Skip to content
    Moz logo Menu open Menu close
    • Products
      • Moz Pro
      • Moz Pro Home
      • Moz Local
      • Moz Local Home
      • STAT
      • Moz API
      • Moz API Home
      • Compare SEO Products
      • Moz Data
    • Free SEO Tools
      • Domain Analysis
      • Keyword Explorer
      • Link Explorer
      • Competitive Research
      • MozBar
      • More Free SEO Tools
    • Learn SEO
      • Beginner's Guide to SEO
      • SEO Learning Center
      • Moz Academy
      • SEO Q&A
      • Webinars, Whitepapers, & Guides
    • Blog
    • Why Moz
      • Digital Marketers
      • Agency Solutions
      • Enterprise Solutions
      • Small Business Solutions
      • The Moz Story
      • New Releases
    • Log in
    • Log out
    • Products
      • Moz Pro

        Your all-in-one suite of SEO essentials.

      • Moz Local

        Raise your local SEO visibility with complete local SEO management.

      • STAT

        SERP tracking and analytics for enterprise SEO experts.

      • Moz API

        Power your SEO with our index of over 44 trillion links.

      • Compare SEO Products

        See which Moz SEO solution best meets your business needs.

      • Moz Data

        Power your SEO strategy & AI models with custom data solutions.

      NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic
      Moz Pro

      NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic

      Learn more
    • Free SEO Tools
      • Domain Analysis

        Get top competitive SEO metrics like DA, top pages and more.

      • Keyword Explorer

        Find traffic-driving keywords with our 1.25 billion+ keyword index.

      • Link Explorer

        Explore over 40 trillion links for powerful backlink data.

      • Competitive Research

        Uncover valuable insights on your organic search competitors.

      • MozBar

        See top SEO metrics for free as you browse the web.

      • More Free SEO Tools

        Explore all the free SEO tools Moz has to offer.

      NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic
      Moz Pro

      NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic

      Learn more
    • Learn SEO
      • Beginner's Guide to SEO

        The #1 most popular introduction to SEO, trusted by millions.

      • SEO Learning Center

        Broaden your knowledge with SEO resources for all skill levels.

      • On-Demand Webinars

        Learn modern SEO best practices from industry experts.

      • How-To Guides

        Step-by-step guides to search success from the authority on SEO.

      • Moz Academy

        Upskill and get certified with on-demand courses & certifications.

      • MozCon

        Save on Early Bird tickets and join us in London or New York City

      Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints
      Moz API

      Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints

      Find your plan
    • Blog
    • Why Moz
      • Digital Marketers

        Simplify SEO tasks to save time and grow your traffic.

      • Small Business Solutions

        Uncover insights to make smarter marketing decisions in less time.

      • Agency Solutions

        Earn & keep valuable clients with unparalleled data & insights.

      • Enterprise Solutions

        Gain a competitive edge in the ever-changing world of search.

      • The Moz Story

        Moz was the first & remains the most trusted SEO company.

      • New Releases

        Get the scoop on the latest and greatest from Moz.

      Surface actionable competitive intel
      New Feature

      Surface actionable competitive intel

      Learn More
    • Log in
      • Moz Pro
      • Moz Local
      • Moz Local Dashboard
      • Moz API
      • Moz API Dashboard
      • Moz Academy
    • Avatar
      • Moz Home
      • Notifications
      • Account & Billing
      • Manage Users
      • Community Profile
      • My Q&A
      • My Videos
      • Log Out

    The Moz Q&A Forum

    • Forum
    • Questions
    • Users
    • Ask the Community

    Welcome to the Q&A Forum

    Browse the forum for helpful insights and fresh discussions about all things SEO.

    1. Home
    2. SEO Tactics
    3. Technical SEO
    4. Who is correct - please help!

    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.

    Who is correct - please help!

