Resolving duplicate text issues with a duplicate image?
-
We are a listing site for programs overseas. Many of our listings are inherently the same content, because in many cases the same exact information applies. We have resolved duplicate content issues to some extent by making some of the content in these listings unique. However, for the rest of the content which is going to be the same for about 100 pages, we were wondering if its better to have an image in place instead of duplicate text content (this would basically be an image of the text in question). We know this is a problem, because this is inherently duplicate content as well (only its a duplicate image instead of duplicate text). However, what's the best solution to this problem, and is a duplicate image just asking for trouble, or might this actually be a good idea?
-
Google won't index image-embedded text on a webpage (currently only .pdf documents)
If you want a little more insurance, which you won't really need, use your handy robot.txt or rel="canonical"
As usual, keep your eyes forward:
"While search engines may not use OCR for indexing the content of web pages now, that doesn’t mean that they might not in the future, and there are some indications that the search engines are developing a much greater proficiency in the use of optical character recognition."
Here's that article, including some great references.
Good luck.
-
Could you point me to a valid reference on that OCR issue?
-
You should use rel=canonical tag on duplicate content pages. Google can read text embedded as an image through OCR algorithm. So duplicate image is not a good option. Moreover think how these images will increase the load time of the web pages.
-
To directly answer your question, there are a few ways you can present content in a manner that is not readily crawlable for search engines: flash, iframe and images.
As far as good ideas, I much prefer to offer real content which is unique to the given area. Let's say you are a US-based site offering programs for attending universities overseas. Add some content specific to each country's page to make it unique.
If you present Malaysia as a country, talk about their universities by name, awards they have won, landmarks and other items of interest such as their incredibly diverse forests. You can also provide testimonials from satisfied clients. Testimonials can help establish a lot of relevancy as clients will often mention specifics about where they are from "John from Miami, FL" and where they visited.
In short, you will achieve better results if you work within Google's system then by trying to work around it.
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
-
Help with Alt Image
Hi. Moz is alerting me that my blog has no alt image. I actually don't have an image inside the blog but it's in the header, as part of my wordpress theme. Now when I check this image in the header, the alt image keyword is there. I'm not sure how to fix it. Please help.
Content Development | | VAPartners0 -
Duplicate content between my web and Youtube
I have a web with 90 vídeos hosted in my Youtube channel and each video have an description in single url, but Youtube videos have no description. If I copy description from my web and paste to Youtube description, this is duplicate content for Google ?
Content Development | | VisualService1 -
Multiple listings for the same product - how to avoid duplication?
Hi everyone, We are working on an e-commerce site that has three different physical stores that each hold different products in stock. A listing is created on the website for each product in each location but if the same product is in all three stores the images and description are duplicate content We can't have one product page and tag locations to it as this would then require keeping two different stock systems updated, but is there a way to avoid the three pages being duplicates of each other? Many thanks for the advice!
Content Development | | A_Q0 -
Will having duplicate content on four websites cause a problem?
A client of ours has four websites for different shops they run in the surrounding area. Each website has original content as well as duplicate content. This is for things like product advice which needs to be the same Will having duplicate content on these four websites cause a problem? How can it be mitigated? We can't refer the visitor to another website to get the product information as this will break the user experience, and of course shopping cart sessions will not pass on.
Content Development | | Rebecca.Holloway0 -
Content Duplication for Job Posting
Hello! I am responsible for SEO of a job portal of a recruitment agency. We get 30-40 jobs every month which we post on a) our job portal b) other job portals (like monster, career builder, Naukri , etc). How do avoid content duplication? We can only post the same job descriptions everywhere. We always post the job on our site first and then the other job portals**. How to ensure that Google knows our portal is the original job posters and not other job portals.** Thank you.
Content Development | | peoplesutra0 -
Duplicate content on the homepage
Hello SEOMOZ Is giving me an error on duplicated content on my site. When viewing the details it is showing the following as duplicated content domain.co.uk/ domain.co.uk domain.co.uk/index.html Obviously these are the same pages. Why is it seeing them as seperate. Does anyone know how I can resolve this issue? Many thanks
Content Development | | lcdesign0 -
Is it considered as duplicate content ?
Hello, I see a lot of errors on my webmaster tools because of this ajax code on my questions pages of the site (screen) : www.dismoicomment.fr The code : | / ADD ANSWER FORM |
Content Development | | elitepronostic
| | $("#answer-add-button").click(function () { |
| | $.ajax({ |
| | type: 'POST', |
| | url: '/answers/quelle-assurance-choisir-pour-un-scooter/', |
| | data: $("form#answer-add").serialize(), |
| | dataType: 'html', |
| | success: function(data) { |
| | |
| | if(data=="answer") { |
| | $('.answer-add-message').show().empty(); |
| | $(document).ready(function() { |
| | $(' Vous avez déjà répondu à cette question. ').appendTo('.answer-add-message'); |
| | }); | I have add a line on my robots.txt : http://www.dismoicomment.fr/robots.txt for remove all urls with /answers/. These urls with /answers/ aren't indexed in google. Do you think that it is dangerous and that can be considered as duplicate content ? 1129546035.png0 -
Duplicate content across multiple e-commerce sites
Hi, This may have been discussed here before though I couldn't find a definitive answer, but I was wondering what the best practice for having multiple e-commerce sites with some of the same products on both is. If Site A has 200 products, and Site B has 300 products, and 50 overlap, do they absolutely have to have unique product descriptions? The descriptions have already been rewritten to be different from the manufacturer's description, but do they need to be changed again? Or should the 50 products only be listed on one site or the other? Sites like csnstores.com seem to have the same descriptions as the subsidiary sites that they have, but maybe they have different sidebars/footers/etc which make the content considered original?
Content Development | | nks20120