Duplicate content and ways to deal with it.

[Darden]

Problem

I queried back a year for the portal and we can see below that the SEO juice is split between the upper and lowercase. You can see the issue in the attached images.

http://i.imgur.com/OXnPp.png

Solutions:

1)      Quick: Change the link on the pages above to be lowercase

2)      Use canonical link tag http://www.seomoz.org/blog/canonical-url-tag-the-most-important-advancement-in-seo-practices-since-sitemaps

The tag is part of the HTML header on a web page, the same section you'd find the Title attribute and Meta Description tag. In fact, this tag isn't new, but like nofollow, simply uses a new rel parameter. For example:

http://www.darden.virginia.edu/MBA" />

''This would tell Yahoo!, Live & Google that the page in question should be treated as though it were a copy of the URL http://www.darden.virginia.edu/MBA and that all of the link & content metrics the engines apply should technically flow back to that URL.''

3)      See if there is any Google Analytics filters at the site level I can apply.   I will check into this and get back to you.

What do you all think??????

OXnPp voJdp.png OXnPp.png

[LoveFitness]

Because that is just filtering your data in your report. That will not stop this from happening.

[Dr-Pete]

I think (2) - the canonical tag - is a solid solution if just a few URLs are out of whack, but if you're using the mixed-case version internally, then you may need to change your structure as well. If you change your structure, then I'd probably look at a full-scale system of 301-redirects to preserve inbound link-juice.

It sounds like you're linking to mixed-case internally, so you may need to set up the redirects. Make sure that, depending on your platform, the case-specific redirects work properly (and don't create an endless loop). There is some risk to making the switch, so I'd probably only do it if you're seeing this happen a lot. Unfortunately, mixed-case URLs are often more trouble than they're worth.

[Darden]

Why would I not just do this?

http://support.google.com/googleanalytics/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=90397

[LoveFitness]

I would stick to using the Rel=Canonical tag.

You could also check in Google Webmaster Tools and look at the URL parameter handling tool.

In this you will be able to:

1. Recognize duplicate content on your website.

2.Determine your preferred URLs.

3.Apply 301 permanent redirects where necessary and possible.

4.Implement the rel="canonical" link element on your pages where you can.

5.Use the URL parameter handling tool in Google Webmaster Tools where possible.
Further reading: http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.co.uk/2009/10/reunifying-duplicate-content-on-your.html

I hope this helps

Ally

[CollinJarman]

Option "2," using rel=canonical seems like the best course of action to me.  You may also want to apply a 301 redirect.