    Technical SEO
    seo tactics noindex google search seo rankings
    4
    4
    200
    Loading More Posts
    • Oldest to Newest
    • Newest to Oldest
    • Most Votes
    Reply
    • Reply as question
    Log in to reply
    This topic has been deleted. Only users with question management privileges can see it.
    • jlhitch
      jlhitch last edited by

      I have a website with a lot of product pages - often thousands of pages.

      As each of these pages is for a specific lease car they are often only fractionally different from other pages.

      The urls are too long, the H1 is often too long and the Title is often too long for "SEO best practice". And they do create duplication issues according to MOZ.

      Some people tell me to change them to noindex/nofollow whilst others tell me to leave them as they are as best not to hide from google crawler.

      Any advice will be gratefully received.

      Thanks for listening.

      Taymoor12 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • Taymoor12
        Taymoor12 @jlhitch last edited by

        @jlhitch
        Managing a website with thousands of product pages can indeed present challenges, especially when it comes to optimizing for SEO while avoiding duplicate content issues. Here are some considerations and potential strategies:

        1. URL Optimization:

          • Shorten URLs to make them more concise and user-friendly.
          • Include relevant keywords in the URL, but avoid keyword stuffing.
          • Consider organizing URLs hierarchically based on product categories and attributes.
        2. H1 Optimization:

          • Ensure that each H1 tag accurately reflects the content of the page.
          • Keep H1 titles concise and relevant to the page's main topic.
          • Avoid duplicating H1 titles across multiple pages, as this can confuse search engines and users.
        3. Title Tag Optimization:

          • Craft unique and descriptive title tags for each product page.
          • Include primary keywords near the beginning of the title tag.
          • Keep title tags within the recommended character limit to ensure they display properly in search engine results.
        4. Content Differentiation:

          • Identify areas of content overlap or duplication among similar product pages.
          • Make meaningful distinctions between pages by highlighting unique features, specifications, or benefits.
          • Utilize canonical tags to consolidate duplicate content and signal to search engines which version of the page is the preferred one.
        5. Indexing Strategy:

          • Consider the purpose and value of each product page when deciding whether to index or noindex/nofollow.
          • Pages with unique content, high traffic potential, or conversion opportunities should typically be indexed.
          • Pages with thin or duplicate content may benefit from being noindexed to avoid diluting the site's overall quality and relevance in search results.
        6. Monitoring and Analysis:

          • Regularly monitor site performance, rankings, and crawl errors using tools like Google Search Console, Bing Webmaster Tools, and third-party SEO platforms.
          • Analyze data to identify patterns, trends, and areas for improvement in SEO optimization efforts.
        7. Consult with SEO Experts:

          • Seek advice from experienced SEO professionals or agencies who can provide personalized recommendations based on your specific website and goals.
          • Consider conducting an SEO audit to assess the current state of your website and identify opportunities for optimization.

        Ultimately, the decision to index or noindex/nofollow certain pages should be based on a careful evaluation of their quality, relevance, and impact on overall SEO performance. Balancing SEO best practices with the practical considerations of managing a large website can help ensure long-term success in search engine rankings and user engagement.

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • monstrillo
          monstrillo last edited by

          It sounds like you're dealing with significant SEO issues due to duplicate content and non-optimal URL, title, and header lengths. Instead of noindexing, consider consolidating similar pages or using canonical tags to point to preferred pages. This can reduce duplication and focus SEO efforts on key pages.

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • sarahwalsh
            sarahwalsh last edited by

            So, we would on a huge e-commerce website, thousands of products, always changing. Its massively time consuming, but every bit of text, must be written in a white hat way. unique, high quality, meets the guidance set out in Google E-EAT. Plus, so too must the meta titles, meta descriptions, its only way to enhance the SEO for each page. Duplicated text, or "content thin" text, and this will dilulte the power of the organic SEO across the whole website. does this help? We have more help on our Cardiff SEO website.

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • 1 / 1
            • First post
              Last post

            Got a burning SEO question?

            Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.


