How do I fix issue regarding near duplicate pages on website associated to city OR local pages?
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I am working on one e-commerce website where we have added 300+ pages to target different local cities in USA. We have added quite different paragraphs on 100+ pages to remove internal duplicate issue and save our website from Panda penalty.
You can visit following page to know more about it. And, We have added unique paragraphs on few pages. But, I have big concerns with other elements which are available on page like Banner Gallery, Front Banner, Tool and few other attributes which are commonly available on each pages exclude 4 to 5 sentence paragraph.
I have compiled one XML sitemap with all local pages and submitted to Google webmaster tools since 1st June 2013. But, I can see only 1 indexed page by Google on Google webmaster tools.
http://www.bannerbuzz.com/local
http://www.bannerbuzz.com/local/US/Alabama/Vinyl-Banners
http://www.bannerbuzz.com/local/MO/Kansas-City/Vinyl-Banners
and so on...
Can anyone suggest me best solution for it?
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I'll be brutally honest - the Panda updates have been very unkind to this sort of geo-targeting. Five or more years ago, spinning out hyper-local pages that were similar (search results + a few keywords changed) was popular and relatively effective. Now, Google views it as thin content. In the past, the worst they might do is ignore it. Now, they may penalize the entire site, if taken to extreme.
Personally, in 2013, I wouldn't do it at all. The rewards are very small, and the risks are surprisingly high. Is suspect that situation will only get worse. It's fine to have these pages for visitors, but I'd leave them out of the index. If geo-targeting is important, then focus on a few pages (maybe the state level or major markets) and try to build out some unique content for them. Without digging into your site, my gut reaction is that 300+ is dangerous.
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In order to get indexed as a unique page you will need 300+ words of unique content.
Using new semantic tags I would try to keep the repeated tags within the Header, Sidebar (aside) and Footer areas.
These are expected to be repeated by nature.
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