastes made out of such ingredients will help to reduce body hair when used regularly or twice or thrice a week.

10.    Depilatory Creams

If you would rather not use the painful waxing treatment you can opt for a depilatory cream:
•    One needs to apply the cream over the area where hair has to be taken off
•    Leave it on for ten or fifteen minutes
•    Wash it off
That is a painless and effective way to remove hair at home.

11.    Increase Soy Products

•    Have soy bean and similar products more in your diet
•    As they help to increase the estrogen levels the androgen levels are kept in control

12.    Have A Balanced Diet

If you have a low body weight and body fat you might see an increase in body hair to keep body temperature optimal:
•    Follow a balanced diet
•    Include healthy fats, milk and veggies in your diet

Are you worried about the cosmetic procedures of hair removal? You could opt for these simple and effective home remedies to keep hair growth under control.

17 Really Effective Home Remedies for Body Odor

Body odor is socially disastrous! How does it feel when people don’t want to come close to you? Or how embarrassing it is when everyone who talks to you keep stepping back or cleverly use their hands or handkerchiefs to cover their nose? They don’t hate you but they can’t even stand the pungent smell that is emitted by your body. They don’t want to hurt you and that’s why they try to keep a distance from you while talking to you and just don’t tell that you smell like a fish! Sometimes we don’t even realize that we have this body odor! Our body is so adaptive that it cannot smell its own odor because the smell is constant, it is there every time! This is called sensory adaptation. But if you find people running away at the moment they see you, be alert and test whether your body odor is the culprit. Take help of some of your close friends or family members who can give you an honest opinion! And if they answer positively, take help of these home remedies for body odor to get rid of it!

1. Witch Hazel Remedy for Body Odor

Body odor occurs due to the growth of bacteria in such regions as underarms, groin area etc. These areas are sweaty due to more active apocrine sweat glands here. When bacteria feed on the sweat, they produce bad smell. Bacteria need high levels of pH to survive. There are certain ingredients that can lower skin’s pH such as witch hazel. When applied on skin, witch hazel lowers skin’s pH and thus makes it impossible for bacteria to survive. Thus, in the absence of odor producing bacteria, you get relief from your body odor. You can directly apply witch hazel on your skin. You may even carry witch hazel in a small spray bottle with you so that you can spray it whenever you feel like.
Get this:

• Witch hazel
• Cotton Ball

Do this:

• Soak the cotton ball in witch hazel.
• Dab on this witch hazel on cotton under your arms instead of your regular deodorant.

In fact, if you don’t want to discard using your deodorant, you can use witch hazel before deodorant too. Let the witch hazel dry out completely before applying deo. However, you need not use any deodorant to block odor when you use witch hazel. But if you still want to have scented remedy for body odor, try the homemade deodorant recipe given afterwards which also uses witch hazel as one of the ingredients.

2. Use Vinegar to Get Rid of Body Odor

For the same reason which makes witch hazel a good remedy for body odor, vinegar too can be used to get yourself rid of your body smell. Vinegar can also lower the pH level of your skin so that you feel fresh for the whole day without worrying about your body odor. You can use vinegar in more than one ways.

Ways to use white vinegar for body odor

1. Soak a cotton ball in white vinegar and apply to your underarms.
2. Store vinegar in a sprayer and spray it under your arms after having bath. Don’t use any deodorant after using vinegar.
3. Dilute some white vinegar in a mug of water while having bath and rinse your underarms with this water.
4. Don’t use vinegar just after shaving as this may burn your already abrased skin.

However, many people may not get the benefit of vinegar while they try to remove their body odor. They may use lemon juice for body odor which is our next natural remedy.

3. Apply Lemon Juice to Remove Body Odor

Just like vinegar and witch hazel, lemon juice lowers your skin’s pH level making it difficult for odor producing bacteria to survive. Moreover, lemon can be used by even those who have sensitive skin that can’t tolerate even vinegar.

