Skip to content
    Moz logo Menu open Menu close
    • Products
      • Moz Pro
      • Moz Pro Home
      • Moz Local
      • Moz Local Home
      • STAT
      • Moz API
      • Moz API Home
      • Compare SEO Products
      • Moz Data
    • Free SEO Tools
      • Domain Analysis
      • Keyword Explorer
      • Link Explorer
      • Competitive Research
      • MozBar
      • More Free SEO Tools
    • Learn SEO
      • Beginner's Guide to SEO
      • SEO Learning Center
      • Moz Academy
      • MozCon
      • Webinars, Whitepapers, & Guides
    • Blog
    • Why Moz
      • Digital Marketers
      • Agency Solutions
      • Enterprise Solutions
      • Small Business Solutions
      • The Moz Story
      • New Releases
    • Log in
    • Log out
    • Products
      • Moz Pro

        Your all-in-one suite of SEO essentials.

      • Moz Local

        Raise your local SEO visibility with complete local SEO management.

      • STAT

        SERP tracking and analytics for enterprise SEO experts.

      • Moz API

        Power your SEO with our index of over 44 trillion links.

      • Compare SEO Products

        See which Moz SEO solution best meets your business needs.

      • Moz Data

        Power your SEO strategy & AI models with custom data solutions.

      Let your business shine with Listings AI
      Moz Local

      Let your business shine with Listings AI

      Learn more
    • Free SEO Tools
      • Domain Analysis

        Get top competitive SEO metrics like DA, top pages and more.

      • Keyword Explorer

        Find traffic-driving keywords with our 1.25 billion+ keyword index.

      • Link Explorer

        Explore over 40 trillion links for powerful backlink data.

      • Competitive Research

        Uncover valuable insights on your organic search competitors.

      • MozBar

        See top SEO metrics for free as you browse the web.

      • More Free SEO Tools

        Explore all the free SEO tools Moz has to offer.

      NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic
      Moz Pro

      NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic

      Learn more
    • Learn SEO
      • Beginner's Guide to SEO

        The #1 most popular introduction to SEO, trusted by millions.

      • SEO Learning Center

        Broaden your knowledge with SEO resources for all skill levels.

      • On-Demand Webinars

        Learn modern SEO best practices from industry experts.

      • How-To Guides

        Step-by-step guides to search success from the authority on SEO.

      • Moz Academy

        Upskill and get certified with on-demand courses & certifications.

      • MozCon

        Save on Early Bird tickets and join us in London or New York City

      Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints
      Moz API

      Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints

      Find your plan
    • Blog
    • Why Moz
      • Digital Marketers

        Simplify SEO tasks to save time and grow your traffic.

      • Small Business Solutions

        Uncover insights to make smarter marketing decisions in less time.

      • Agency Solutions

        Earn & keep valuable clients with unparalleled data & insights.

      • Enterprise Solutions

        Gain a competitive edge in the ever-changing world of search.

      • The Moz Story

        Moz was the first & remains the most trusted SEO company.

      • New Releases

        Get the scoop on the latest and greatest from Moz.

      Surface actionable competitive intel
      New Feature

      Surface actionable competitive intel

      Learn More
    • Log in
      • Moz Pro
      • Moz Local
      • Moz Local Dashboard
      • Moz API
      • Moz API Dashboard
      • Moz Academy
    • Avatar
      • Moz Home
      • Notifications
      • Account & Billing
      • Manage Users
      • Community Profile
      • My Q&A
      • My Videos
      • Log Out

    The Moz Q&A Forum

    • Forum
    • Questions
    • Users
    • Ask the Community

    Welcome to the Q&A Forum

    Browse the forum for helpful insights and fresh discussions about all things SEO.

    1. Home
    2. SEO Tactics
    3. Technical SEO
    4. How do I handle duplicate content of the same product in Multiple product categories?

    Moz Q&A is closed.

    After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.

    How do I handle duplicate content of the same product in Multiple product categories?

