301 Redirect or Canonical Tag or Leave Them Alone? Different Pages - Similar Content

[MWM3772]

We currently have 3 different versions of our State Business-for-Sale listings pages - the versions are:

**Version 1 -- Preferred Version: **

http://www.businessbroker.net/State/California-Businesses_For_Sale.aspx

Title = California Business for Sale Ads - California Businesses for Sale & Business Brokers - Sell a Business on Business Broker

Version 2:

http://www.businessbroker.net/Businesses_For_Sale-State-California.aspx

Title = California Business for Sale | 3124 California Businesses for Sale | BusinessBroker.net

Version 3:

http://www.businessbroker.net/listings/business_for_sale_california.ihtml

Title = California Businesses for Sale at BusinessBroker.net - California Business for Sale

While the page titles and meta data are a bit different, the bulk of the page content (which is the listings rendered) are identical.    We were wondering if it would make good sense to either (A) 301 redirect Versions 2 and 3 to the preferred Version 1 page or (B) put Canonical Tags on Versions 2 and 3 labeling Version 1 as the preferred version.    We have this issue for all 50 U.S. States -- I've mentioned California here but the same applies for Alabama through Wyoming - same issue.

Given that there are 3 different flavors and all are showing up in the Search Results -- some on the same 1st page of results -- which probably is a good thing for now -- should we do a 301 redirect or a Canonical Tag on Versions 2 and 3?     Seems like with Google cracking down on duplicate content, it might be wise to be proactive.

Any thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!    Thanks.

• Matt M

[MWM3772]

Thanks for the response.

Do you think we need to stay consistent - for example if we decide to use this version - http://www.businessbroker.net/State/California-Businesses_For_Sale.aspx as the preferred version - should we use this as the preferred version for all states -- even if this version is not the ranking version for a particular state?

Thanks again,

• MM

[EGOL]

Does it matter which version is getting ranked the best in the eyes of Google in terms of which URL's we chose to 301?

If I was doing this I would redirect the pages that rank lowest.  The page that ranks highest is there for a reason.

**If we 301 a version that is getting ranked well in Google, does this hurt us in any way? **

I don't know... but your other pages are not ranking as well for a reason.

STICK WITH A WINNER!  (However, I might work to improve that page.)

[MWM3772]

Hello, you provided a very good response to the question I posed last year.   We never pulled the trigger on this change and now it is back on the radar screen.  I was hoping you'd be willing to answer a follow-up question for us.    Does it matter which version is getting ranked the best in the eyes of Google in terms of which URL's we chose to 301?   I started to look at where we rank for certain "state" related keywords -- i.e. Utah Businesses for Sale, etc..    If we 301 a version that is getting ranked well in Google, does this hurt us in any way?    For example, if we decide to 301 redirect Version 3 (http://www.businessbroker.net/listings/business_for_sale_california.ihtml) to this page -- http://www.businessbroker.net/State/California-Businesses_For_Sale.aspx - if Version 3 ranks well for keywords like California Business for Sale, etc..

Thanks in advance for any help/guidance on this.

Below is original post.

• Matt M

[EGOL]

Yes, I would do 301 redirects.

I would do that to consolidate my link power into a single page and eliminate the potential for duplicate content problems.

[MWM3772]

Thanks for the quick response -- quick question - when you say "eliminate" do you mean to 301 redirect these pages?   These are all existing pages that are indexed by Google and have various search positions.   Thanks again.

• Matt

[sferrino]

I agree with EGOL. Are the pages being generated? How many search queries will end with the same information?

It looks like your doing URL ReWriting now since the url:

http://www.businessbroker.net/State/California-Businesses_For_Sale_test.aspx

shows the same information. Start adding canonical to all pages so that the above link will not be seen as duplicated content.

[EGOL]

I looked at version 1 through 3 for California and agree that these pages are substantially similar.

If this was my site I would eliminate version 2 and version 3 and put all of my linkjuice into version 1.

I would not do this without some analytics... and might try an experiment with a couple of states before doing it across the site.  However, my bet is that one version will pull about as much traffic as all three versions combined.