Duplicate content issues, I am running into challenges and am looking for suggestions for solutions. Please help.
-
So I have a number of pages on my real estate site that display the same listings, even when parsed down by specific features and don't want these to come across as duplicate content pages. Here are a few examples:
http://luxuryhomehunt.com/homes-for-sale/lake-mary/hanover-woods.html?feature=waterfront
http://luxuryhomehunt.com/homes-for-sale/lake-mary/hanover-woods.html
This happens to be a waterfront community so all the homes are located along the waterfront. I can use a canonical tag, but I not every community is like this and I want the parsed down feature pages to get index.
Here is another example that is a little different:
http://luxuryhomehunt.com/homes-for-sale/winter-park/bear-gully-bay.html
http://luxuryhomehunt.com/homes-for-sale/winter-park/bear-gully-bay.html?feature=without-pool
http://luxuryhomehunt.com/homes-for-sale/winter-park/bear-gully-bay.html?feature=4-bedrooms
http://luxuryhomehunt.com/homes-for-sale/winter-park/bear-gully-bay.html?feature=waterfront
So all the listings in this community happen to have 4 bedrooms, no pool, and are waterfront. Meaning that they display for each of the parsed down categories. I can possible set something that if the listings = same then use canonical of main page url, but in the next case its not so simple.
So in this next neighborhood there are 48 total listings as seen at:
http://luxuryhomehunt.com/homes-for-sale/windermere/isleworth.html
and being that it is a higher end neighborhood, 47 of the 48 listings are considered "traditional listings" and while it is not exactly all of them it is 99%.
Any recommendations is appreciated greatly.
-
Endorsing Jared for the full thread/follow-up. Unfortunately, when it comes to indexing all of these pages, you can't really have your cake and eat it too in 2012. These pages do look thin to Google - honestly, when the results don't change (and I get that that's just because the filters don't always impact the search), then it starts to look like you're just spinning out duplicates to target new keywords in the header. At high volume, that could get you into trouble (and is the kind of thing Panda has targeted).
You're right, though, if you canonical these pages, they won't get indexed and ranked. These days, my gut reaction is that the trade-off is worth it. If you focus your ranking power, the core category/neighborhood/etc. pages will get more authority, you'll reduce the risks of thin content, and you'll land search users on core pages that they can use to navigate to the options they want.
There's no solution that doesn't involve a trade-off, but I think focusing your index would be a positive trade-off. Keep in mind, too, that Google isn't really that fond of search pages - ultimately, you want them indexing the core property listings. The key is to have clear paths to those listings and to index and ranking prominent category pages. If you try to rank for every variations of ever search/sort/etc., you'll just end up diluting your ranking ability in most cases.
-
I see, and yes it will.
I know for my real estate clients, the main listings page usually ranks naturally for info that is found in listings so for example "4 bedrooms" - we have a real estate client that ranks for "x real estate" and "x homes for sale" but also ranks for "4 bedroom homes for sale in x" simply because the listings summary have number of bedrooms in them (like yours does).
However for other variables, like "no pool", its gets trickier since no one lists a house on MLS citing "no pool".
The only two ways around this are: write unique content on every main page, and include the keywords you want like 'no pool' or
write some unique content for each variable - ie write some unique copy on the "no pool" page, write some unique copy on the 'waterfront' page, etc. Even then you are still running a risk of duplicate copy. Having the titles, breadcrumbs and h1's dynamically change just might not be enough. I would put all of my efforts (including linkbuilding) to the main landing page and just make sure to include the keywords i want (thats just an opinion).
What is the data showing now - are you being penalized? Are you ranking for any "without pool" or "waterfront" terms and if so, are they getting traffic?
-
First, thanks again for responding. The challenge I have with using the canonical tag for the variable pages is that, won't it prevent google from indexing the variable pages that include some terms/ phrases I am trying to rank for?
Like Hanover Woods foreclosure homes for sale or Hanover 4 bedroom homes for sale
-
Hi Joshua,
There are a number of ways to stop Google from counting your dynamic urls as duplicates. Its unclear from your question why you can't use canonical tags for this. If you went here:
http://luxuryhomehunt.com/homes-for-sale/lake-mary/hanover-woods.html
And add the canonical tag in the HEAD section:
It will solve your issue of duplication when people choose property variables like waterfront or bedroom #. I think you were trying to point out the reason this wont work at the end of your question but Im not exactly sure what you are eluding to there?
