Templated content = duplicate content?
-
I'm curious where the line is drawn for "duplicate content" by the search engines. Obviously the same article, or even the same article with minor edits, can and should be detected as duplicate.
I have a use case where there is a database of similar, but not duplicate, content that changes as time passes. I want to serve this content up via html template but don't want the 1000 pages to be considered duplicates of each other.
Example: Imagine local weather. You could create a template for city name, longitude, latitude, altitude, and current weather conditions. The values for all fields would be different for each of the 1000 database entries (cities) and one of the "current weather conditions" would change frequently (hourly, let's say).
Now, if I have a nice heirarchical index pages (first one maybe points to 50 state sub-pages, and each state page points to 20 city pages) that point to the 1000 city-specific pages, would the city-specific pages be considered 'duplicate' since they are based on the same HTML template but all have different values in key areas? Does the answer change based on the % of the template (or visible text) that changes for each city?
My goal is to get these 1000 subpages as part of my site, have them indexable, and have them each flow a little bit of link juice to my home page.
Best practices? What should I be careful of?
Thanks!
-
I'd like to know the answer too...
Our page is an e-commerce site, and Google sometimes gives the duplicate content reports for pages that don't match, but haven't got much of unique content. Thought maybe you solved the problem?
-
Don't you get any duplicate content messages at Google webmaster tools?
-
Hi Mike,
I'm wondering what you decided to do here, and if you have any interesting results that you'd be willing to share with the Q&A community. Thanks!
-
Figured it wasn't weather based... just sticking with the theme.
How's that saying go... "The good thing about the internet is that you can always test it, the bad thing is that you are always testing."
-
It's a single site. It's not a weather app; I was using weather as an example. I have another (non-weather) data set that has similar characteristics -- 6 or 8 unique data points per item (a couple of which are dynamic and change as time passes). And several thousand of these items. I want to display them via template.
I guess I'll try it and see if Webmaster tools complains about dup content. Thanks for the ideas, guys...
-
Often wondered myself
i think google makke the right choice. they would of thought about this and i am sure they get it right.i have much the same thing on one of my sites, and they rank quite well, so i dont think they are seen as duplicates.
-
Excellent point. The more unique the content the higher the value.
-
Hi Mike,
This is an interesting question. Depending on the nature of the content, you might want to try to get user generated content on those pages to make them more unique and valuable.
Best regards,
Guillaume Voyer. -
If you are running this on a single site then I would say per your example that you have enough unique variables that it wouldn't be considered duplicate content on your website. Giving each City, State, Weather, on a page should solve your problem. As long as the titles and headers of the pages are not all the same. But the only real way to know would be to test it. Validate it with webmaster tools, it will tell you if your pages are too similar.And if you do pull this off let me know. I am always interested in GEO specific content for our pest control service areas.
The problem I see you running into is creating enough unique content so that it's not duplicate content from other weather sites. Maybe run it against a copyscape.com query. That should let you know if the weather info is unique enough. I would test this on a small scale prior to launching the entire project. Just hand create 10 pages and run it against copyscape.
Now if you are trying to create a content generator for mulitple websites based on this same data set then you may run into duplicate content issues. ...But there may still be some value in this.
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
-
In-depth/longform content DEFEAT backlink, DA/Trust score!
Hi all, There is a new way to defeat the big boys. Build a releated topic with minimum 4000 words and focus on in-depth content and use the target keywords more than 2,5% of each content. So its game over for linkbuilders and happy end for the copywriters? Ofcourse every factor of seo is important, but its better to focus on in-depth content. To score good with your target keywords in SERP. What are the challenges for a big webshop? Create a related deeply content? that separated from your webshop?
Link Building | | Dreamgame2016
Because it will be coatic with a lot of deeply contents on your webshop Is there more additional advice for a webshop with a big assortiment? Ps. Specifiec, the big webshops sells game/software keys.0 -
Where would we get the most bang for the buck? Fresh Content, Internal Links, or Schemas & Metatags
We cannot change the content on our website.And we have a lot of it. Where would we get the most bang for our buck: Adding lots of fresh content; Linking Content Internally in ways that make the relationship between the content more clear; Creating schemas and metatags for the content. Or something else that we haven't thought of. Our content is not really conducive to social. It is legal information. We have a Domain Authority of 61 / 100 Your help and experience is appreciated.
Link Building | | SamD12340 -
I have a real estate site. I want to beat Zillo and Trulia for local real estate searches. Any suggestions and also how do I get white hat backlinks( not just write great content stuff but good alternative ideas).
I need some tips on outranking giants in the real estate field for local search keywords. I need sources of back link sources (white hat) and some ideas to beat them in my backyard with my Real estate site. I have a great idx plugin and am ranking first page for address searches. I want to beat them for local long tail. Any ideas?
Link Building | | kpstreams0 -
Content Now
This is a general question, I was wondering if anybody had used content now before, either for content writing or link building. I've had them mentioned to me by a manager but would like to hear the opinions of others too. Has anybody used anything similar for creating content at all? Thanks
Link Building | | onlinechester0 -
We have written great content - how will people find it?
Hi We have allocated resources to write some great content (how to's, best practice, videos) etc which will benefit customers as they will find it a useful resource. We are using this not as a sales channel but as a trust and information resource to build a community It is currently located about 2 levels deep in our website, what are the best ways of getting people to find these articles on the web? I have placed some social sharing icons at the bottom of the page to Facebook and Twitter but are there other channels because at present the only way they will find this information as if they visit our website. Do we also need to be practive and distribute this content around the web perhaps as a guest writer? which raises duplicate content problems as it would also be on our website or is there a better approach?
Link Building | | ocelot0 -
Value no follow links from Google Content Network
Is there a value of using Google Content Network to add no follow links to the general linkscape of a website? I notice a lot of competion higher than me on SERPs for specific keywords have these links from website with high DA. We have tested the value of having Adsense adds, but they do not convert the traffic. We might consider using them for the purposes of ranking higher on SERPs though, and would appreciate any experinces with this.
Link Building | | inet-design0 -
Directories and duplicate content.
Part of our link building strategy for a dentist is to submit their site to several relevant directories. If I enter the same description in each directory, is it possible that Google will consider this duplicate content and prevent link juice from being passed back to the dentist's site? Thanks folks, Jason
Link Building | | OptioPublishing0 -
Any good content sites with good quality links?
I have some content which is still relevant and interesting but not really suitable for my current websites. I have been thinking of using this on an article site to generate some links back to my sites, but I am wary about this due to Google's targeting of content sites. I currently have good PR's on Squidoo and Hubpages which link back and work quite well. Can anyone suggest any others or any ideas how to use this content for SEO purposes? Is using it for article submissions to get links short sited?
Link Building | | JohnW-UK0