Get this:

• Lemon- 1, cut into two halves
• Cotton ball (optional)
• Water (optional)- ½ – 1 cup

Do this:

• Take one half of the lemon and rub it under your arms, one by one, squeezing its juice on to your skin. Store the other half of the lemon to be used later.
• Alternatively, you can squeeze the juice out of the lemon and apply this juice to your underarms with the help of a cotton ball.
• If you do not like the super acidic nature of lemon or you only have mild body odor, you can dilute lemon juice in water and rinse your underarms with it.

Lemon juice also stings when used after shaving. So better shave the nigh before to give a long gap between shaving and applying lemon juice on skin.

4. Baking Soda – Lime Juice Mixture for Body Odor

Some people sweat a little but then also suffer from body odor. For them vinegar or lime juice alone can work. There are some other people who sweat a lot and also have body odor. For such people, combining baking soda with lime juice can be a fantastic remedy for their body odor. Baking soda not only helps absorb sweat but also eliminate bacteria and act as a natural deodorant. This makes it eligible for using all by itself too! However, here I give you the way of using baking soda with lemon juice.
Get this:

• Lemon juice- from half or 1 lemon
• Baking soda- enough to make paste

Do this:

• Before having bath, mix lemon juice with baking soda to make a paste.
• Apply this paste to your underarms.
• Leave for about 5-10 minutes.
• Wash off with water.
• Now have bath.

5. Baking Soda and Cornstarch Remedy for Body Odor

As stated earlier, baking soda absorbs sweat and also kills bacteria apart from acting as a natural deodorant. Cornstarch is even better than baking soda for those people who perspire excessively. Cornstarch is extremely absorbent ingredient, even more than baking soda. Here are some ways to use these two ingredients from your kitchen to fight your body odor.

Ways to use baking soda and cornstarch for eliminating body odor

1. After taking bath, pat dry your underarms and apply baking soda or cornstarch directly to your underarms.
2. For a more effective remedy, mix baking soda and cornstarch and then apply on to your dry underarms to prevent sweating as well as foul smell.

6. Apple Cider Vinegar for Body Odor

Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV) is a well known natural bacteria-fighting ingredient. ACV, like white vinegar, helps in eliminating body odor by balancing pH levels of your skin. Raw unfiltered apple cider vinegar having the “mother” should be used for any health benefit from this wonderful solution. When talking about body odor, you can not only apply ACV to your skin but can also drink it for better results in controlling your sweat production. Take a look at the ways in which you can use apple cider vinegar to kill your body odor.

Ways to use apple cider vinegar for body odor

1. Pour undiluted apple cider vinegar on a cotton ball and rub your underarms with this before having shower. Wait for 2-3 minutes after applying ACV and then proceed to wash it off or to take bath.
2. Add a cup of apple cider vinegar in your bath and soak for 8-10 minutes. This also cures sunburns apart from killing body odor. ACV bath can be taken after a strenuous workout to control excessive sweating.
3. Add 2 tsp of apple cider vinegar in a glass of water and have it three times a day before meals. If you can’t stand its taste or smell, you may add a little honey to this mixture. This is a good remedy to reduce your excessive sweating too.
4. If you suffer from foot odor, add 1/3 cup of apple cider vinegar in a foot soaking basin filled with warm water. Soak your feet in this water for 15 minutes. You can do it once every week.

7. Apply Tea Tree Oil for Body Odor

Tea tree is an antibacterial herb and tea tree oil derived from this herb is a natural antiseptic. As we know, antiseptics can kill bacteria and fungi present on the surface of skin. Moreover, this oil has a sweet smell too. Thus, applying this oil to eliminate body odor makes sense. However, some people may have sensitive skin that might irritate with the use of tea tree oil. Such people can always use other natural remedies for body odor. For others, here’s how to use tea tree oil for body odor.
Get this:

• Tea tree essential oil- 2 drops
• Water- 2 tbsp (1 ounce or about 30 ml)

Do this:

• Mix tea tree oil with water and apply this to your underarms.
• If you want to use it as your regular deodorant, store water mixed with tea tree oil in a spray top bottle. Maintain the proportion of water and tea tree oil while making your own deodorant.

Always test your underarm area before using anything new (especially essential oils) by applying a little amount of oil to a patch of skin before using.

