Is Moz Bot Broken?
-
Moz Bot says I have millions of issues with duplicate content.
One item says that it has over 50 duplicates! I downloaded the CSV it gave me to look into it.
All of my products have many different ways to get them, so I've set up rel=canonicals for the master one. So, I'd assume Mozbot would ignore those.
But the interesting thing I've found is that of these 50 duplicates, some of them (on the same CSV I downloaded) are completely different products, with completely different URL's. and completely different titles and completely different meta descriptions and completely different product descriptions.
So, 3 questions:
-
Is Moz bot broken?
-
Does it not recognize canonicals?
-
Why is it seeing 3 very different products as exactly the same product?
I'm so confused and since I work for a national company, the only way I can give actual examples is through a private message session. I guess I'm wondering if anyone else has come across this issue? Because I'm completely baffled.
-
-
Hello David,
Thanks for the response. I was able to receive a response in Chat yesterday that was very similar. All of the different URL's for the same product were pointing to the same canonical (the right one), so I was highly confused. Knowing that it's about Source Code helps a lot. Giant ecommerce sites like the one I'm working for it seems would have this issue more than smaller, boutique sites.
All of the products have their own unique product descriptions and titles & meta descriptions. So, for our brand, it is about the source code. I can suggest that the writers add more copy to their descriptions, but I can't imagine that will be a fun conversation.
I really appreciate the thoughtful answer to my question. Thanks so much!
-
Hello!
Our campaigns have 90% tolerance for duplicate content so this means if the page source code is at least 90% similar, it will be flagged.
Canonicals will only work if all pages that are truly identical each point to the same canonical URL
So if you have something like www.domain.com/productA/ as the primary URL for a single product
All 3 URLs below need to point to "www.domain.com/productA/" as the canonical
www.domain.com/productA/color=blue
www.domain.com/productA/category/tag
www.domain.com/productA/page1For another product www.domain/productB/
These will always report as a duplicate of productA if there isn't enough unique content to prevent them from being too similar due to the layout/template making up the majority of the source code.
For pages that are completely targeting separate products, those cannot be ignored so it will help to add more unique content to those pages to prevent getting flagged.
Here is a great article on how you can address duplicates for a site like yours: www.goinflow.com/duplicate-content-ecommerce-seo/
Hope this helps!
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
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
-
Duplicate Content & Title Tag Group Fields on MoZ Report
Hello, On my SEO MOZ exported Site Crawl CSV report, I have columns for Duplicate Content Group & for Duplicate Title Tag Group. The values in the columns are numerical - 20, 5 , 15, etc. Can anyone explain to me what these values represent and how I can fix the issues I presume they represent? Thank you,
Moz Bar | | AED-1
Scott0 -
Moz Keyword Explorer how long does it take to gather metrics
Looking at some low volume keywords, I get lots of "Gathering Metrics". These don't seem to be updating with metrics. How long does this typically take, should I set and come back in a couple of hours, overnight? Should I leave the screen open, or will this stop it working? Justin
Moz Bar | | GrouchyKids0 -
The Moz Spam Score tells me my site has too few backlinks for such a large site. How many links per page would I need to not trigger this filter and stop appearing spammy?
Hello! One of my sites is triggering the 'too few backlinks for large site' filter. I am wondering how many backlinks I need so as not to trigger this. Many thanks for your help. Toby
Moz Bar | | T0BY0 -
All in favor of an "Announcements" category section say MOZ!
So this is just a thought. I am not Rand, therefor I am not the Moz man himself, and therefor I am not telling anybody how to run this website or forum. But, I've been thinking... and usually that a dangerous thing. So many times when I answer a question I end it with: "Keep me posted" "Keep us updated" "Good Luck" In the same light there have been plenty of times when I have had my questions answered by people like EGOL, RobertFIsher, KeriMorget and they have said that they have wanted me to keep them posted. Now sure, some of you are sitting there being Melancholy Mozzers thinking that all those wonderful people are just being polite by adding some nice parting words... but what if I they are being Sincere Seoers? What if I WANT to fill them in and don't want to ask a question? What if... THEY REALLY LIKE ME?!?! I could also send a DM to those 3 people, I mean let's get honest I'm not THAT popular.... but I can dream can't I? Again, this isn't really an SEO question, more of a thought on where I'm supposed to give updates on my project. In all honesty I do want feedback on what I'm doing, and sometimes I don't even know what questions I'm supposed to ask!
Moz Bar | | HashtagHustler1 -
Why does Moz Analytics drop my Google Analytics connection every time I login?
I get the following message every time I check the Moz Analytics dashboard on any of the sites I manage. It seems like a bug in the system. Does anyone know how to fix it? "We lost connection with your Google Analytics account. Don't worry — you won't lose any data. Please reauthorize now."
Moz Bar | | cbizzle0 -
Will the videos for the 2013 Moz Con be available for purchase in a bundle like they were in 2012? If so when? Thanks!
Will the videos for the 2013 Moz Con be available for purchase in a bundle like they were in 2012? If so when and how much? I would like to purchase. Thanks!
Moz Bar | | larahill0 -
Does Moz Pro generate similar keyword phrases in a list (preferably showing their difficulty %) or is it only one phrase at a time with no similar words/phrases suggested?
I just signed up for Moz Pro but the keyword research seems to only let you try one keyword phrase at a time. Is there a way for it to give related keywords along with their difficulty % info, etc. It is far too slow and inconvenient doing one at a time.
Moz Bar | | SavingSpotlight0 -
Path of Moz Crawler Report?
Hi, I'm finding path of moz crawler report. Please tell me where I can find this tool?. Thanks
Moz Bar | | KLLC0