Wouldn't this be an issue of duplicate content?
-
I'm currently in the beginning stages of doing SEO analysis for a new client. They're an IT support company here in Phoenix, AZ.
In doing some keyword research and competitive research, I've noticed that one of their competitors (who ranks in the top 3 for many of the targeted keywords), is doing something that I thought would surely be a duplicate content issue.
On their home page, they have dozens of links of zip codes in the Phoenix area. Each link leads to a page devoted to that zip code. Each page is identical, except that the zip code is changed in the header tag. Most of these zip code pages are indexed in Google.
Isn't this an example of duplicate content, or better yet, content spamming? I've seen this thing quite a bit with high ranking sites, and I thought these were the kinds of things that were getting taken care of in the post "Panda" era.
I might just be misunderstanding this whole thing, but any guidance or intel would be greatly appreciated.
-
I've got the same issue with a client of mine. Their competition is beating them on a lot of searches for their area. The competition site has a link to a 95% duplicate content page for every zip code in the state. Their page are similar to this:
Wet Basements in Minneapolis MN 55101
Wet Basements in Minneapolis MN 55102etc
The same content except for city name and zip code are changed out.
-
Agreed. I can't stand seeing this. Hopefully, nowadays I'd think this'll be harder to do simply because so many domain names will be taken.
-
I just saw this working well for a small web design firm in Victoria Australia. They created a separate page for all the towns in the area, linked to it from their homepage and were dominating SERPs for no reason apart from tricking google into thinking it was a larger firm than it was. That stuff annoys the heck out of me
-
That's what I'm thinking based on what I'm seeing - most of the high ranking sites are pretty bad overall. Lot of old, early 2000 looking sites and all that goes with that.
-
Hello,
I would agree with what was said, this is DEFINITELY duplicate content, and is also exteremely Spammy. I unfortunately see this as well on a lot of sites, especially for local SEO, without getting in to detail of these strategies. My view of this is that these concepts are adding absolutely no value to the web, and really should not be done by any legitimate online marker as a means of increasing rankings.
Here is a recommendation, since I don't belive that the "if you can't beat them, join them" approach would be helpful, why don't you create specific pages for each zip code/locality, and create unique content for every page. As a rule of thumb, I try to have 55% of content on any given page unique. Some strategies that work for me is to use local landmarks and events.
I think as google's algorithm progresses strategies like this will be beaten down, but who knows how long it'll take for that to happen.
Hope this helps
Zach
-
I see a lot of this for phone numbers too.
In reading your question though, I had to ask myself this question, "Are these sites ranking because there are no better alternatives?" If everyone in the space is using duplicate content/content spamming, they will all be in the results because no one is creating a site with better information.
I would view your research as opportunity. If you feel you need to connect with customers based on zip code, build better pages and become the best result for your users.
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
-
I'm monitoring the organic keywords for a website, what do their organic keywords tell me?
Should the keywords they already rank well for make good topics for them to exploring in the future?
Keyword Research | | RonkeIR0 -
What do you do with indexed pages that you can't find any keywords for?
You know those pages that you really need to have for your site that most people get to through the nav bar or maybe internal linking, but never through organic search? The ones where you can't find any applicable keywords with volume or even just a keyword with no volume data that just shows up in the Google autocomplete or People Also Search For. What's the better option? just not optimize the page for any keywords at all, but have Title Tag/Meta Description optimized for CTR just in case OR optimize the page for a very loosely applicable keyword even though it's a a bit of stretch or longshot
Keyword Research | | SearchStan0 -
Help - my site is losing rank fast and I don't know what I've done!
My site Easigrass.com had been ranking well but recently it's started to fall in the ranks. I don't know why but I've fallen 4 places on the last 2 months for the keyword 'artificial grass'. anyone willing to take a look and throw me there thoughts?
Keyword Research | | Easigrass1 -
What travel keywords to choose? 'flight' or 'airplane ticket'?
I did some keyword research in order to do some onsite optimization on a travel industry-related website. I found 2 kinds of relevant keywords: 'flight'-related keywords (e.g.: flight chicago dallas) 'airplane ticket'-related keywords (e.g.: airplane ticket chicago dallas) Competition is the same on both but the first ones have more volume. So I'm really tempted to go with the 'flight'-related keywords. However the 'airplane ticket'-related keywords also have an interested volume so how should I do my onsite optimization. So each one of this solution do you think is the best: creating one page targeting the 'flight' and 'airplane tickets'-related keywords knowing isn't a good practice targeting two different keywords ? creating two different pages (one targeting 'flight' and the other one targeting 'airplane tickets') but it isn't very relevant for visitors since both pages are proposing the same offer? also it might have some duplicate content issue. creating one page targeting 'flight' and forget about 'airplane tickets' and missing some opportunities ? creating one page targeting 'flight' and adding some 'airplane tickets' keywords in content and hoping to get some 'airplane tickets' keywords traffic ? Thank you in advance for your feedback and sharing your experience in the same kind of issue.
