Moz Q&A is closed.
After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.
Google keeps marking different pages as duplicates
-
My website has many pages like this:
mywebsite/company1/valuation
mywebsite/company2/valuation
mywebsite/company3/valuation
mywebsite/company4/valuation
...
These pages describe the valuation of each company.
These pages were never identical but initially, I included a few generic paragraphs like what is valuation, what is a valuation model, etc... in all the pages so some parts of these pages' content were identical.
Google marked many of these pages as duplicated (in Google Search Console) so I modified the content of these pages: I removed those generic paragraphs and added other information that is unique to each company. As a result, these pages are extremely different from each other now and have little similarities.
Although it has been more than 1 month since I made the modification, Google still marks the majority of these pages as duplicates, even though Google has already crawled their new modified version. I wonder whether there is anything else I can do in this situation?
Thanks
-
Google may mark different pages as duplicates if they contain very similar or identical content. This can happen due to issues such as duplicate metadata, URL parameters, or syndicated content. To address this, ensure each page has unique and valuable content, use canonical tags when appropriate, and manage URL parameters in Google Search Console.
-
Yes, there are a few other things you can do if Google is still marking your pages as duplicates after you have modified them to be unique:
-
Check your canonical tags. Canonical tags tell Google which version of a page is the preferred one to index. If you have canonical tags in place and they are pointing to the correct pages, then Google should eventually recognize that the duplicate pages are not actually duplicates.
-
Use the URL parameter tool in Google Search Console. This tool allows you to tell Google which URL parameters it should treat as unique and which ones it should ignore. This can be helpful if you have pages with similar content but different URL parameters, such as pages for different product categories or pages with different sorting options.
-
Request a recrawl of your website. You can do this in Google Search Console. Once Google has recrawled your website, it will be able to see the new, modified versions of your pages.
If you have done all of the above and Google is still marking your pages as duplicates, then you may need to contact Google Support for assistance.
-
-
If Google is marking different pages on your website as duplicates, it can negatively impact your website's search engine rankings. Here are some common reasons why Google may be doing this and steps you can take to address the issue:
Duplicate Content: Google's algorithms are designed to filter out duplicate content from search results. Ensure that your website does not have identical or near-identical content on multiple pages. Each page should offer unique and valuable content to users.
URL Parameters: If your website uses URL parameters for sorting, filtering, or tracking purposes, Google may interpret these variations as duplicate content. Use canonical tags or the URL parameter tool in Google Search Console to specify which version of the URL you want to be indexed.
Pagination: For websites with paginated content (e.g., product listings, blog archives), ensure that you implement rel="next" and rel="prev" tags to indicate the sequence of pages. This helps Google understand that the pages are part of a series and not duplicates.
www vs. non-www: Make sure you have a preferred domain (e.g., www.example.com or example.com) and set up 301 redirects to the preferred version. Google may treat www and non-www versions as separate pages with duplicate content.
HTTP vs. HTTPS: Ensure that your website uses secure HTTPS. Google may view HTTP and HTTPS versions of the same page as duplicates. Implement 301 redirects from HTTP to HTTPS to resolve this.
Mobile and Desktop Versions: If you have separate mobile and desktop versions of your site (e.g., responsive design or m.example.com), use rel="alternate" and rel="canonical" tags to specify the relationship between the two versions.
Thin or Low-Quality Content: Pages with little or low-quality content may be flagged as duplicates. Improve the content on such pages to provide unique value to users.
Canonical Tags: Implement canonical tags correctly to indicate the preferred version of a page when there are multiple versions with similar content.
XML Sitemap: Ensure that your XML sitemap is up-to-date and accurately reflects your website's structure. Submit it to Google Search Console.
Avoid Scraped Content: Ensure that your content is original and not scraped or copied from other websites. Google penalizes sites with duplicate or plagiarized content.
Check for Technical Errors: Use Google Search Console to check for crawl errors or other technical issues that might be causing duplicate content problems.
Structured Data: Ensure that your structured data (schema markup) is correctly implemented on your pages. Incorrectly structured data can confuse search engines.
Regularly monitor Google Search Console for any duplicate content issues and take prompt action to address them. It's essential to provide unique and valuable content to your website visitors while ensuring that search engines can correctly index and rank your pages.
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
-
Unsolved Website with no backlinks and a DA of 1 ranks first. Why?
https://www.realestatephotos.melbourne does not have any backlinks and has a DA of 1.
Keyword Explorer | | garrypat
This site ranks first for keywords - real estate photography melbourne and property photography melbourne.
Not sure why.
URL contains keywords and site is ok. But other sites with many links and higher DA rank lower. Why? Garry1 -
Appending a code at the end of a URL
Hi All, Some real estate/ news companies have a code appended to the end of a URL https://www.realestate.com.au/property-house-qld-ormiston-141747584 https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/national/queensland/childcare-centre-could-face-prosecution-for-leaving-child-on-hot-bus-20230320-p5ctqs.html Can I ask if there's any negative SEO implications for doing this? Cheers Dave
Technical SEO | | Redooo0 -
Best SEO Structure For E-Commerce With Products Using Multiple Categories
Hi all, I am in the process of re-structuring my e-commerce website for better SEO and user experience. I have done some keyword research and would like some advice on how best to structure my site around those keywords. For example, my site (All Things Nature) sells a brand of wooden sculptures (Woodsculp) and I would like to rank for keywords related to that brand, the brand by animal, the brand by collection and the brand by release date.
