50+ duplicate content pages - Do we remove them all or 301?
-
We are working on a site that has 50+ pages that all have duplicate content (1 for each state, pretty much).
Should we 301 all 50 of the URLs to one URL or should we just completely get rid of all the pages?
Are there any steps to take when completely removing pages completely? (submit sitemap to google webmaster tools, etc)
thanks!
-
I would keep them on the same URLs and explain the dupe content risk to client. Then client can decide to upgrade them himself, have you source new content or allow them to run "as is".
I know of a lot of sites that have pages like this that are working well and make nice money.
-
They have gotten some OK traffic. They're being clicked, but it's the exact same on each page.
There are no links coming in to any of them, however. The URLs themselves across the site are pretty weird, so I will be doing a complete restructuring of those as well.
Based on the traffic they've gotten, I agree, it would be good to do unique content for each state, but this obviously wouldn't be able to get completed for quite some time.
With all that in mind, what should we do?
-
We are working on a site that has 50+ pages that all have duplicate content (1 for each state, pretty much).
There are a lot of sites that make a lot of money by having one page for each state (or county or country or city or whatever). Although it is labor intensive to develop content for fifty different pages it can be done eloquently.
There are also a lot of successful sites that get away with fifty pages of cookie cutter content (Replace Alabama with Alaska, etc. on every page).
I would see what kind of traffic the site is currently getting on those pages, how many sales they are making, what visitors are doing on them, do they have any links?
These pages could be highly successful and if that is the case, II would work to improve them instead of removing them.... and if they have an inbound links at present I might improve them on the same URL rather than removing them to build on new URLs.
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
-
Assistance with High Priority Duplicate Page Content Errors
Hi I am trying to fix the high priority duplicate content URL's from my recent MOZ crawl (6 URL's) in total. Would someone from the community be able to offer some web development advice? I had reached out on the Moz Community on the main welcome page. Samantha stated that someone in web development on Moz's Q&A forum would be better suited to assist me. I took a word press class on Lynda.com, but other than that, I am a novice. I manage my site www.rejuvalon.com on Go Daddy's managed wordpress site. Thanks so much for your help! Best, Jill
Technical SEO | | justjilly0 -
Is this considered Duplicate Content?
Good Morning, Just wondering if these pages are considered duplicate content? http://goo.gl/t9lkm http://goo.gl/mtfbf Can you please take a look and advise if it is considered duplicate and if so, what should i do to fix... Thanks
Technical SEO | | Prime850 -
Search/Search Results Page & Duplicate Content
If you have a page whose only purpose is to allow searches and the search results can be generated by any keyword entered, should all those search result urls be no index or rel canonical? Thanks.
Technical SEO | | cakelady0 -
Local Search | Website Issue with Duplicate Content (97 pages)
Hi SEOmoz community. I have a unique situation where I’m evaluating a website that is trying to optimize better for local search and targeting 97 surrounding towns in his geographical location. What is unique about this situation is that he is ranking on the 1st and 2nd pages of the SERPs for his targeted keywords, has duplicate content on 97 pages to his site, and the search engines are still ranking the website. I ran the website’s url through SEOmoz’s Crawl Test Tool and it verified that it has duplicate content on 97 pages and has too many links (97) per page. Summary: Website has 97 duplicate pages representing each town, with each individual page listing and repeating all of the 97 surrounding towns, and each town is a link to a duplicate page. Question: I know eventually the site will not get indexed by the Search Engines and not sure the best way to resolve this problem – any advice?
Technical SEO | | ToddSEOBoston0 -
Duplicate Page Title for Wordpress
Hello, We are using WP for our blog and keep getting Dup Page Title errors for our 12 author archives pages. The title of each page is the same, but I am wondering if this is WP issue with canonicalization working properly. The most recent four pages have a linking root domain and carry some Page Authority, but the older pages do not. Is this what Rand was talking about in his Google+ whiteboard Friday talk about blog post relevancy not lasting as long as articles? Here's what it looks like. Side question, is there a reason why the SEO Moz website doesn't have a Google+ button anywhere easy to find? Thank you, Michael
Technical SEO | | MKaloud1 -
Duplicate Content Issue
Hi Everyone, I ran into a problem I didn't know I had (Thanks to the seomoz tool) regarding duplicate content. my site is oxford ms homes.net and when I built the site, the web developer used php to build it. After he was done I saw that the URL's looking like this "/blake_listings.php?page=0" and I wanted them like this "/blakes-listings" He changed them with no problem and he did the same with all 300 pages or so that I have on the site. I just found using the crawl diagnostics tool that I have like 3,000 duplicate content issues. Is there an easy fix to this at all or does he have to go in and 301 Redirect EVERY SINGLE URL? Thanks for any help you can give.
Technical SEO | | blake-766240 -
Duplicate Page Title
First i had a problem with duplicate title errors, almost every page i had was double because my website linked to both www.funky-lama.com and funky-lama.com I changed this by adding a code to htaccess to redirect everything to www.funky-lama.com, but now my website was crawled again and the errors were actually doubled. all my pages now have duplicate title errors cause of pages like this www.funky-lama.com/160-confetti-gitaar.html funky-lama.com/160-confetti-gitaar.html www.funky-lama.com/1_present-time funky-lama.com/1_present-time
Technical SEO | | funkylama0 -
Seomoz is showing duplicate page content for my wordpress blog
Hi Everyone, My seomoz crawl diagnostics is indicating that I have duplicate content issues in the wordpress blog section of my site located at: http://www.cleversplash.com/blog/ What is the best strategy to deal with this? Is there a plugin that can resolve this? I really appreciate your help guys. Martin
Technical SEO | | RogersSEO0