Duplicate Page Title/Content Issues on Product Review Submission Pages

[DakotahW]

Hi Everyone,

I'm very green to SEO. I have a Volusion-based storefront and recently decided to dedicate more time and effort into improving my online presence. Admittedly, I'm mostly a lurker in the Q&A forum but I couldn't find any pre-existing info regarding my situation. It could be out there. But again, I'm a noob...

So, in my recent SEOmoz report I noticed that over 1,000 Duplicate Content Errors and Duplicate Page Title Errors have been found since my last crawl. I can see that every error is tied to a product in my inventory - specifically each product page has an option to write a review. It looks like the subsequent page where a visitor can fill out their review is the stem of the problem. All of my products are shown to have the same issue:

Duplicate Page Title - Review:New

Duplicate Page Content - the form is already partially filled out with the corresponding product

My first question - It makes sense that a page containing a submission form would have the same title and content. But why is it being indexed, or crawled (or both for that matter) under every parameter in which it could be accessed (product A, B, C, etc)?

My second question (an obvious one) - What can I do to begin to resolve this?

As far as I know, I haven't touched this option included in Volusion other than to simply implement it. If I'm missing any key information, please point me in the right direction and I'll respond with any additional relevant information on my end. Many thanks in advance!

[PartyStore]

Hi DakotahW,

Our store front is Volusion based as well and we recently began using Moz to aid in our efforts to improve our site SEO. We are experiencing the same problem with duplicate page content.

How did you go about correcting this issue? Do you have any advice on how we can avoid these errors?

[Cyrus-Shepard]

1.) I can access the source code, and there is an option to override the default meta info for the review template using custom HTML - this is where I want to add the meta NOINDEX tag, correct?

Yes, sounds right

*also, it's pretty common sense but just to double check... if I add HTML to this field I'll want to paste the entire page's source code with the new robots meta tag included, not just the meta tag by itself, right?

Mmmm.... this sounds suspicious, especially if you are only editing the default meta info. You might need to do a little experimentation to figure this out.

2.) This is the direction where I was beginning to lean... in this case if the URL was "www.example.com/ReviewNew.asp?ProductCode=BLUEHAT13" would the parameter that identifies the reviews be "ReviewNew.asp" ?

The parameter here is "ProductCode" - which raises a good point. You want to make sure that this parameter isn't used by other page template, because you might block those as well.

Hope this helps.

[DakotahW]

Hi Cyrus,

Yes, each product page has a link to another page containing product review form they can fill out. And the more I continue to learn on the forum here, I'm beginning to understand why e-commerce platforms like Volusion aren't always the most friendly SEO-wise.

1.) I can access the source code, and there is an option to override the default meta info for the review template using custom HTML - this is where I want to add the meta NOINDEX tag, correct?

*also, it's pretty common sense but just to double check... if I add HTML to this field I'll want to paste the entire page's source code with the new robots meta tag included, not just the meta tag by itself, right?

2.) This is the direction where I was beginning to lean... in this case if the URL was "www.example.com/ReviewNew.asp?ProductCode=BLUEHAT13" would the parameter that identifies the reviews be "ReviewNew.asp" ?

Due to a growing lack of confidence in Volusion's out-of-the-box SEO features, I fear simply checking a box within their backend for a "one solution to all problems" may come back and bite me in the rear. I had briefly looked into parameter handling from Google Webmaster Tools and think this may be a better long-term solution. Not to mention, that I can at least identify when/where any issues originate from when/if they arise. Perhaps I'm beginning to outgrow my current shopping cart?

Anyways, thank you for the insightful response. Cheers!

[DakotahW]

Hi KLLC,

Thanks for sharing your thoughts. Making these pages no-index was my initial thought as it made the most sense. I know Volusion isn't the most SEO-friendly, so I think the biggest problem is understanding which of their out-of-the-box features can accomplish this without compromising how the rest of my site is crawlable. Again, thanks for the help!

[Cyrus-Shepard]

Hi Dakotah,

If I understand correctly, you have multiple "leave a review" pages showing up in your SEOmoz reports, and each page is pretty much identical.

Yes, you are correct that you generally want to keep those pages out of the index.

Unfortunately, I don't believe Volusion is the most SEO friendly platform out of the box, and wrangling with it may require a bit of HTML knowledge

1. If you can access the source code, (using the LiveEdit function, perhaps?) it may serve you well to add a Meta NOINDEX tag to the head of your review template.

2. On the other hand, if this proves to technical, another option is parameter handling in Google Webmaster Tools. You'll need a verified Webmaster account for this. You'd want to find, or enter, the parameter that identifies the reviews, i.e."?ProductCode=" and set googlebot to NO URLs.

Both of these options are both advanced and potentially dangerous. Back up your work and keep records of everything in case you need to make changes, or get someone to help.

Hope this helps. Let us know if you need more info, or if we're headed in the right direction. (Full disclosure - not many SEOs work with Volusion, so my knowledge is extremely limited)

[KLLC]

Hello,

If you talk about SEOMoz crawler and the errors you get from your report, you must have basis changes for the critical issues. Example: you have added a review for each item page, tip: It must be built-in with the item page so that it will prevent you creating new pages with same title and ofcourse same content.

Second tip is if a review page follows to new page make that page nofollow, no-index so it will help or guide BOTS not to index these pages and your issue will be solved.