8. Sage Herb to Kill Body Odor

There are two properties of sage herb that come handy when talking about eliminating body odor. One is, it reduces the activity of sweat gland thus making you sweat less. Second, it is an antibacterial herb which can prevent bacteria from thriving on your skin. In fact, there is a third benefit too, it has a natural scent which acts as a deodorant. Belonging to the rosemary family, sage has aromatic compound camphor and volatile oils like apigenin, diosmetin, luteolin, and rosmarinic acid. They all work to keep you fragrant all through the day. So, go ahead and use sage herb to get rid of bad body smell.

Ways to use sage for body odor

1. Mix a couple of sage essential oil with some carrier oil like olive oil and apply this to your underarms and/ or pulse points.
2. Make sage herb tea for body wash. Add 2 tsp of this dried herb in ¼ liter of hot water and steep for about five 5 minutes. Use this warm water to rinse your underarms. Do not use for genital area. Always wash your hands after using sage herb. Never touch your face without washing hands after using this herb.
3. Have sage tea but in small quantities. You can make sage tea by steeping 1-2 tsp of dried herb into a cup of hot water for 10 minutes. Then strain the leaves and have this tea. Sage tea will help you in reducing perspiration.

A word of caution: When you drink sage tea, don’t have it as a routine and have it in small amounts. Prolonged use of sage herb can cause dizziness, hot flushes and seizures. Totally avoid it if you are pregnant or a nursing mother.

9. Rosemary Herb for Body Odor

Rosemary herb, which is widely used in Italian cooking, can also kill bacteria and fungi apart from lending its fragrance to your body. It is more beneficial when used topically. Here are some ways to use rosemary for body odor prevention.
Ways to use rosemary for body odor

1. Take half a cup of of dried rosemary leaves and add it to 4 cups of tap water. Steep it for some time. Then add this water to your bath.
2. Ground the dried herb to get powder of rosemary. Use this herbal powder on your body to fight odor and to keep yourself fragrant all through the day.

If you experience irritation after using rosemary, discontinue its use.

10. Wheatgrass Juice Remedy for Body Odor

The chlorophyll present in wheatgrass is what makes it a good remedy for killing body odor. However, due to its strong taste, it sometimes give nauseating feeling to first time users. So start with small amounts and have it on empty stomach to avoid any over reaction.
Get this:

• Wheatgrass juice- 2 tbsp
• Water- 1 cup

Do this:

• Add wheatgrass juice to water.
• Mix well and have it on empty stomach in the morning.

11. Turnip Juice Remedy for Body Odor

A rich source of vitamin C and many other nutrients, turnip not only makes delicious recipes but also helps in eliminating body odor. This is an Ayurvedic remedy and it seems, turnip helps in eliminating odor creating bacteria.
Get this:

• Turnip- 1
• Sieve

Do this:

• Cut the turnip into pieces and then crush them to make a paste out of it.
• Place the turnip paste into the sieve and press to get its juice.
• Apply this turnip juice to your underarms and groin area.
• Let it dry off by itself.

That’s all, this turnip juice application on your most sweating body parts will check your body odor for at least 10 hours or so.

12. Tomato Juice Bath for Body Odor

Tomato is considered to be a natural antiseptic and it can kill an extensive range of bacteria. Ancient Indian medicine, Ayurveda, has long used tomato juice as the remedy for body odor. It recommends using tomato juice in bath water. However, many modern herbalists recommend having tomato juice internally too for getting rid of body odor. They recommend drinking tomato juice three times a day. Here is how you can use tomato juice for bath water.
Get this:

• Tomatoes- 8-10
• Sieve
• Water- 1 bucket

Do this:

• Crush the tomatoes to get their pulp
• Using sieve, extract the juice out of tomato pulp.
• Add this tomato juice to a bucket full of water.
• Bathe with this water.

If you need more water for bath, increase the quantity of tomatoes.

13. Homemade Natural Deodorant for Body Odor

You should not use aluminum based deodorants to control body odor as they may damage your skin. Metals and chemicals can also be absorbed by your body that may lead to various health problems. In place of chemical laden deodorants, make a natural deodorant at home using all natural ingredients. Here’s the recipe.
Get this:

• Sage essential oil- 5 drops
• Coriander essential oil- 5 drops
• Lavender essential oil- 5 drops
• Distilled witch hazel- 2 ounce (about 60 ml)
• Spray top bottle- 1

Do this:

• Add sage, coriander and lavender essential oil to witch hazel
• Mix well and store it in spray bottle.
• Use it as your deodorant.
• Always shake before using.

