Will Google Judge Duplicate Content on Responsive Pages to be Keyword Spamming?
-
I have a website for my small business, and hope to improve the search results position for 5 landing pages. I recently modified my website to make it responsive (mobile friendly). I was not able to use Bootstrap; the layout of the pages is a bit unusual and doesn't lend itself to the options Bootstrap provides.
Each landing page has 3 main div's - one for desktop, one for tablet, one for phone.
The text content displayed in each div is the same. Only one of the 3 div’s is visible; the user’s screen width determines which div is visible.When I wrote the HTML for the page, I didn't want each div to have identical text. I worried that
when Google indexed the page it would see the same text 3 times, and would conclude that keyword spamming was occurring. So I put the text in just one div. And when the page loads jQuery copies the text from the first div to the other two div's.But now I've learned that when Google indexes a page it looks at both the page that is served AND the page that is rendered. And in my case the page that is rendered - after it loads and the jQuery code is executed – contains duplicate text content in three div's. So perhaps my approach - having the served page contain just one div with text content – fails to help, because Google examines the rendered page, which has duplicate text content in three div's.
Here is the layout of one landing page, as served by the server.
1000 words of text goes here.
No text. jQuery will copy the text from div id="desktop" into here.
No text. jQuery will copy the text from div id="desktop" into here.
=====================================================================================
My question is: Will Google conclude that keyword spamming is occurring because of the duplicate content the rendered page contains, or will it realize that only one of the div's is visible at a time, and the duplicate content is there only to achieve a responsive design?
Thank you!
-
Hi Curtis,
By the sounds of things I think you might well have over-engineered your responsive website!
You clearly understand the principles of responsive design and are a better developer than me, but unfortunately it seems the use of media queries here isn't optimal compared to a fluid grid system: https://www.w3schools.com/w3css/w3css_grid.asp
Why don't you make your question redundant by trying to incorporate a single div? Plus then you might be able to remove some jQuery which could speed up your site.
To specifically answer your question about duplicate content...the only way of knowing would be to test rankings before and after. Generally it's believed that Googlebot would be smart enough to realise why there's a small amount of "hidden" content, but personally as an SEO (someone trying to optimise as efficiently as possible), I wouldn't want to risk it!
How Google Defines Cloaking - https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/66355?hl=en
A Google product forums discussion around display:none and mobile design; - https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!msg/webmasters/zB0Gqjajfis/E6tgJs7_AwAJ
Best of luck,
Nick
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
-
Does having too many wordpress portfolio pages with little content hurt a site's SEO?
I have a site that is for a service company, not image based like a photographer or artist. We utilize the Portfolio feature to create a gallery of floor coating finishes (images of all the flooring finish options available) but this solution has created /portfolio/file-name pages for each image. These pages have no other content besides the image. I've run SEMrush audits on this site which shows a high percentage of pages with low text/code ratio and duplicate content (a lot of the finishes have very similar names). This site has been extremely slow to improve any visibility online (more than 9 months) and I'm wondering if this is a factor by possibly having a negative effect on our site. We initially chose the portfolio option because it was the best-looking solution for our users but we can certainly change it to another format if that is better. Thanks!
Web Design | | WillGMG0 -
On-page SEO opinion on this Wordpress theme
Hi everyone. As an SEO agency we've been moving more toward genesis themes, however we have a client who really wants to redesign his website using the following theme: http://themeforest.net/item/this-way-wp-full-videoimage-background-with-audio/943634 - the theme would be images with no audio on the homepage. He is a remodeling contractor and likes the design and functionality of the theme. I'd like to get others feedback and opinions on what you think about the on-page SEO of this theme? Thanks.
Web Design | | WillWatrous0 -
Site as one page - SEO implications
We may be inheriting a site and will be asked to do SEO for it. We will have control over the development of the site, so this structure is what it is. My question is - how significant of an impact do you think this is going to have and can you think of any workarounds that may help? Basically, the user experience of the site will feel similar to multiple pages. However, this site will, in essence be one page and pull various content through javascript from different locations. I have not seen the site yet (and believe it is still in development), but this is how it has been explained to me. Any thoughts? My first thought was to add a blog to add page depth to the site and expand the content. Any other thoughts are welcome and appreciated. Thanks. (I know this is limited information, I'm sorry. It's just about all I have to work with right now, and I was a little concerned and was hoping for a second opinion)
Web Design | | AdamWormann0 -
404 page in Windows IIS. HELP!
I run a real estate website.
Web Design | | Jeepster
My webmaster needs to create a 404 page for listings when they get deleted.
So far all he's come up with is 302-redirect to a standard "error template" page.
Can anyone suggest a 404 how-to guide I can show him?
Thanks0 -
Will changing content managment systems affect rankings?
We're considering changing our content management system. This would probably change our url structure (keep root domain name, but specific product pages and what not would have different full urls). Will our rankings be affected if we use different urls for current pages? I know we can do 401 redirects, but anything else I should consider? Thanks, Dan
Web Design | | dcostigan0 -
Contact form on home page.
I am looking to add a contact form onto my home page and I was wondering if it made sense to change my index.html to an index.php. If i do make this change, would it have any impact on my search rankings?
Web Design | | bronxpad0 -
What is the current thought how/if cufon affects keywords?
What is the final opinion about how (and if) cufon affects keywords in H1 tags?
Web Design | | Court_LOQUA0