Ask a Question
-
SEO Moz has found a bunch of duplicate content errors on one of my sites because blog archives has created a new page for each tag.
For example: http://examplesite.com/blog/tag/travel
http://examplesite.com/blog/tag/travel-photography
http://examplesite.com/blog/tag/tours
http://examplesite.com/blog/tag/accommodations
The above urls are just tags for the same exact page, hence making them all duplicates. Is it normal for each tag to be a separate page? Do the search engines see this as duplicate content? If so, how do I correct this issue if I want to keep the tags? Regards,Dino
-
Ok, I'm at a complete loss now. I've now enabled the sitemap for the yeast SEO plugin and have checked the box in the plugin settings to not allow tags or categories in the sitemap. I've also went into each tag and plugin page and have selected to noindex and to not include in sitemap tags and plugins. Did this for each one, yet I just ran another crawl report and still getting duplicate pages from SEOMoz. Any suggestions why Seomoz is still finding those pages? What else can I do? Regards, Dino
-
OK, thanks Dan, and you're right, I should have gone back and read your first response again because in the end, that is exactly what I ended up doing. I no-indexed each tag with the SEO Yoast Plugin options.
I'm expecting that the next time SEO Moz crawls my sight that it won't count these as duplicates anymore. Am I correct in believing that?
Regards,
Dino
-
Thanks for chiming in! Just want to clarify, canonical tags would be the last resort. In this case, especially for WordPress, noindexing tag archves and noindexing subpages is the way to go first.
-Dan
-
Hey There
See my other answer. You first have to noindex tag archives. Then you can exclude them from the XML sitemap.
Noindexing tags will not harm SEO. Google has been not returning tag pages in search results very much at all anymore. You really want your articles themselves to rank.
-Dan
-
Hi There
What you need to do is;
- Using your SEO plugin (hopefully Yoast SEO plugin) - noindex tag archives.
- Also, noindex subpages of archives
It is normal for tags to be their own page, but it is not desirable to let the search engines index them, thus why we'll add the noindex for tag pages. The search engines can potentially see them as duplicate or thin content. It's OK they exist, just not ok to index them.
Some resources;
My article on Moz about setting up WordPress correctly
-Dan
-
Hey Donford:
I tried to uncheck the tags box in my Sitemap Plugin for Wordpress so the tags wouildn't be included in the Sitemap. In the latest crawl report, however, it is still showing all those tag pages as duplicate pages.
In the Edit Tag pages in Wordpress there are two boxes that allow me to "no index" the tag and another one to "exclude from Sitemap." Do think I am safe if I do both? I am "no indexing" all tags and am also eliminating them from the sitemap. Do you think I may be doing any harm to SEO?
Thanks, Dino.
-
You're very welcome
-
Right on, Donford! Thanks for the quick response. Regards, Dino
-
Hi Dino here are your questions and my answers
The above urls are just tags for the same exact page, hence making them all duplicates. Is it normal for each tag to be a separate page? This is powered by your CMS content mangment system, Wordpress and Joomla have ways to fix this issue. Check with your CMS forums to see if this is way to modify this behavior, or use canonical tags to prevent the duplicate content from being indexed.
Do the search engines see this as duplicate content? Yes
If so, how do I correct this issue if I want to keep the tags? Canonical tags or change the way the tags are generated and or content is archived.Hope that helps
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
-
Noob question about keyword research
I have a client that does commercial building renovations. I looked at a lot of their competitors and did some googling to see what words people were using. Some terms such as commercial fit-outs, didn't really have any search volume. I did pick out some that had some volume, Google KW Tool said anywhere from 46 local searches for something like "commercial construction contractors" to 320 for "commercial construction companies". However, no data really shows up for local specifics like "commercial construction companies philadelphia". I tried looking at competitors in the Moz site explorer, but not too many were doing much link building to look at anchor text. Question 1) When it says "local monthly searches", is it defaulting to MY local area based on my google info? So if im in Philly area that local area is whats displaying? Question 2) I tried to run the same keyword list I pulled from Adwords tool through Moz KW tool, and it tells me some of the terms don't have ANY traffic! So know I am real confused as to whether the KW's i picked are good or crap! I attached image of the stuff. CnYyNb3
Moz Pro | | satoridesign0 -
OK Crawl Test Link Question Again!
I've downloaded a crawl test and column G Link Count reads 62 and yep there are a total of 62 links on the page in question. Column AM Internal Links reads 303 and yep there are somewhere in the order of 303 pages pointing at this one. Root Domains is surprisingly low at 6, so maybe there are only 6 domains linking to this page. BUT... External Links read 51. There are not 51 links pointing away from this domain on this page, no way hozay, so can anybody tell me what is meant by 'External Links? A humble thank you in anticipation of an education. Jem
Moz Pro | | JemRobinson0 -
How to change a Discussions post to a Question
I've opened two discussions recently but they really happen to be more like questions. They were both answered but both posts are still opened : http://www.seomoz.org/q/reading-suggestions-for-a-local-french-small-biz-website http://www.seomoz.org/q/should-i-block-wordpress-archive-and-tag How can I change them back to Question so I can mark them as close? Thanks 🙂
Moz Pro | | Akeif0 -
How to un-answer a question?
Being new here I'm pressing all sorts of buttons and breaking things... I posted a question, liked someone's answer so click "good answer" thinking it was like a "thumbs up" but it actually set my question to "answered". How does one set their own question to un-answered?
Moz Pro | | eatyourveggies1 -
Question About Moz Reports
Hey guys Is it possible to change the date/time that SEOmoz runs its ranking reports? I put together ranking reports each Monday which I need to feedback to the business and it would be good if I could schedule these for late Sunday or early Monday mornings for me coming in to the office.
Moz Pro | | EwanFisher0 -
Not really a question.
Hello Mozzers, I just logged into my account and after what has felt like a few months of on site work I finally see ZERO errors across the board for my main campaign with SEO Moz! I just wanted to share that with everyone because at one point above the errors were in the 5,000 range. It was causing penalties and weight in serps, but now thanks to SEO Moz and the help that I have received in the Q&A section, I have corrected all the errors! So, thank you to SEOMOZ and the pro community very very much!!! As a discussion though, how are the errors with most other users? Are you typically always seeing no errors, a few errors or a lot of errors for your campaigns? Thanks! Jesse
Moz Pro | | getrightmusic1 -
Question about a dramatic decrease in domain authority.
My personal website http://Bsalva.com has started to drop in both page authority and domain authority. This seems to be largely due to open site explorer not picking up all of my inbound links. Right now it says I only have one linking root domain, but I know this to be crap. I have quite a few followed links from well trusted and reputable sites. My page rank typically bounces between a 5 and 6. I should also have hundreds of inbound links. The other sites In my campaign monitor haven't taken such a hit so I'm starting to get a little worried. Does anyone know what might cause incoming links to not me recognized? they were just fine last month, and I can go find them on the web as we speak.
Moz Pro | | Bsalva0 -
Open Site Explorer Question!
Hi, I have performed a search on a root domain and the page auth is higher then the domain auth? I would have thought they would have been the same or at least the other way around!
Moz Pro | | activitysuper0