Duplicate Content issue on pages with Authority and decent SERP results
-
Hi, I'm not sure what the best thing to do here is.
I've got quite a few duplicate page errors in my campaign. I must admit the pages were originally built just to rank a keyword variation.
e.g. Main page keyword is [Widget in City] the "duplicate" page is [Black Widget in City]
I guess the normal route to deal with duplicate pages is to add a canonical tag and do a 304 redirect yea? Well these pages have some page Authority and are ranking quite well for their exact keywords, what do I do?
-
Just thought I would update the results on this.
After taking PoolGuy's advice I 301'd the duplicate pages to their main pages, i.e.
[Black Widget in City] ->301-> [Widget in City]
Now almost every single main page has moved up on average 12 places to #1 on google!
The duplicate pages are still showing in the SERPs but appear to be dropping and I guess will eventually dissapear.
So I'm now a staunch promoter of dealing with duplicate content!
-
I would predict you will continue to rank well for your duplicate pages. I further predict they (because of Panda) will bring down the rankings of the rest of your site. If you can add some good unique content to 50 different colors of a product, then by all means, make 50 pages. But if you can't generate the content necessary to establish each individual page as "quality", then I would remove them, and simply not go that route at all, and 301 redirect all those pages into the main page. If you think it still holds value to users, then keep them up and just use a canonical tag.
-
Hi There
From what you've described, it does sound like Duplicate Content is a potential issue for your site, it's great that you're addressing it.
A Canonical Tag as you've suggested is a logical and sensible course of action. Correctly implemented, this will certainly help.
One thought, what would provide the best user experience for your visitors? Have a think about whether these 'additional' pages actually add any value or not for your visitors. I suspect that you could include every different color of a certain type of widget on a single page for each type, rather than having separate pages for each color.
In this scenario, consider 301 redirecting those additional/duplicate pages to the main appropriate widget page, that would almost certainly provide a cleaner better user experience. Obviously need to take into account your business objectives and target audience goals when making such a decision.
So really, it's Canonicals or 301s, depending on what best matches your business objectives and the user experience.
Hope that helps,
Regards
Simon
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Geographical Results in Universal SERPS
Hi Moz Pros! I have been reading on the board for quite some time, despite all the insights you all share with us in the SEO world. I have a nut I can't crack and thought I would ask. Does any guru here know the factors google uses when they choose sites to add to GEO specific SERPS on a general query? Here is an example. "Car insurance companies" Also attached. https://www.google.com/search?sxsrf=ACYBGNRvHrdh6z6sNatu-Pgbh-tbgiiQLQ%3A1569462097607&ei=UReMXbPfJIfwtAX_77aYCQ&q=car+insurance+companies+&oq=car+insurance+companies+&gs_l=psy-ab.3..0i71l8.321.321..471...0.2..0.0.0.......0....1..gws-wiz.8MmdfVjHrt4&ved=0ahUKEwjzy8P2re3kAhUHOK0KHf-3DZMQ4dUDCAs&uact=5
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | TicksTire
I live in Austin obviously 🙂 Thanks for any input you'd be willing to share! 5Brenxf0 -
Duplicate Page getting indexed and not the main page!
Main Page: www.domain.com/service
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Ishrat-Khan
Duplicate Page: www.domain.com/products-handler.php/?cat=service 1. My page was getting indexed properly in 2015 as: www.domain.com/service
2. Redesigning done in Aug 2016, a new URL pattern surfaced for my pages with parameter "products-handler"
3. One of my product landing pages had got 301-permanent redirected on the "products-handler" page
MAIN PAGE: www.domain.com/service GETTING REDIRECTED TO: www.domain.com/products-handler.php/?cat=service
4. This redirection was appearing until Nov 2016.
5. I took over the website in 2017, the main page was getting indexed and deindexed on and off.
6. This June it suddenly started showing an index of this page "domain.com/products-handler.php/?cat=service"
7. These "products-handler.php" pages were creating sitewide internal duplicacy, hence I blocked them in robots.
8. Then my page (Main Page: www.domain.com/service) got totally off the Google index Q1) What could be the possible reasons for the creation of these pages?
Q2) How can 301 get placed from main to duplicate URL?
