Duplicate Content - What's the best bad idea?
-
Hi all,
I have 1000s of products where the product description is very technical and extremely hard to rewrite or create an unique one.
I'll probably will have to use the contend provided by the brands, which can already be found in dozens of other sites.
My options are:
-
Use the Google on/off tags "don't index
" -
Put the content in an image
Are there any other options?
We'd always write our own unique copy to go with the technical bit.
Cheers
-
-
This applies to Google Mini or Search Appliance which are custom search tools for an individual website.
They allow site owners to sculpt the indexing of their private set ups.
Adwords also has something to help indicate the important content for determining the page topic for relating ads.
However, they don't apply to Googlebot spidering as mentioned above.
-
Hi - The google on/off tags idea I got it from https://developers.google.com/search-appliance/documentation/46/admin_crawl/Preparing
| index | Words between the tags are not indexed as occurring on the current page. | fish shark
mackerel | The words fish and mackerel are indexed for this page, but the occurrence of shark is not indexed.
This page could appear in search results for the term shark only if the word appears elsewhere on the page or in anchortext for links to the page.
Hyperlinks that appear within these tags are followed. | -
I agree with Takeshi, but would also like to add that so-called "Google on/off tags" are a myth. What you have typed out would be an HTML comment (they begin with
-
If the descriptions are very technical then likely there is a fair amount of repetition in the sentence pattern, diction etc. I'd recommend playing with regex to help transform content into something original.
For instance, you could search for industry abbreviations CW and replace with long forms _**Clockwise (CW). **_Maybe they over use an adjective that you could changeto your own voice.
Also, perhaps the stock descriptions have blocks of useless content you could strip out in the mean time?
The DB probably has a few other fields (name, product attributes etc) so be sure to find a unique way of assembling the meta description, title and details.
If you find enough to change, I'd think having the description would be better then having a page that is too light on words.
Be sure to mark up with http://schema.org/Product so SE's understand the nature of the content.
EDIT: I have used the regex technique to enhance the content of a database by added inline tooltips, diagrams or figures and glossary links. However with Penguin, I would be careful with automated links. You would only want to create a handful using the same anchor text.
EDIT2: I forgot - MAKE FREQUENT BACK UPS. Regex is super powerful and can tank a database really fast. Make a backup of the original and of every successful iteration - it will take a little longer but it will save your butt when things go bad.
-
I would say use the content as is (regular text) and work on adding additional content on top of that. Most marketplaces and etailers (including Amazon) use the descriptions provided by the brands. Google understands that. The idea is to provide additional value on top of that content with things like user reviews and additional features that make your site stand out.
-
Wow, a really tough problem.
I would definitely go for the image, and then customise the copy around the image so you can still rank for those pages. If you go for noindex tags, you lose all optimisation opportunites.
Or, could you host the product description on a single domain and then link to that from all your relevant pages?
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
-
Handling of Duplicate Content
I just recently signed and joined the moz.com system. During the initial report for our web site it shows we have lots of duplicate content. The web site is real estate based and we are loading IDX listings from other brokerages into our site. If though these listings look alike, they are not. Each has their own photos, description and addresses. So why are they appear as duplicates – I would assume that they are all too closely related. Lots for Sale primarily – and it looks like lazy agents have 4 or 5 lots and input the description the same. Unfortunately for us, part of the IDX agreement is that you cannot pick and choose which listings to load and you cannot change the content. You are either all in or you cannot use the system. How should one manage duplicate content like this? Or should we ignore it? Out of 1500+ listings on our web site it shows 40 of them are duplicates.
Technical SEO | | TIM_DOTCOM0 -
Conversion of URL's for Readability
Reading over Rands latest Post about URL structure I had a quick question about the best way to convert URL's that don't have perfect URL structure... Current the Structure of our E-commerce store has a structure that is not friendly with domain.com/product/zdcd-jobd3d-fdoh what is the easiest way to convert these to read URL's without causing any disruptions with the SERP. Are we talking about a MOD-Rewrite in the CMS.......
Technical SEO | | CMcMullen0 -
Duplicate content. Wordpress and Website
Hi All, Will Google punish me for having duplicate blog posts on my website's blog and wordpress? Thanks
Technical SEO | | Mike.NW0 -
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 -
Duplicate Footer Content
A client I just took over is having some duplicate content issues. At the top of each page he has about 200 words of unique content. Below this is are three big tables of text that talks about his services, history, etc. This table is pulled into the middle of every page using php. So, he has the exact same three big table of text across every page. What should I do to eliminate the dup content. I thought about removing the script then just rewriting the table of text on every page... Is there a better solution? Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
Technical SEO | | BigStereo0 -
Duplicate Content
Many of the pages on my site are similar in structure/content but not exactly the same. What amount of content should be unique for Google to not consider it duplicate? If it is something like 50% unique would it be preferable to choose one page as the canonical instead of keeping them both as separate pages?
Technical SEO | | theLotter0 -
SEOMoz is indicating I have 40 pages with duplicate content, yet it doesn't list the URL's of the pages???
When I look at the Errors and Warnings on my Campaign Overview, I have a lot of "duplicate content" errors. When I view the errors/warnings SEOMoz indicates the number of pages with duplicate content, yet when I go to view them the subsequent page says no pages were found... Any ideas are greatly welcomed! Thanks Marty K.
Technical SEO | | MartinKlausmeier0 -
Duplicate content
I have to sentences that I want to optimize to different pages for. sentence number one is travel to ibiza by boat sentence number to is travel to ibiza by ferry My question is, can I have the same content on both pages exept for the keywords or will Google treat that as duplicate content and punish me? And If yes, where goes the limit/border for duplicate content?
Technical SEO | | stlastla0