Duplicate content
-
I am an attraction and I have just noticed that some of my vendors are using my address, and in some instances my mainline(phone), for their stores which are located on site. What is your recommendation, or best practice for this scenario as I wish to prevent this from appearing as a duplicate listing. thank you in advance.
-
Thank you for the detailed response. This is tremendously helpful.
-
Hi Setokin,
Glad to know I hit close to the mark in understanding this. Here is my advice:
-
It is essential that no one else use the park's phone number. You will need to let each of the vendors know this. Each entity being listed on Google MUST have its own phone number, whether these are entities you own or entities your vendors own.
-
If all of these businesses are located at the same address (123 Palm Dr.) then I recommend reviewing the following Google guidelines:
- Containment information indicating that your business is located inside another business (whether or not the businesses are part of the same organisation).
- Not acceptable: "Link ATM (in Tesco)", "Apple Store at Stanford Shopping Centre", "Benefit Brow Bar - John Lewis", "Kwik Fit Tyre & Battery (part of Kwik Fit)", "Costa Coffee (inside Tesco Extra)"
- Acceptable: "Chase ATM", "Apple Store", "Benefit Brow Bar", "Kwik Fit Tyre & Battery", "Costa Coffee"
Also read Google's sections on Departments and Categories in the guidelines thoroughly to understand how each entity at your park should be listing itself and if it is, indeed, eligible for a GMB listing.
- For those businesses that you deem eligible for a GMB listing, you are going to have to do a really masterful job with GMB category selection to avoid the effects of the Possum filter as much as possible. If you have 2 Mexican Restaurants in the park, for example, Google is unlikely to show both because of the shared category. So you may have to get creative here in choosing categories for those businesses you control and ALSO, look at the categories each vendor is using to be sure they aren't 'stealing' the main category that the park, itself, most definitely needs.
Wow! A lot to do here. In your shoes, I would honestly hire a really good Local SEO to work out this strategy with you, based on Google's guidelines, but if you need to DIY, I hope my pointers will prove an actionable starting point.
-
-
Thank you. That is exactly my situation. We are a cultural themed park in Hawaii. We have a large marketplace at the entrance of the park with a restaurant, stores, food trucks and kiosks. We own the restaurant and a few stores, however, the rest are operated by outside vendors/partners. Each vendor should have their own contact, however, It looks like some vendors have chosen to list our direct line (park's call center) and address as their address and contact information.
Thank you in advance.
-
Hi Brett!
There is actually some reason for concern here. Let's get some more details from Setokin before we determine whether or not his scenario is problematic. The devil is in the details of these situations
-
Hi Setokin!
I can see exactly why you are concerned. Let me ask some questions here, please. Is your scenario something like, you own a museum at 123 Main St. and inside of your museum, there is a restaurant, a cafe and a gift shop, all owned by different owners but also all located at 123 Main St? Is this your scenario, or would you describe it differently? Also, please clarify if these different entities have their own phone numbers or the phone number is the museum's (i.e. yours)?
The details really matter in a scenario like this. Please, provide as much info as you can. Thanks!
-
If you have verified your NAP via Google My Business and it's accurate, then you have nothing to worry about. Google won't punish you because someone else is creating duplicate listings, and they won't factor in unverified information. Duplicate NAP information would be an issue if you were trying to rank multiple websites for the same location. In that scenario, only one would get the benefit from citations and an optimized GMB profile.
If you haven't create a Google My Business profile yet, go to google.com/business and get started. It will take some time, but in a few weeks you can have a fully verified and optimized profile. Just follow the steps they provide and call support when you get stuck. Additionally please feel free to ask questions here.
-
Thank you Logan for your quick response and I apologize for not being clear. My question pertains to NAP information in local search. Some of our vendors are showing on the dashboard as duplicates as they are using our address and phone number. Additionally, other units of the organization are also showing up as duplicates as well. Can you advise on best approach for these cases. thank you in advance.
-
This isn't going to count as duplicate content. Duplicate content is more of a concern if someone is stealing entire pieces of content from your site and posting it on theirs.
What's happening here is actually a good thing, you're getting extra visibility and people are referencing your phone number from their site. This is great! Don't do anything to deter additional phone calls from prospective customers!
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
-
Google My Business - What is the best way to remove "Duplicate Address"? Help!
Google can be such a pain with managing listings - especially when you are an agency managing a client's listing! I am hoping someone can help with this... How do I permanently delete a “duplicate address?” In the Google My Business dashboard (classic view), under account summary – I click duplicate locations. From here, I can easily remove a duplicate location - that is not the issue. The issue is for duplicate addresses. For this, we only have the option to resolve address, which directs you to the business’ location details. Our options are then to: 1. Change the business NAP 2. Permanently close location 3. Remove the listing from your dashboard (removing it from dashboard doesn’t delete it from Google). We edited the business’ name, phone number, address and website – to try and make it a duplicate location, because if we are able to make it a duplicate location then we know we will have the option to **Remove Duplicate. **Nothing has changed though. We don't want to mark this as a permanently closed location because if somebody does come across the listing down the road it is going to be misleading. The business is not actually closed! Any insight would be very much appreciated. Thank you!
