Does the site have duplicate, overlapping, or redundant articles on the same or similar topics with slightly different keyword variations?
-
Hi All,
In relation to this thread http://www.seomoz.org/q/what-happend-to-my-ranks-began-dec-22-detailed-info-inside I'm still getting whipped hard from Google, this week for some reason all rankings have gone for the past few days.
What I was wondering though is this, when Google says-
Does the site have duplicate, overlapping, or redundant articles on the same or similar topics with slightly different keyword variations?
I assume my site hits the nail on the head-
[removed links at request of author]
As you can see I target LG Optimus 3D Sim Free, LG Optimus 3D Contract and LG Optimus 3D Deals. Based on what Google has said, I know think there needs to be 1 page that covers it all instead of 3.
What I'm wondering is the best way to deal with the situation? I think it should be something like this but please correct me along the way
1. Pick the strongest page out of the 3
2. Merge the content from the 2 weaker pages into the strongest
3. Update the title/meta info of the strongest page to include the KW variations of all 3 eg- LG Optimus 3D Contract Deals And Sim Free Pricing
4. Then scatter contract, deals and sim free throughout the text naturally
5. Then delete the weaker 2 pages and 301 redirect to the strongest page
6. Submit URL removal via webmastertools for the 2 weaker pages
What would you do to correct this situation? Am I on the right track?
-
The answer depends on a few factors.
Step back and take a fresh look at each page. Don't think of it as the page's author or webmaster. Think about it from the view of a user who searched for a phone and landed on the page. How much information is what the user was hoping to find?
How much of each page is repeated keywords that have nothing to do with the page's content? How much of each page is duplicated information that will be found on every other page in your site? It comes down to percentages.
I do like your pages. They are clean, easy to navigate and well-presented. The only concern I have is the sidebars with the points mentioned. I do not see how Google could have any concern with your content unless you have other duplicate pages on your site of the information. I just took another look at the links you offered. While there is some duplication, it really is not much.
-
Hi Ryan,
Thanks for your continued insight.
Just spent a bit of time thinking about what you have said, and although I don't believe the sidebar is a main cause of the site wide drop I do believe that it is part of the problem.
Therefore I was thinking that on just single posts and single pages I would remove the archives and product reviews links (leaving recent comments and recent posts).
Recent comments, recent posts, archives and product review links would remain as they are on index page, category pages, tag pages, author pages etc. Category, tag and author pages are all currently set to noindex,follow.
Do you feel that solution is wise?
-
You offer a different product name on each page, different images and different content. You had me fooled into thinking they were three separate models.
Each page has unique content, but overall it is a bit shallow. My concern is that Google doesn't look at it as "well this is sidebar content while the rest is main content". They would view your page as a whole.
Do a word count of the side bar, and then a word count of the total page. Determine what percentage of your page is the sidebar. If your sidebar is 30% of your page's total content, then you know you have that much duplicated by default. Then take a look at the rest of the page. If you add further duplicate content, the overall percentage can climb too high if you are not careful.
-
Hi,
Thanks for your input.
Although the pages are for 3 seperate unique products, the only change in each page is the final word on the end. It is essentially the same product but just sold in a different way. So does Google's algorhythm see it as overlapping?
I haven't considered the sidebar as an issue before as it is setup the same way as it always has been when the site performing well but is something I will look at.
Still undecided on what to do with those potential overlaps
-
I looked at your site. Those 3 pages you refer to are for three separate, unique products. You could take the approach you suggested. Another approach would be to re-design the existing pages.
Your HTML is minified, which is a good thing for optimization, but it makes it harder for others to look through the code. I didn't look very deep but what I did take note of a few opportunities you have to improve the existing pages.
1. Each page has it's own unique content.Part of the content is contained in javascript so it may be missed by Google. If you take a look at your site code, notice below the phrase "LG Optimus 3D Contract Deals" the two blocks below are entirely contained in javascript. All your pricing information, which is content, is missed.
2. Your sidebars offer a consistent look throughout the site, but it is duplicate content. You could consider condensing it. Rather then an "Archives" heading on every page with a list of every month/yr combo, you could consider a single "Archives" link which would take users to the Archives page. This change would reduce duplicate content.
3. A similar concept can be used for Product Reviews. Having each make/model listed on every page seems rather like stuffing.
4. Recent Posts - same idea. It's duplicate content on every page. By streamlining your sidebar, your pages look less cluttered, there is definitely less stuffing, and the unique content will stand out more.
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
-
I'm seeing thousands of no-follow links on spam sites. Can you help figure it out?
I noticed that we are receiving thousands of links from many different sites that are obviously disguised as something else. The strange part is that some of them are legitimate sites when you go to the root. I would say 99% of the page titles read something like : 1 Hour Loan Approval No Credit Check Vermont, go cash advance - africanamericanadaa.com. Can someone please help me? Here are some of the URL's we are looking at: http://africanamericanadaa.com/genialt/100-dollar-loans-for-people-with-no-credit-colorado.html http://muratmakara.com/sickn/index.php?recipe-for-cone-06-crackle-glaze http://semtechblog.com/tacoa/index.php?chilis-blue-raspberry-margarita http://wesleygcook.com/rearc/guaranteed-personal-loans-oregon.html
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | TicketCity0 -
Plugin to duplicate CMS pages, changing the location
Hi all, We have recently noticed a rise in local business websites using a plugin to duplicate hundreds of pages changing only the location in the h1 tag and the page description, we're pretty sure this is a black hat technique allowing them to rank for all locations (although the duplicate page content must not be doing them any favours). An example of this is http://www.essexcarrecovery.co.uk We would like to know what plugin they are using as we think there may be better ways to use this, we may be able to create original location pages faster than we do now? Also why does not seem to be too detrimental to the businesses SEO as surely this method should be damaging?