Keyword Research | | patricksiki0 -
Used 'wrong' keywords in blog posts, should I go back and edit?
I have a bout 70 blog articles spanning about 2 years. Because I hadn't done proper SEO research, I used the term I thought made the most sense when talking about my services. However now that I have done my homework, I realize that the term I like, is not actually the term most people use to search. Very few of these articles are time sensitive and mostly generic best practice kind of stuff. I'm not talking about keyword stuffing, simply going back and replacing one poorly chosen keyword with one that people are actually searching for where it occurs naturally in the course of the article. Any advice would be greatly appreciated, thanks!
Keyword Research | | sea2dca0 -
Finding/Building Content Strategy
I'm looking for two things: 1. Some top notch articles on building out a content strategy for a blog (coupon blog is more relevant). 2. Tools that can help to determine target keywords to focus on (Most I've seen are where the keywords start with me, are their any that will help to predict which keywords are relevant for our blog & that would be great to target). Any feedback/discussion on either is greatly appreciated!
Keyword Research | | seointern0 -
Why does google's autocomplete not align with google's keyword tool?
Is google autocomplete based solely off keyword search volume? Or is there some other factors i am missing here? Here's an example: Auto complete suggestions for 'storage toronto': [storage toronto cost] [storage toronto downtown] [storage toronto rates] [storage toronto leaside] [storage toronto prices] [storage toronto dupont] [storage toronto laird] [storage toronto eastern ave] [storage toronto ontario] Google adwords keyword tool results for these: <colgroup><col width="151"> <col width="129"> <col width="169"></colgroup>
Keyword Research | | adriandg
| Keyword | Global Monthly Searches | Local Monthly Searches |
| [storage toronto cost] | 0 | 0 |
| [storage toronto downtown] | 36 | 28 |
| [storage toronto rates] | 0 | 0 |
| [storage toronto leaside] | 0 | 0 |
| [storage toronto prices] | 73 | 73 |
| [storage toronto dupont] | 0 | 0 |
| [storage toronto laird] | 0 | 0 |
| [storage toronto eastern ave] | 0 | 0 |
| [storage toronto ontario] | 0 | 0 | So here is what i find confusing: If [storage toronto cost] is the top suggestion for [storage toronto...] then why does google say it has 0 monthly searches? Why isn't [storage toronto downtown] the first suggestion? or better yet, why isn't [storage toronto prices] the top suggestion? So either: 1) google adwords keyword tool is wrong. or 2) google suggest isn't based on just volume?? I've run these same keywords through Bing's Excel keyword information spreadsheet query and it came back saying all keywords had 0 searches ever, except for...drumroll: [storage toronto prices] with 7 monthly searches, once, in august, and 0 all other months. Now i assume that bing/yahoo numbers are significantly smaller, but this does show that that the same keyword is the most popular, so in some way suggests that google's keyword is accurate. So i guess this brings be back to my confusion, what other factors is google's suggest based on, because it obviously isn't primarily search volume. And yes, i have made sure to clear caches, and disable personalized search and search history, and tried the query in several browsers, just to double check i wasn't getting a personalized list, so we can rule that out. Thanks, Storwell.0 -
Strong Keywords with Zero Returns in Google's Traffic Estimator
Hi: I have a dilemma and have not been able to find a good answer anywhere - and I have looked. 🙂 Gather up a bunch of keywords from Google's Keyword Tool that have tens of thousands of queries per month for local and global. When I plug the same keywords into Google's Traffic Estimator, even with a high bid (over $2) and a high daily budget ($50-100), I get all zeros returned from Traffic Estimator for columns Estimated Average CPC; Estimator Ad Position; Estimated Daily Budget, etc. Can someone please explain why this is the case? Is it because the keywords themselves, despite in some cases having hundreds of thousands of monthly searches, are low competition and therefore have no real value in Adwords? Thanks for your input and views, Phil
Keyword Research | | holdtheonion0