Q3) When I have submitted my main URL multiple times in Search Console, why it doesn't get indexed?
Q4) How can I make Google understand that these URLs are not my preferred URLs?
Q5) How can I permanently remove these (products-handler.php) URLs? All the suggestions and discussions are welcome! Thanks in advance! 🙂0 -
Removing duplicate content
Due to URL changes and parameters on our ecommerce sites, we have a massive amount of duplicate pages indexed by google, sometimes up to 5 duplicate pages with different URLs. 1. We've instituted canonical tags site wide. 2. We are using the parameters function in Webmaster Tools. 3. We are using 301 redirects on all of the obsolete URLs 4. I have had many of the pages fetched so that Google can see and index the 301s and canonicals. 5. I created HTML sitemaps with the duplicate URLs, and had Google fetch and index the sitemap so that the dupes would get crawled and deindexed. None of these seems to be terribly effective. Google is indexing pages with parameters in spite of the parameter (clicksource) being called out in GWT. Pages with obsolete URLs are indexed in spite of them having 301 redirects. Google also appears to be ignoring many of our canonical tags as well, despite the pages being identical. Any ideas on how to clean up the mess?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | AMHC0 -
Glossary index and individual pages create duplicate content. How much might this hurt me?
I've got a glossary on my site with an index page for each letter of the alphabet that has a definition. So the M section lists every definition (the whole definition). But each definition also has its own individual page (and we link to those pages internally so the user doesn't have to hunt down the entire M page). So I definitely have duplicate content ... 112 instances (112 terms). Maybe it's not so bad because each definition is just a short paragraph(?) How much does this hurt my potential ranking for each definition? How much does it hurt my site overall? Am I better off making the individual pages no-index? or canonicalizing them?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | LeadSEOlogist0 -
How long does google take to show the results in SERP once the pages are indexed ?
Hi...I am a newbie & trying to optimize the website www.peprismine.com. I have 3 questions - A little background about this : Initially, close to 150 pages were indexed by google. However, we decided to remove close to 100 URLs (as they were quite similar). After the changes, we submitted the NEW sitemap (with close to 50 pages) & google has indexed those URLs in sitemap. 1. My pages were indexed by google few days back. How long does google take to display the URL in SERP once the pages get indexed ? 2. Does google give more preference to websites with more number of pages than those with lesser number of pages to display results in SERP (I have just 50 pages). Does the NUMBER of pages really matter ? 3. Does removal / change of URLs have any negative effect on ranking ? (Many of these URLs were not shown on the 1st page) An answer from SEO experts will be highly appreciated. Thnx !
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | PepMozBot0 -
Can use of the id attribute to anchor t text down a page cause page duplication issues?
I am producing a long glossary of terms and want to make it easier to jump down to various terms. I am using the<a id="anchor-text" ="" attribute="" so="" am="" appending="" #anchor-text="" to="" a="" url="" reach="" the="" correct="" spot<="" p=""></a> <a id="anchor-text" ="" attribute="" so="" am="" appending="" #anchor-text="" to="" a="" url="" reach="" the="" correct="" spot<="" p="">Does anyone know whether Google will pick this up as separate duplicate pages?</a> <a id="anchor-text" ="" attribute="" so="" am="" appending="" #anchor-text="" to="" a="" url="" reach="" the="" correct="" spot<="" p="">If so any ideas on what I can do? Apart from not do it to start with? I am thinking 301s won't work as I want the URL to work. And rel=canonical won't work as there is no actual page code to add it to. Many thanks for your help Wendy</a>
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Chammy0 -
Duplicate URL home page
I just got a duplicate URL error on by SEOMOZ report - and I wonder if I should worry about it Assume my site is named www.widgets.com I'm getting duplicate url from http://www.widgets.com & http://www.widgets.com/ Do the search engines really see this as different on the home page? The general drift on the web is that You site should look like Home page = http://www.widgets.com And subpages http://www.widgets.com/widget1/ Of course it seems as though the IIS7 slash tool will rewrite everything Including the home page to a slash.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | ThomasErb0 -
Very basic - domain authority vs page authority
what does that mean and how is that information valuable? thank you
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | thirsty31