            Start my free trial


            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.

            • See all categories

            Related Questions

            • Violete

              Why are my positions going down?

              positions google search

              Good afternoon! I would like to know, what could be the reasons for a random decrease in positions of our online casino? A lot of pages appeared in Google Search at the end of June and after a few weeks most of them dropped to >100, some are still ranging but in TOP 70-85. As far as I'm concerned, there were no algorithm updates last two months, our website works fine, both internal and external optimazation is being performed.. The strangest thing is that the rating of the website is growing, but the positions are not 😞
              Here is a link to the project: https://flammcasino.club/
              Can anyone suggest what I can do in this case?

              Reporting & Analytics | | Violete
              1
            • BakeryTech

              Unsolved Using NoIndex Tag instead of 410 Gone Code on Discontinued products?

              ecommerce noindex shopify indexed urls

              Hello everyone, I am very new to SEO and I wanted to get some input & second opinions on a workaround I am planning to implement on our Shopify store. Any suggestions, thoughts, or insight you have are welcome & appreciated! For those who aren't aware, Shopify as a platform doesn't allow us to send a 410 Gone Code/Error under any circumstance. When you delete or archive a product/page, it becomes unavailable on the storefront. Unfortunately, the only thing Shopify natively allows me to do is set up a 301 redirect. So when we are forced to discontinue a product, customers currently get a 404 error when trying to go to that old URL. My planned workaround is to automatically detect when a product has been discontinued and add the NoIndex meta tag to the product page. The product page will stay up but be unavailable for purchase. I am also adjusting the LD+JSON to list the products availability as Discontinued instead of InStock/OutOfStock.
              Then I let the page sit for a few months so that crawlers have a chance to recrawl and remove the page from their indexes. I think that is how that works?
              Once 3 or 6 months have passed, I plan on archiving the product followed by setting up a 301 redirect pointing to our internal search results page. The redirect will send the to search with a query aimed towards similar products. That should prevent people with open tabs, bookmarks and direct links to that page from receiving a 404 error. I do have Google Search Console setup and integrated with our site, but manually telling google to remove a page obviously only impacts their index. Will this work the way I think it will?
              Will search engines remove the page from their indexes if I add the NoIndex meta tag after they have already been index?
              Is there a better way I should implement this? P.S. For those wondering why I am not disallowing the page URL to the Robots.txt, Shopify won't allow me to call collection or product data from within the template that assembles the Robots.txt. So I can't automatically add product URLs to the list.

              Technical SEO | | BakeryTech
              0
            • RyanD.

              Page Title Displaying Wrong Company Name in Google Search Results

              google search page title google search engine results

              Currently, in some of our keyword search results, the wrong company name is showing up in the page title. We are a family of companies that all provide different modes of transportation. When we search up "Herc Air Charters" in Google Search Engine, the wrong operating company shows up in the page title (see screenshot, second result: "Lynden Transport" is our trucking company, and does not offer any air charter, this should say "Lynden Air Cargo"). Google decides what is best to put in these titles, so what would be the best way to ensure the correct company name is being displayed? Google Search Issue.PNG

              Community | | RyanD.
              0
            • LPantell

              How to Incorporate Awkward Keyword Phrases

              seo tactics keywords

              Certain keywords are good choices for my website (high CTR, low difficulty, high volume), but they would be very awkward to use in my website content. For example, "therapist near me" is a popular search term, but it would be very strange for me to use those words in that order in my content (I am a therapist). Any thoughts about this are welcome.