Content Development | | nb2e4fg
Examples of keywords could be: Brand by Animal: Woodsculp Dogs, Woodsculp Cats, Woodsculp Elephants
Brand by Collection: Woodsculp Pets, Woodsculp Safari
Brand by Release Date: Woodsculp Christmas 2023, Woodsculp Summer 2022 I would create each of these keywords as a category so that they can be found by a search engine and by users. I would then structure as follows: All Things Nature -> Woodsculp -> Woodsculp by Animal -> Woodsculp Dogs
All Things Nature -> Woodsculp -> Woodsculp by Animal -> Woodsculp Elephants
All Things Nature -> Woodsculp -> Woodsculp by Collection -> Woodsculp Pets
All Things Nature -> Woodsculp -> Woodsculp by Collection -> Woodsculp Safari
All Things Nature -> Woodsculp -> Woodsculp by Release Date -> Woodsculp Christmas 2023
All Things Nature -> Woodsculp -> Woodsculp by Release Date -> Woodsculp Summer 2022 The only problem with this structure is it would take more than 3 clicks (4) for the user to reach a product. How critical is this for good SEO and user experience? Would I be better off getting rid of the ‘Woodsculp by Animal’, ‘Woodsculp by Collection’ and ‘Woodsculp by Release Date’ categories? Structure would look as follows: All Things Nature -> Woodsculp -> Woodsculp Dogs
All Things Nature -> Woodsculp -> Woodsculp Elephants
All Things Nature -> Woodsculp -> Woodsculp Safari
All Things Nature -> Woodsculp -> Woodsculp Christmas 2023 The only thing with this is there would be a lot of categories under the brand name which might make it more difficult for search engines and users to logically follow. Would I be better off getting rid of the brand category and replace them with the keyword categories? Structure would look as follows: All Things Nature -> Woodsculp by Animal -> Woodsculp Dogs
All Things Nature -> Woodsculp by Animal -> Woodsculp Elephants
All Things Nature -> Woodsculp by Collection -> Woodsculp Safari
All Things Nature -> Woodsculp by Release Date -> Woodsculp Christmas 2023 This would organise things more logically but I would then lose the brand category (and the potential of the brand keyword ranking?) Would I be better off choosing one main keyword to use as a category and then use tags for the other categories? Categories: All Things Nature -> Woodsculp -> Woodsculp Dogs
All Things Nature -> Woodsculp -> Woodsculp Elephants Tags: Woodsculp Safari
Woodsculp Christmas 2023 The next issue I have is that I have products which could fall under several different categories. A product called Elijah Elephant, for example could fall under Woodsculp Elephants, Woodsculp Safari and Woodsculp Summer 2022. In previous e-commerce sites I have never assigned multiple categories to one product (I instead have used tags). Is it good practice to organise products under multiple categories for an e-commerce site? Thanks in advance for any help and advice.0 -
Is there a way to get a list of all pages of your website that are indexed in Google?
I am trying to put together a comprehensive list of all pages that are indexed in Google and have differing opinions on how to do this.
Technical SEO | | SpodekandCo0 -
Does Google index internal anchors as separate pages?
Hi, Back in September, I added a function that sets an anchor on each subheading (h[2-6]) and creates a Table of content that links to each of those anchors. These anchors did show up in the SERPs as JumpTo Links. Fine. Back then I also changed the canonicals to a slightly different structur and meanwhile there was some massive increase in the number of indexed pages - WAY over the top - which has since been fixed by removing (410) a complete section of the site. However ... there are still ~34.000 pages indexed to what really are more like 4.000 plus (all properly canonicalised). Naturally I am wondering, what google thinks it is indexing. The number is just way of and quite inexplainable. So I was wondering: Does Google save JumpTo links as unique pages? Also, does anybody know any method of actually getting all the pages in the google index? (Not actually existing sites via Screaming Frog etc, but actual pages in the index - all methods I found sadly do not work.) Finally: Does somebody have any other explanation for the incongruency in indexed vs. actual pages? Thanks for your replies! Nico
Technical SEO | | netzkern_AG0 -
Why is Google Webmaster Tools showing 404 Page Not Found Errors for web pages that don't have anything to do with my site?
I am currently working on a small site with approx 50 web pages. In the crawl error section in WMT Google has highlighted over 10,000 page not found errors for pages that have nothing to do with my site. Anyone come across this before?
Technical SEO | | Pete40 -
"nofollow pages" or "duplicate content"?
We have a huge site with lots of geographical-pages in this structure: domain.com/country/resort/hotel domain.com/country/resort/hotel/facts domain.com/country/resort/hotel/images domain.com/country/resort/hotel/excursions domain.com/country/resort/hotel/maps domain.com/country/resort/hotel/car-rental Problem is that the text on ie. /excursions is often exactly the same on .../alcudia/hotel-sea-club/excursion and .../alcudia/hotel-beach-club/excursion The two hotels offer the same excursions, and the intro text on the pages are the exact same throughout the entire site. This is also a problem on the /images and /car-rental pages. I think in most cases the only difference on these pages is the Title, description and H1. These pages do not attract a lot of visits through search-engines. But to avoid them being flagged as duplicate content (we have more than 4000 of these pages - /excursions, /maps, /car-rental, /images), do i add a nofollow-tag to these, do i block them in robots.txt or should i just leave them and live with them being flagged as duplicate content? Im waiting for our web-team to add a function to insert a geographical-name in the text, so i could add ie #HOTELNAME# in the text and thereby avoiding the duplicate text. Right now we have intros like: When you visit the hotel ... instead of: When you visit Alcudia Sea Club But untill the web-team has fixed these GEO-tags, what should i do? What would you do and why?
Technical SEO | | alsvik0