14. Homemade Herbal Deodorant Powder for Body Odor

Make this fragrant powder to be used as your deodorizing powder and get rid of sweat naturally.
Get this:

• Sandalwood powder- 2 parts
• White oak bark powder- 1 part
• Lovage root powder- 1 part
• Muslin draw string bag (or a pouch made up of fine fabric, tied at top)

Do this:

• Using blender or a food processor, grind all the herbs to make very fine powder.
• Take a pan and toast the powdered herb mix a little.
• Fill your muslin bag or fabric pouch with this powdered herb.
• When using, pat the powder under arms or on feet.

15. Unscented Liquid Alum Deodorant for Body Odor

Many people do not like using scented deodorants but they still want to use them just to get rid of their body odor. You need not do this now. There is this ingredient, alum, which can help you make such unscented deodorant.
Get this:

• Alum powder- 4 tsp
• Baking soda- 2 tsp
• Rubbing alcohol- 225 ml

Do this:

• Mix alum, baking powder and rubbing alcohol.
• Store in a spray bottle.
• Use when needed.

16. Diet Remedies for Body Odor

Diet is of utmost importance, even when it comes to body odor. What you eat will define how you smell. So, you might need to omit certain foods while include another in your diet to get rid of body odor. Here are some suggestions for you to consider when changing diet habits for controlling body odor.

• Drink lots of water. This helps in eliminating toxins from your body so that you do not smell bad.
• Have balanced diet complete with all groups of food- protein, whole grains, fish or lean poultry, pulses, healthy fats, fresh fruits and vegetables.
• Limit consumption of fried meat. Foods that doesn’t digest easily or completely tend to produce toxins in body.
• Avoid process foods. Refined sugar, white flour and fats etc. found in junk foods will lead you to many health conditions including body odor.
• Don’t have much of spicy food. While onion and garlic are beneficial for health, overeating them can lead to body odor.
• Avoid caffeinated beverages, tea, coffee, colas and alcohol.
• Avoid any fried food that has been made in rancid oil.
• Have high fiber diet and avoid those with low fiber content.
• When you eat radish, have a little jaggery too for better digestion.
• Include such herbs in your diet as coriander, parsley, oregano, mint.
• Chew fennel seeds after meals.
• Have turnip or its juice frequently.
• Tobacco causes body odor. Quit smoking and stop using tobacco in any form.

17. Lifestyle Remedies for Body Odor

Sometimes we need to change just some of our habits to get rid of body odor. While diet is really important, if you are having it right then before adopting any home remedy or visiting doctor for body odor treatment, you need to check on your lifestyle. Here are some tips on cleanliness, hygiene and other habits that can help you in fighting with your body odor.

1. Bathe daily at least once in a day. Don’t use harsh soaps. Also don’t use soap for longer. If possible, use soaps with natural ingredients.
2. Do not wear unwashed clothes. Always wash your clothes once you have used them.
3. Closed feet in shoes that are there for long time can give rise to bacteria and fungi leading to odor. Do not wear tight shoes. Also avoid wearing shoes for longer. Try wearing open sandals too.
4. Remove unwanted hair from armpit and other body parts where you get more sweat. Hair traps sweat and are breeding grounds for bacteria.
5. Manage your stress and anger. They lead to more production of sweat.
6. Keep yourself dry. Moist body promotes growth of bacteria. Dry the skin fold properly after bath or when you wash them.
7. Wear breathable clothing to avoid trapping of sweat and moisture.

If you maintain proper hygiene and follow the rule of balanced diet, you may not need the help of home remedies for body odor. If, however, you need to use home remedies and then also don’t get rid of body odor, visit your doctor to rule out any chance of some serious medical condition.

Home Remedies For High Blood Pressure / Hypertension

What is High Blood Pressure? 