              On-Page Optimization | | LPantell
              0
            • christyrobinson

              Help: domain name change and Google News

              Hi. I work for a regional news source, and our (separate) Spanish-language news publication recently changed its domain name. The publication lost its Google News inclusion. Most of their traffic came from Google News, so traffic tanked. They're trying to get back in. They reapplied but didn't get approved. They're now in the 30-day waiting period to reapply again. The website is run by a third-party company, which handled the domain name change in April (2015). That company has been running their site for a couple of years. Our in-house devs' hands are tied on helping, because we (at the mother company) don't manage their site. This third party has not been responsive. The Spanish pub folks have reached out to me to help them prepare for Round 2 of reapplication. I'm the mothership in-house SEO, but I've never experienced this situation before. Because everything seems to be in order besides the ham-handed changes, my best advice to them so far is: You'll have to wait until Google gets to know you again, unfortunately. Does that sound right? Any pointers out there for bringing their best possible A-game to the next round?

              Technical SEO | | christyrobinson
              1
            • kimtastic

              Help. Recently my organic traffic has dropped 40%. Any advice / ideas?

              Lately my organic traffic has dropped significantly as well as my adsense revenue.  The moz report says, for example, my traffic is down 40%, but I a still #1 for that keyword. Also, in the last week, suddenly my number of indexed pages doubled.  We had done some page rewriting and maybe messed that up.  We've fixed that though.  Webmaster tools is still picking up all of our old pages and the new ones. Background: We recently launched our new responsive website in March. March income was about the same as February. April dropped off suddenly (maybe late march - no sure) When we changed site, we did do 301's for all the old pages to the new ones Any ideas or advice as to why my traffic and revenue has dropped off so sharply? Never submitted questions before - not sure if I am supposed to put urls here so if you just google Home Spelling Words - that's my website.  Thanks everyone!!!

              Technical SEO | | kimtastic
              0
            • lvp1138

              Title tag not showing on google? Please Help!

              I've read the FAQs and searched the help center. My URL is: http://www.webygeeks.comI have updated title tags of my client's website 10-15 days ago, still the title on google is coming as the company name 😞 Why so??Description is correct but title is incorrect, can you please recommend me something guys?Also, i am wondering why the google cache is showing date of september 5 and we have changed the titles around 10 - 15 days before that http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:P45GOiHRaIUJ:www.webygeeks.com/+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk Really appreciate your suggestion.

              Technical SEO | | lvp1138
              0
            • Devicelock

              HELP: Wrong domain showing up in Google Search

              So i have this domain (1)devicelock.com and i also had this other domain (2)ntutility.com, the 2nd domain was an old domain and it is not in use anymore. But when i search for devicelock on Google, the homepage devicelock.com does not exist. Only ntutility.com comes up. I asked one of the developer how the redirect is happening from the old domain to the new one and he told me its through a DNS forward. And there is no way to have an .htacess file to set up a 301 instead. Please help!

              Technical SEO | | Devicelock
              0

            Get started with Moz Pro!

            Unlock the power of advanced SEO tools and data-driven insights.

            Start my free trial
            Products
            • Moz Pro
            • Moz Local
            • Moz API
            • Moz Data
            • STAT
            • Product Updates
            Moz Solutions
            • SMB Solutions
            • Agency Solutions
            • Enterprise Solutions
            Free SEO Tools
            • Domain Authority Checker
            • Link Explorer
            • Keyword Explorer
            • Competitive Research
            • Brand Authority Checker
            • Local Citation Checker
            • MozBar Extension
            • MozCast
            Resources
            • Blog
            • SEO Learning Center
            • Help Hub
            • Beginner's Guide to SEO
            • How-to Guides
            • Moz Academy
            • API Docs
            About Moz
            • About
            • Team
            • Careers
            • Contact
            Why Moz
            • Case Studies
            • Testimonials
            Get Involved
            • Become an Affiliate
            • MozCon
            • Webinars
            • Practical Marketer Series
            • MozPod
            Connect with us

            Contact the Help team

            Join our newsletter
            Moz logo
            © 2021 - 2025 SEOMoz, Inc., a Ziff Davis company. All rights reserved. Moz is a registered trademark of SEOMoz, Inc.
            • Accessibility
            • Terms of Use
            • Privacy

            Looks like your connection to Moz was lost, please wait while we try to reconnect.