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | birdmarketing0 -
What could go wrong? SEO on mobile site is different than desktop site.
We have a desktop site that has been getting worked on over the year regarding improving SEO. Since the mobile site is separate, the business decided to not spend the time to keep it updated and just turned it off. So any mobile user that finds a link to us in search engines, goes to a desktop site that is not responsive. Now that we're hearing Google is going to start incorporating mobile user friendliness into rankings, the business wants to turn the mobile site back on while we spend months making the desktop site responsive. The mobile site basically has no SEO. The title tag is uniform across the site, etc. How much will it hurt us to turn on that SEO horrid mobile site? Or how much will it hurt us to not turn it on?
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | CFSSEO0 -
Glossary pages - keyword stuffing danger?
I've put together a glossary of terms related to my industry that have SEO value and am planning on building out a section on our site with unique pages for each term. However, most of these terms have synonyms or are highly similar to other valuable terms. If I were to make a glossary, and on each page (that will have high-quality, valuable, and accurate definitions and more), wrote something like "{term}, also commonly referred to as {synonym}, {synonym}," would I run the risk of keyword stuffing penalties? My only other idea beyond creating a glossary with separate pages defining each synonym is to use schema.org markup to add synonyms to the HTML of the page, but that could be seen as even more grey-hat type keyword stuffing. I guess one other option would be to work the synonyms into the definition so that the presence of the keyword reads more organically. Thanks!
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | alecfwilson0 -
How will Google deal with the crosslinks for my multiple domain site
Hi, I can't find any good answer to this question so I thought, why not ask Moz.com ;-)! I have a site, let's call it webshop.xx For a few languages/markets, Deutsch, Dutch & Belgian, English, French. I use a different TLD with a different IP for each of these languages, so I'll end up with: webshop.de, webshop.nl, webshop.be, webshop.co.uk, webshop.com & webshop.fr They all link to eachother and every subpage that is translated from the other site gets a link as well from the other languages, so: webshop.com/stuff links to webshop.de/stuff My main website, webshop.com gets links from every other of these domain which Open Site Explorer as well as Majestic SEO sees as an external link. (this is happening) My question. How will Google deal in the long-run with the crosslinks coming from these domains? some guesses I made: I get full external links juice (content is translated so unique?) I get a bit of the juice of an external link They are actually seen as internal links I'll get a penalty Thanks in advance guys!!!
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | pimarketing0 -
Site dropping in rank even through there are more backlinks being added
Hello, One of my client's sites is ranking lower than he should. This happened when we took off backlinks (20 little blogs, several site-wide paid links. It really dropped the site, but it had to be done. Since then we've increased his # of root domains by 10% through white hat link building in his non-competitive niche, and rankings are still poor. I know that's not much in the way of added backlink value, but we're working on it. My question is, how have the recent (and coming) updates possibly effected us. We want to take the remaining problem areas off right away, but another drop in traffic is not a good idea. Even though the blogs (see below) have no backlinks of themselves, they cause drops when taken off) He still has -20 little blog backlinks w/ a quarter of them being exact match anchor text.
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | BobGW
-1 sitewide paid link - an image, exact match alt tag anchor text
-1 non-site-wide paid links that is an image near the footer, exact match alt tag anchor text.
-3 links on a domain, this one looks fairly editorial, but there are a bunch of paid links on that page. Changing to non-exact-match anchor text
-2 links on two domains that look completely editorial with no other paid links on that page. non-exact-match anchor text -70 backlinks total with about 1/3 being problematic. How does this site look in regards to updates and when to take links off without tanking our site even more? Thanks.0 -
Website slipped for particular keyword this year
www.schupepetents.co.nz I am webmaster for this site which slipped in rankings around 18/1/13. It was doing really well for keyword "marquee hire" ranking 6-8 for google.co.nz. It is now ranked about 30. Background. It has been ranked well for keyword for about 3 years. From what I can see there was a few websites that tumbled around this time. The website has been completely redone to a wordpress site this was in December last year. The switch was done before putting in 301 re directs to preserve internal page rank. As a result the internal page rank of pages has had to start again! Three things from online research into what has potentially affected this:
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | chopchop
1. Lack of website substance. As website has been redone it has lost Google "esteem" (lack of internal pages PR). But the time that it dropped was a long time after the site redesign.
2. Possible penalty for too high proportion of links from directory websites. Heard some whispers from forums that this had happened. But links are not just from directories.
3. Too many links with specific keyword (marquee hire) for junk sites. This is possibly true but why the drop at that time when no one else experienced this. Also we hired a company mid last year who link bombed using "marquee hire" and a couple other keywords. Moz seems to be very happy with the website!! Good link scores and on-page optimisation is great. Wondering what has happened?!0 -
Single-words high keyword density. How many is too many.
Dear All SeoMoz users, I'm a web designer for some time now. Doing some basic SEO from time to time. I just started up with brand new website. The website is not ranking very well for 2nd line keyword (keyword density < 2%), but the problem is not ranking at all for for my main keyword. I think the problem is the keyword density. For phrases that are 3-words long my keyword density is less than 4%. I suspect the problem is that keyword density for single-word phrases is between 8-12%. Please note that the 3 words with highest keyword density make my main 3-words long keyword. Is this the case? Should I be avoiding keyword density larger than 4% for single-word phrases as well? What is you experiences is this matter? Could my single-word phrases be treated as keyword stuffing by Google?
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | pseefeld0