High blood pressure (hypertension), often called a silent killer, is the pressure of the blood in the arteries. Blood pressure is typically recorded as the systolic pressure (as the heart beats) over the diastolic pressure (time between two beats). A consistent blood pressure reading of 140/90 mm Hg or higher is considered high blood pressure. Untreated, high blood pressure will cause heart attacks, strokes, kidney failure, injury to the brain and eyes.

Common Causes of High Blood Pressure

• Obesity

• Lifestyle

• Genetic factors

• Excessive alcohol

• Birth control pills

• Pain relievers

Other underlying causes may include:

• Kidney diseases

• Adrenal diseases

• Abnormal blood vessels

• Eclampsia / Pre-eclampsia in pregnant women

• Thyroid diseases

Home Remedies for High blood Pressure

Tip 1:

Celery contains high levels of 3-N-butylphthalide, a kind of photochemical that helps a lot in controlling high blood pressure level. You can eat a few stalks of celery as a simple snack daily.

Tip 2:

Vegetables such as carrots, spinach and parsley play a significant role in lowering blood pressure. Take a glass of juice made of these vegetables twice a day to help keep your blood pressure under control.

Tip 3: 

Indian gooseberry (Amla) is an effective home remedy for high blood pressure. Mix 1 tablespoon of fresh amla juice with an equal amount of honey. Take this mixture daily in the morning before your breakfast.

Tip 4:

Boiled potatoes are essential for lowering blood pressure. The magnesium and potassium present in the vegetable are very effective in lowering blood pressure.

Tip 5:

Grapefruit is another remedy that is useful in preventing high blood pressure. The vitamin content in the fruit helps in toning the blood vessels.

Tip 6: 

A clove of garlic is highly recommended for high blood pressure. Consume one to two cloves of garlic daily with your meals. 

Tip 7:

Watermelon seeds are also a good remedy for high blood pressure. Take some dry roasted seeds and grind them up. Add the seeds to 2 cups of water and boil for about 15 minutes. Strain the liquid and consume daily in the morning and evening.

Tip 8:

Make a mixture of 1 teaspoon each of honey and ginger juice with 1 teaspoon of cumin powder, stir well and consume this mixture twice a day for treating high blood pressure.

Duplicate Content Problem Solver

Duplicate Content: How to solve the problem

 

 

In the previous article “Duplicate Content: the effects on Search Engine Rankings” we have explained what duplicate content is and we have analyzed how it can affect the search engine rankings of our website. In this article we will focus on the best practices that can be used in order to solve the duplicate content problem and we’ll examine the technical aspects of the issue.

What is the root of the duplicate content problem?

As we saw in the previous post duplicate content comes from submitting multiple times the same content in different pages or websites, from using incorrectly multiple domain names and from using incorrect web development and SEO practices.

In the first case, the problem is usually caused by the webmasters who try to promote their websites by posting the same articles, texts or press releases in multiple websites. Additionally this could be the result of an incorrect link building strategy in which SEOs try to increase the number of backlinks by submitting the same content to multiple sources. Thus in this case, the root of the duplicate content problem is theuser who tries to promote his website with grayhat or blackhat techniques.

In the second case, the problem is caused by companies that acquire and use multiple domain names for the same website. For example by pointing incorrectly the example.com and the example.co.uk to the same website it is certain that one will face duplicate content issues. Thus again in this case, the root of the problem is the webmaster or the web development company that does not know how to setup correctly the 301 redirections and that does not use the best web techniques.

The third case is much more interesting and technical. The root of the problem is that the HTTP protocoldoes not provide a standard way to identify the “best” URL of a particular page. This means that one page can be accessed by multiple valid URL addresses and at the same time no information is available about the canonical URL.

Examples:

• http://example.com
• http://www.Example.com
• http://www.example.com
• http://www.example.com/
• http://www.example.com/index.html
• http://www.example.com/index.htm
• http://www.example.com/index.html?somevar=

All the above URLs could lead to the same page, but the HTTP protocol will neither point out the “best” one nor guarantee that all the above addresses are directed to the same page. So in the above example the http://www.example.com and the http://www.example.com/index.html could either lead to the same or to 2 completely different pages.