Local Listings | | bcallegary0 -
A customer made a duplicate google plus page, now what?
A customer of mine went to a business conference about a year ago and one of the speakers told them of the importance of having an optimized google plus page. Instead of talking to me about it, they went ahead and created a brand new page and began posting content and reviews to it. I've contacted google and they've told me they deleted the first page, but it still always shows up in the local search results even though the new page has much more content on it. Has anyone dealt with a similar situation that could help me? I have them ranking #2 organic, but barely showing up local...
Local Listings | | jag10251 -
Google Local: When moving locations, is a new website/content needed?
I've effectively moved companies before, but I've heard that ranking locally in a competitive market after an address move it is necessary to redesign the entire website/content/domain as Google associates the old website/content/domain with the old location. Is this true? Does anyone have any direct experience with this? NOTE- I have updated citations across the internet and have regular social signals going to the new location, and this has been the case for almost 6 months now.
Local Listings | | mgordon0 -
New website no ranking, due to 2 duplicate websites . Please help.
Hello Everyone, We have a client that has 2 of the same websites, that have the same content, different phone numbers and different content for the Homepages however, there are a few differences that has been done to both with different functionality. For the last 3 weeks, we have been trying to rank "1. www.websitetoronto.com" as this is the branding of the company, and is for 18+ content. We also have "2. www.websitetor.com" that is PG13 content which is for google places for business aka google+ for business (which is still in pending mode, and is the older site about 7 years old, and was ranked before. The reason for both the sites is that Google Places for Business Listing does not allow any adult content, and our main branding "**1. www.websitetoronto.com" is for 18+ content. Here are the specs for both the sites. ** 1. www.websitetoronto.com New Registered site to be ranked organically (however this is no where in the SERPS) as its serving the older site previously No Google Places for business listings.
Local Listings | | EVERWORLD.ENTERTAIMENT
- This is the actual branding of the company and is for 18+ content We have already started building links, organically and white-hat only. Unfortunately (its not showing for our main keywords in the SERPS) ** 2. www.websitetor.com** 7 Years old Google Places for Business (Still in pending mode) not to be ranked organically blocked from searches - robots sets to
User-agent: *
Disallow: / Removed all the links in WMT including We have change all all the links for point to "www.websitetoronto.com" What is the best way to make this work with google, so that we have both websites performing for the different functions and without losing the google places listings for 2. www.websitetor.com and to rank 1. www.websitetoronto.com a) Do I add any tags? Rel=?
b) Should we remove 2. www.mywebsitetor.com from WMT?
c) any other tips and suggestion to get www.mywebsitetoronto.com to rank would be great! Any help and advice would be greatly appreciated. Also, the owner want this set up this way so, we cannot reverse as he wants the **1. www.websitetoronto.com as the branding. **0 -
Duplicate Content From Citations?
Hi everyone, A number of citations ask for a business description, so I want to use one from our website. However, would this get flagged as duplicate content or some other problem? Do I need to write unique descriptions for every listing site? Thanks, Ruben
Local Listings | | KempRugeLawGroup0 -
Google automatically generating and verifying duplicate business pages?
Was on the phone with Google Support about duplicate, verified pages showing up and they said they're doing a "cleanse" in which an automated system is reviewing existing listings and making decisions as to how those look, which often results in a new page that Google then automatically verifies. Their Support phone system has been bogged down with people calling in, but I'm not seeing anything when I search about this issue. Is anyone else experiencing this?
Local Listings | | copyjack0 -
Duplicate Websites - Only one ranking
Hello Everyone, I have a client that has 2 website, that have the same content, with he same phone numbers and contact details. However, there are a few different that we want to do for both. 1. mywebsitevan.com ( Has Google Places (and they don't want to lose this listing, as it is a main reason why they are surviving. not rank organically mywebsitevancouver.com
Local Listings | | EVERWORLD.ENTERTAIMENT
- ranked organically No Google Place listings. This is the actual branding of the company What is the best way to make this work with google, so that we have both websites, and without losing the google places listings. Do add any tags? Rel=? Thanks for your help.0 -
.CA and .COM (Ensuring no Duplicate Content)
Hello, I know that this has been answered before. I have a website that has the same content for both
Local Listings | | EVERWORLD.ENTERTAIMENT
http://example.com and http://example.ca/ 1. To Ensure I don't get penalized for duplicate content is there anything else I have to do besides adding the hreflang? Perhaps doing some stuff in the WMT?
2. Where do I add the hreflang? In the header section of the homepage? US site: http://example.com/" /> CA site: http://example.ca/" /> Thanks for you help?0