Canonical or No-index

[TheWebMastercom]

Just a quick question really.

Say I have a Promotions page where I list all current promotions for a product, and update it regularly to reflect the latest offer codes etc.

On top of that I have Offer announcement posts for specific promotions for that product, highlighting very briefly the promotion, but also linking back to the main product promotion page which has a the promotion duplicated.  So main page is 1000+ words with half a dozen promotions, the small post might be 200 words, and quickly become irrelevant as it is a limited time news article.

Now, I don't want the promotion page indexed (unless it has a larger news story attached to the promotion, but for this purpose presume it is doesn't).  Initially the core essence of the post will be duplicated in the main Promotion page, but later as the offer expires it wouldn't be.  Therefore would you Rel Canonical or just simply No-index?

[CommT]

But it's the date that makes them different! As in if I was specifically looking for info on 2013 I wouldn't WANT the 2014 page to be served and vice versa.

I would leave them both indexed - assuming the data is entirely different in each.

[TheWebMastercom]

OK, but using Canonical for say:

Black Friday sales Roundup 2013 to Black Friday Sales Roundup 2014

is ok?  Or should I leave both indexed.  Both are quality pages, but targeting virtually the same keywords., apart from a date.

[TheWebMastercom]

That is interesting thanks.  I do actually have links to further information in exactly the way you say.

Including some basic information about the product could work... I will give it some thought, as I will need to make sure it is of sufficient quality.

Well, for definite it looks like I am using "canonical" incorrectly

Work to do...

[PatrickDelehanty]

^ I agree with Martijn here. Great point.

[PatrickDelehanty]

Hi there

If it were me - leave the promotion indexed because you want that promotion to be promoted and people are always looking for deals. Also, take a look at the Customer Journey from Google to see where opportunities lie in getting that promotion page and circulating - you could be missing some big opportunities.

I would also (from the promotions page) have a "Learn more about this product" sort of button so that the users that do land on that page can get more information - especially if you have more content about the product. Some customers will land there not ready to buy, but will be looking for information - get the the information they need and quickly.

You could bulletpoint the information on these smaller pages so people can quickly read and assess benefits. But in my opinion, I am not seeing a reason to canonicalize these or noindex them. Unless I am misunderstanding - if that's the case, please let me know!

Hope this helps a bit - good luck!

[Martijn_Scheijbeler]

I'd say noindex as it's pretty hard to point the canonical to 1 page where there would be multiple promotions.