Also we need to have in mind that there are lots of different languages (PHP, ASP.NET, ASP, JSP, CGI, ColdFusion, etc) and web technologies that can be used in order to support dynamic websites. Due to the fact that the various web technologies support different features (default vs index pages, case sensitive vs case insensitive etc) the situation gets more complicated.

All the above difficulties make it easy for someone who does not understand how search engines work to make mistakes in the link structure of the website and affect the SEO campaign. So the question is how can we avoid those mistakes?

How to solve the duplicate content problem

In the first case the solution is relatively easy. All you need to do is to avoid submitting the exact same content to multiple sources and always make sure you use whitehat SEO techniques. Make sure you prepare different versions for the same article or press release so that search engines will not consider it as duplicate. This will help you build better links and generate more traffic.

In the second case, when there is the need of acquiring multiple domain names for the same website make sure you select only one primary domain and setup HTTP 301 redirections for the rest. So say for example that for a particular website you use 2 domain names: example.com (primary) and example.co.uk (secondary). Then what you want to do is to setup a 301 redirection to the example.co.uk so that whenever someone types this domain he/she will be redirected to the example.com. There are several ways to do this (DNS settings, .htaccess, PHP/ASP/JSP redirection etc), but the most straight forward is by modifying the DNS settings from the panel of your domain provider.

The third case is a bit more complicated. As we said in the previous article, Search Engines do take steps to minimize the effect of the duplicate problem by identifying the best URL for a particular page. They use a set of rules that are applied in the URLs in order to identify the best possible version (for example the trailing / is added after “.com”, the domain name is converted to lowercase, they determine whether to use the www or the non-www version etc). After that they are forced to visit the different URLs and analyze the pages in order to determine whether they are duplicate or unique. Nevertheless even if search engines do try to solve the issue, the SEO campaign can be affected and thus it is highly recommended working on your link structure in order to eliminate those problems.

Working on your link structure

So what you want to do is to make sure that all the links of your site point to the best URLs and that there are no situations where 2 different URLs lead to the same page.

Here is a list of the most important things you should look out:

1. Remove all the URL variables that are not important from all the links (SESSIONIDs, empty variables etc).
2. Decide whether to use the www or the non-www version for your site and place a 301 redirection to the other version.
3. Decide whether to use the “index.html” in the URL when you point to the default page of a folder
4. Add the trailing / at the end of each folder.

There is a great article by Ian Ring on this subject so I am not going to discuss it further. Make sure you read his article “Be a Normalizer – a C14N Exterminator” and also the Wikipedia article on URL normalization. All these tips can help you optimize the link structure of your website and this is going to help you solve the major duplicate problems.

301 redirections

Another great way to solve the problem is by using 301 redirections. Especially in cases where the incoming links of a particular page are divided between the various duplicate versions of the page it is highly recommended to use the above rules in order to select the “best” URL and then setup 301 redirections to the rest of the pages. This can be done easily by using either the .htaccess file or a programming solution (PHP redirection).

Canonical Tag

When working on the link structure of the website is not an option there is an alternative called Canonical Tag. The Canonical Tag was proposed by Google in order to resolve the duplicate content issue.

To be precise it is not a tag but a value of the attribute rel of the <link> tag:

<link rel=”canonical” href=”http://www.example.com/product.php?item=swedish-fish” />

It is placed in the HTML headers in order to notify the search engines about the best URL for the particular page. Using the canonical in your pages is something very useful and it can help you reduce drastically the amount of duplicate content within your site. Additionally it is a great way to pass the link juice that is lost to the duplicates back to the canonical pages.

Keep in mind that this tag is only a hint, not a directive for the major search engines. In order to use it properly the URLs (both the canonical and the duplicates) must be almost identical.

For more information about Canonical URLs check out the article of Matt Cutts SEO advice: url canonicalization and the article of the official Google Blog Specify your canonical.

The best methods to solve the duplicate content problem

As we said above, there are several ways to solve the problem. Here is the list of the methods that you should use (Note that it is highly recommended to try solving the problem by using the first 3 ways):

1. Work on your link structure
2. Use 301 redirections
3. Use canonical tag
4. Exclude parameters such as sessionIDs from Google Webmaster Tools Console
5. Last resort, block the duplicate content with robots.txt