Will our two retail sites get hit with duplicate content?
-
Our retail site just rolled out a second online store. The URL is new and it is showing some of the same products from the same vendors (probably about 40% of the fist store is in the second store). Down the road, we will remove the products from the first site, however, we are keeping it for now. The products show up on both sites, with the same images, and the same descriptions and almost the same URL query string. Are we going to get hit with any penalties due to duplicate content?
-
Ive asked them to Canonicalize from the old site to the new site.... although... we have great rankings for some of the brands on the old site.
-
You are definitely at risk of it, yes. One of the main benefits of the duplicate content filters that google introduced was to stop people rolling out cookie-cutter sites of the same products in order to dominate the SERPs. Whilst that isn't your aim the result is quite similar and you could therefore get penalised.
My fear would be a penalty that goes beyond just affecting the duplicate parts. This might be a particular concern on a new site.
You might be able to lower the risk of this by altering the mix:
- Can you lose any of the duplicate products for now?
- Could you just no-index them on the new site for now?
- If you can add new descriptions can you add something unique to the existing ones?
- Is there other unique content that you could add
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
-
Where to order content?
I have a number of clients struggling with publishing frequent blog content. Can anyone recommend any content ordering services? - I've seen Constant Content and a couple of others. I'm just wondering if these are effective?, SEO-friendly? (completely safe from duplication, etc.)? - and if anyone can recommend the best choices based on experience. In the past clients I've been fortunate in working with clients who are writing themselves, or connecting with a copywriter and going through the process of creating content. However I'm looking for an alternative solution to solve content drought with some clients which simply don't have the time to go through that process and need to see results.
Content Development | | GregDixson0 -
Content Writing - it should be for the main corporate site, blog or for social media?
Hi There, I have my main site : example.com and a related blog https://blog.example.com/ My management does not believe frequent content posting on the example.com My Queries 1- Will it help boost ranking of **example.com **if we share frequent content on our blog https://blog.example.com/? How much impact it has? 2- Every body says content is the king, Ok fine, but when you are not allowed to share it on the main corporate site, then where to share it? Blog and social media sites? please help. 3- We are in a business where clients do not bother to go on sites and read, so in this scenario is it correct to say that you hav to create the content for search engine consumption even when your clients dont need it/or have not in the habit of reading it? Hope somebody will enligten me caught in catch 22. Regards Tanveer
Content Development | | Sequelmed1 -
Why is content getting longer?
I find it odd that with the way life is today -- the gotta-have-it-now, instant gratification, can't hold someone's attention span for longer than 3 seconds -- why Google is wanting content to be REALLY long?? I've read articles saying content should be as long as 2,000 words per page. This just seems nuts to me. No one wants to read anymore. Look at how short Twitter posts are and how videos are so prevalent now. Any thoughts?
Content Development | | SEOhughesm0 -
Is there an upper bound on the number of links an url might get in a day?
There are link spammers and programs like GSA and others, that automate linkbuilding, and I was wondering if anybody ever had a penalty because a page on his site is getting too many references (links). I am not talking about spamming here. So provided that the links are coming from relevant, unique sources, but you do an over excessive campaign, and you seem to be getting too many backlinks, can it negatively affect SEO? Alternatively: is there an upper bound on the number of links you try to build in a day when you are doing linkbuilding?
Content Development | | snetface0 -
One Page Website Blog Content Question
Hi guys, I'm new to the art of SEO and am learning every day from all the fantastic content here, I have a question that I can't find an answer to, hope it doesn't stump you like it has me... I have a one page website (www.neilwilliamsvoiceover.com) that I need to put more content on for SEO purposes but needs to be kept as one page. I've set-up a blog via blogger, and have that on the website but it's in iframe, which I've now discovered is ignored by search engines. So, my question is, is there a way to pull my blog feed into the website and have it recognised by search engines as content for the website? Would I use an RSS feed or feed burner or something else completely?! Thanks for your time and help in advance.
Content Development | | BamMK0 -
How does one write different pages of their website that are very similar in nature with using too much duplicate content?
We are a service provider and we have different links on our website to each of our services. The problem is the content that we would have for each is very similar. How can I ensure that it is not deemed duplicate content and ranked poorly because of it. Thanks
Content Development | | JayTurner0 -
On-Site Blog or Blog Service for Best SEO Results
I had a blog associated with my site, then I had to merge two Google accounts and to make a long story short, my old Blogger page won't transfer to the new account. So, I'm starting fresh. My Question: Would I benefit most from an on-site subdomain blog, adding content to my site on a weekly/monthly basis, or an off-site blog such as Blogger, linking back to pages and resources on my site? Then, any other juicy tips would be great. Honestly, I won't expect a large subscription base. There will be a natural draw for some trade associates, and I'll be linking and promoting them as well. Thanks for any input. I'm new to the community, and SEO, but really impressed with this community.
Content Development | | honestabejosh0 -
Is Creating a Lot of Content A Bad SEO Strategy?
In Danny Dover's book, Search Engine Optimization Secrets, he talks about how every page on your site should be at least a little linkworthy, or it is just sucking link juice from the rest of the site and not contributing any. Does this mean that creating a lot of content, (like a daily news article on your site that summarizes industry news or something similar) is not a good SEO strategy? Should you limit the amount of content pages on your site unless it can attract links or hits on one of your target keywords? Thanks!
Content Development | | SparkplugDigital0
