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
-
Seeking Advice on Improving On-Page SEO for my Website
I'm looking for some expert advice on improving the on-page SEO for my website, CCTV Camera Installation. Despite following best practices, I feel that my site isn't performing as well as it could be in search engine rankings. Here are a few specific areas where I'd appreciate some guidance: Content Optimization: I've ensured my content is keyword-rich and valuable to my audience. Are there any advanced techniques or tools that can help further optimize my content? Meta Tags and Descriptions: I've written unique meta titles and descriptions for each page, but I'm unsure if they're as effective as they could be. What are some tips for crafting compelling meta tags that improve click-through rates? Internal Linking: I've set up a basic internal linking structure. How can I enhance this to better distribute link equity and improve user navigation? Page Load Speed: While my site's load speed is decent, I'm aware that even minor improvements can have a significant impact on SEO. Are there any specific optimizations or tools you recommend for speeding up my website? Technical SEO: I've covered the basics like XML sitemaps and robots.txt files. Are there any advanced technical SEO practices that I should be aware of? Here is the link to my website for your reference: https://www.acssllc.ae/ Thank you in advance for your help! Best regards,
On-Page Optimization | | Htdbf
Israr Khan0 -
Spam Score Of Site Increased from 1 to 31% overnight
Hello There,
Technical SEO | | rohit.c
Few days back, Spam Score of two of my sites drastically increased from 1% to 31% for one site and from 1% to 36% for another site overnight. Here are the two websites https://simpalm.com/ ducknowl.com Site background for 2-3 months ABC link exchange campaign was started for both the sites. Links where built on high quality sites with DA40 above and most of them are Saas sites No reciprocal link exchange was done Same new pages are created on the site for on page SEO Both the sites are hosted on GoDaddy Can someone please tell me what is the reason of this Sudden increase in spam score of both the sites and at same time?1 -
Strange Traffic Movements
Hi there, I'm wondering if anyone can shed some light on this... I'm working with a client whose website is experiencing some odd organic traffic patterns. See screenshot attached. As you can see, there was a sudden cliff fall about a month ago, and then it recovered (almost) entirely. Then, a month to the day later, the same thing happened again. What is the likelihood that this is a data glitch vs an algorithm thing? Any light you can shed on this would be appreciated. Thanks,
Search Behavior | | mhenshall
Marc
Screenshot 2023-08-18 at 09.37.26.png image url)0 -
Unsolved I have lost SEO Ranking while removing www from domain
I have lost search SEO ranking for 4-6 core keywords while removing www from domain switch.
On-Page Optimization | | velomate
Referring domain: https://cashforscrapcarsydney.com.au/ Earlier the domain was in the format: https://www.cashforscrapcarsydney.com.au/ But when I checked the search result, search engines had not yet crawled to the new format. Let me know if the server change or any algorithm hit might cause it. Also please share the feedback on - does removing www from the domain losses keyword ranking. Helpful replies are needed.0 -
Why Product pages are throwing Missing field "image" and Missing field "price" in Wordpress Woocommerce
I have a wordpress wocommerce website where I have uploaded 100s of products but it's giving me error in GSC under merchant listing tab. When I tested it show missing field image and missing field price. I have done everything according to https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/product#merchant-listing-experiences and applied fixed i.e. images are 800x800 and price range is also there. What else can be done here?!merchant listing.jpg
Technical SEO | | Ravi_Rana0 -
Duplicate Content on a Page Due to Responsive Version
What are the implications if a web designer codes the content of the site twice into the page in order to make the site responsive? I can't add the url I'm afraid but the H1 and the content appear twice in the code in order to produce both a responsive version and a desktop version. This is a Wordpress site. Is Google clever enough to distinguish between the 2 versions and treat them individually? Or will Google really think that the content has been repeated on the same page?
Technical SEO | | Wagada0 -
Google Cache is not showing in my page
Hello Everyone, I have issue in my Page, My category page (http://www.bannerbuzz.com/custom-vinyl-banners.html) is regular cached in past, but before sometime it can't show the cached result in SERP and not show in cached result , I have also fetch this link in google web master, but can't get the result, it is showing following message. 404. That’s an error. The requested URL /search?q=cache%3A http%3A//www.bannerbuzz.com/custom-vinyl-banners.html was not found on this server. That’s all we know. My category page rank is 2 and its keyword is on first in google.com, so i am little bit worried about this page cache issue, Can someone please tell me why is this happening? Is this a temporary issue? Help me to solve out this cache issue and once again my page will regularly cache in future. Thanks
Technical SEO | | CommercePundit0