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
-
How to deal with duplicated content on product pages?
Hi, I have a webshop with products with different sizes and colours. For each item I have a different URL, with almost the same content (title tag, product descriptions, etc). In order to prevent duplicated content I'am wondering what is the best way to solve this problem, keeping in mind: -Impossible to create one page/URL for each product with filters on colour and size -Impossible to rewrite the product descriptions in order to be unique I'm considering the option to canonicolize the rest of de colours/size variations, but the disadvantage is that in case the product is not in stock it disappears from the website. Looking forward to your opinions and solutions. Jeroen
Technical SEO | | Digital-DMG0 -
Duplicate Content Issue WWW and Non WWW
One of my sites got hit with duplicate content a while ago because Google seemed to be considering hhtp, https, www, and non ww versions of the site all different sites. We thought we fixed it, but for some reason https://www and just https:// are giving us duplicate content again. I can't seem to figure out why it keeps doing this. The url is https://bandsonabudget.com if any of you want to see if you can figure out why I am still having this issue.
Technical SEO | | Michael4g1 -
Duplicate Content issue in Magento: The product pages are available true 3 URL's! How can we solve this?
Right now the product page "gedroogde goji bessen" (Dutch for: dried goji berries) is available true 3 URL's! **http://www.sportvoeding.net/gedroogde-goji-bessen ** =>
Technical SEO | | Zanox
By clicking on the product slider on the homepage
http://www.sportvoeding.net/superfood/gedroogde-goji-bessen =>
First go to sportvoeding.net/superfood (main categorie) and than clicking on "gedroogde Goji bessen"
http://www.sportvoeding.net/superfood/goji-bessen/gedroogde-goji-bessen =>
When directly go to the subcategorie "Goji Bessen" true the menu and there clicking on "gedroogde Goji Bessen" We want to have the following product URL:
http://www.sportvoeding.net/superfood/goji-bessen/gedroogde-goji-bessen Does someone know´s a good Exetension for this issue?0 -
Duplicate Content
Hi, we need some help on resolving this duplicate content issue,. We have redirected both domains to this magento website. I guess now Google considered this as duplicate content. Our client wants both domain name to go to the same magento store. What is the safe way of letting Google know these are same company? Or this is not ideal to do this? thanks
Technical SEO | | solution.advisor0 -
Dealing with duplicate content
Manufacturer product website (product.com) has an associated direct online store (buyproduct.com). the online store has much duplicate content such as product detail pages and key article pages such as technical/scientific data is duplicated on both sites. What are some ways to lessen the duplicate content here? product.com ranks #1 for several key keywords so penalties can't be too bad and buyproduct.com is moving its way up the SERPS for similar terms. Ideally I'd like to combine the sites into one, but not in the budget right away. Any thoughts?
Technical SEO | | Timmmmy0 -
Duplicate page content
hi I am getting an duplicate content error in SEOMoz on one of my websites it shows http://www.exampledomain.co.uk http://www.exampledomain.co.uk/ http://www.exampledomain.co.uk/index.html how can i fix this? thanks darren
Technical SEO | | Bristolweb0 -
Duplicate Content Question
Just signed up for pro and did my first diagnostic check - I came back with something like 300 duplicate content errors which suprised me because every page is unique. Turns out my pages are listed as www.sportstvjobs.com and just sportstvjobs.com does that really count as duplicate? and if so does anyone know what I should be doing differently? I thought it was just a canonical issue, but best I can tell I have the canonical in there but this still came up as a duplicate error....maybe I did canonical wrong, or its some other issue? Thanks Brian Clapp
Technical SEO | | sportstvjobs0 -
Duplicate content
I am getting flagged for duplicate content, SEOmoz is flagging the following as duplicate: www.adgenerator.co.uk/ www.adgenerator.co.uk/index.asp These are obviously meant to be the same path so what measures do I take to let the SE's know that these are to be considered the same page. I have used the canonical meta tag on the Index.asp page.
Technical SEO | | IPIM0