Partially Duplicated Content Advice
-
Hi Folks,
I have a question about how duplicate content works. We sell all different kinds of goat milk soap. Each kind has its own product page and unique description. However, there are some benefits that all of the different soap have in common. I'd like to list those benefits on each individual goat milk soap page, with the product-specific benefits and description right below it. My questions are:
1. If I include the same exact block of text and images on each page, along with the unique description. Will the search engine see that as duplicate content?
2. Furthermore, will this dilute any keyword ranking ability that content brings to a page, because it occurs on 15 different pages? (i.e. the search engine can't tell which one is the "best" result).
If so, what do you recommend in this kind of situation?
Thanks,
Hal
-
Ahhh ok. So i won't worry about the duplicate content so long as there is a substantial amount of good quality original content on each page. Glad to have an understanding on this as I found it a little confusing after reading about it. Thanks!
Hal
-
Hi Hal,
Hope you don't mind me taking a stab at this question also.
Blocks of duplicate content, whether they be images or text, repeated among several pages is often known as "boilerplate" material.
Boilerplate material is okay, but if you have to much of it, without enough unique content to balance it out - that's when you get in trouble.
In general, you want to make sure you have a minimum amount of unique content on each page. My own personal rule of thumb is at least a couple hundred words - but it varies from situation to situation. if you have a lot of boilerplate, you want to make your original content front and center. This means placing it near the top of the body copy, above the fold and first in the HTML. Then place the necessary boilerplate info after this.
It's best to try to generate as much unique content for each product as possible. You can do this by including reviews, how-to videos, testimonials, or whatever value-added content you can dream up, as long as it's quality content and serves your customer.
Finally, make sure when "optimizing" the page (things like the title tag and meta description) make sure to focus these elements on the unique content of your page, and not the boilerplate material, so as to not dilute your rankings.
Best,
Cyrus
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
-
Is there ever a time when we shouldn't care about content showing in search?
I often get push back from our content team about optimizing blogs for organic search. They'll say things like "but this isn't relevant for search" or "well, this is intended for people who come directly to our blog, I don't think it'll matter if it shows up in search." This is especially true when we publish product announcements and customer case studies. As an SEO, my opinion is definitely biased, but I 100% disagree and believe that search is relevant for every piece of content -- it's just that we might approach SEO differently for a product announcement (i.e. looking at branded search queries) vs. a more general "how to create an editorial calendar" type post. Would like to hear thoughts from the Moz community, though: what do you think? Is there ever a time when search isn't relevant for a blog post? Ever a time when we should skip the keyword/phrase research and tracking? Why or why not?
Keyword Research | | AsanaOps0 -
Strategy for product content page development.
I have a project to work on product and landing pages for a website with 5000+ SKU's. I am looking to hire a content writer to do this but I want a strategy in place to develop these pages. I have googled a bit and they mostly talk about the body of the page. I am looking for best practices for the entire page, Title, H1, Meta and body. Any good tutorials for this type of project anyone can recommend? Anyone with experience doing this type of project? Thanks, Mark
Keyword Research | | mcg11030 -
What to do with mismatched blog content?
I've maintained a blog on my website https://www.reich-consulting.net/ for quite a few years for my side business, which recently became my full-time gig. Since 2003 I worked as at IT Specialist at a technical school and I blogged about everything from tech support and IT issues to web design and development. Now I'm a full-time web developer. I get a lots of traffic from some of these blog posts, but it doesn't seem to be useful traffic. For example someone whose searching for a solution to a super-specific windows error (one of my most popular posts) isn't going to be interested in hiring me for web development. Furthermore I have a concern that these pages might be doing a disservice to the primary message of the website, which is small business website design and web marketing. When I look at my top search terms in Google Search Console, these random terms from old blog entries are the top 30 terms... website design-related content doesn't even rate. Any thoughts? Should I keep that content? Remove and 301 redirect it? Figure out a creative way to use it to my advantage?
Keyword Research | | reichconsulting0 -
Way of including Keyword into content
Hi all! My website is that of a large 7 bedroom luxury villa in Barbados (www.bruadair.com). Now, I am having problems understanding how i can include my targeted keywords in to my content without it looking unnatural and disrupting the quality of the content. I wish to use the keyword phrase 'Large luxury villa in Barbados' however including this directly into on-page elements seems to look unnatural. My current content on my home page is as follows 'Bruadair is a large luxurious villa situated on the prestigious Platinum West Coast of Barbados, located in a beautiful tropical setting with gorgeous beaches just minutes walk away' I want to rank for this keyword however changing to 'Bruadair is a large luxurious villa in Barbados, located in a beautiful tropical setting with gorgeous beaches just minutes walk away' degrades the quality of the content... is there anyway i can get round this issue? I greatly appreciate any help/advice given to my problem! Thanks once again, T
Keyword Research | | Tmgale0 -
Can using an exact sentence from your content as meta description hurt?
Hi Mozzers! I'm uploading some press releases and the first sentence makes a perfect meta description. Would using the exact same wording ever hurt my rankings? Thanks!
Keyword Research | | Travis-W0 -
Help with understanding how to target keywords not in content ?
I have a customer suggesting the use of keywords related to his competitors but not in the content of his site or how he promotes his brand. The page content is product specific and I use keyword matches for page and site strength. 1.) Does it hurt or help to load up the keywords with misc. keywords (example- the site is for a premium product use the terms "cheap", "affordable") 2.) Any suggestion for almost blank/generic landing pages ? 3.) Any benefit or penalty for using fewer keywords on multiple pages ? (example - target 6-8 words on 30 pages) I need a few discussion points for my next meeting and to clarify my position.
Keyword Research | | sd11sine0 -
Best advice for my site for ranking better on my main keyword "Orlando Wedding Photographers"?
Hi, I run a photography site: www.joeyvalyphotography.com and my main keyword is Orlando Wedding Photographers . I have been trying to improve my rankings but i have gone no where. I would greatly appreciate some tips, on getting my site up there higher on the ranks, some day! Thanks in advanced, Joey
Keyword Research | | gaji0 -
How do you do Keyword Research for a company that creates a lot of content
I work for a media company that owns 4 magazines. Our company is constantly producing new content. How do you do Keyword Research when the subject of your content is constantly changing? Do you need to do Keyword Research or do you simply optimize every article that you write for the web? Any ideas?
Keyword Research | | DerekSwanson0