    Technical SEO
    3
    9
    4940
    Loading More Posts
    • Oldest to Newest
    • Newest to Oldest
    • Most Votes
    Reply
    • Reply as question
    Log in to reply
    This topic has been deleted. Only users with question management privileges can see it.
    • Kelly_S
      Kelly_S last edited by

      I am building a BigCommerce store for selling framed art.  Many of the pieces of art will fall in more than one product category.

      Let's say I have a framed print of a photograph of a western landscape.  This piece of art would fit into these categories;  "western", "landscape", and "photography".   I would have three pages with duplicate content for just this one framed print.

      Will google give me less page rank due to this?  Can all the link juice be given to just one of the three categories by use of rel=canonical?  If so, does anyone know how to do this for a bigcommerce site?

      I would appreciate any feedback.

      Thanks,

      Kelly

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • danatanseo
        danatanseo last edited by

        Hey Kelly,

        Awesome! I am so glad that relieved your worries. You are very welcome 🙂

        Dana

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • Kelly_S
          Kelly_S @danatanseo last edited by

          Hello Dana,

          It works perfectly!  I entered one product under three different categories and the same URL showed for all three.

          Thank You!

          Kelly

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
          • Kelly_S
            Kelly_S @CleverPhD last edited by

            Thanks for your help!

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • Kelly_S
              Kelly_S @danatanseo last edited by

              Hello Dana,
              BigCommerce does allow a person to assign a product to  multiple categories so it probably works the same way.   I was under the impression that when one product was assigned to multiple categories that a different URL would be used for each category.  If the same URL is used as with your store, my problem is solved.  I will check that out.

              Thank you very much!

              Kelly

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • danatanseo
                danatanseo last edited by

                Hi Kelly,

                I am much more familiar with Volusion and 3Dcart, but I imagine that Big Commerce might work in a similar way. Inside the admin panel, when you are building products and categories, it is very easy to assign one product to multiple categories.  As CleverPhd suggests, this is accomplished because the products aren't nested under category directories, they have their own.

                Here is an example of one of the 3dcart stores I manage. This product: https://www.celebratecommunion.com/prefilled-communion-cups-with-wafers-box-of-500.html  actually belongs to 3 different categories: "Prefilled Communion Cups" "Communion Supplies" "Home Page Specials"   However, it retains the same URL across all categories. In both 3dcart and Volusion, when you are building a product you can customize the URL and then simply select with drop down boxes which categories you want that product to be applied to. I imagines Big Commerce would be quite similar, but having never used it I can't say for sure. As long as the URL for the product page doesn't change, you could put it in 100's of categories and it would never be considered duplicate content because it only has one unique URL.

                I hope that helps a little. Let me know if my answer raises more questions than it answers 🙂

                Dana

                Kelly_S 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 1
                • CleverPhD
                  CleverPhD @Kelly_S last edited by

                  See the URL examples above.   Basically dont nest product pages under sub categories or category folders.

                  Kelly_S 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                  • Kelly_S
                    Kelly_S @CleverPhD last edited by

                    Hello,

                    Thank you for responding to my question.

                    I'm not sure what you mean by this....."completely separate your product URLs from your category URLs".  My level of knowledge isn't advanced.

                    CleverPhD 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                    • CleverPhD
                      CleverPhD last edited by

                      You should separate your paginated product list pages from your product pages (as far as the URL structure) or only use main categories in the URLs for products.

                      Consider these example product list pages.  You have your main list of products

                      domain.com/category1/sub1/

                      Then you have pages 2-n that lets people browse products

                      domain.com/category1/sub1/page2-n

                      You could have other examples of this (your example would be)

                      domain.com/category1/sub2/

                      domain.com/category1/sub2/page2-n

                      In your example, you have a product that can go in sub1 or sub2 and so you dont want

                      domain.com/category1/sub1/product-abc

                      domain.com/category1/sub2/product-abc

                      as yes - these would be duplicates and cause issues.  Yes you could use the canonical to link to the main product, but what would work better is this

                      domain.com/category1/product-abc

                      If you get rid of the subcategory in the URLs you can take advantage of having the KW from the main category etc.  Likewise, if you had a product that could sit in multiple main categories, then it may be you need to use a the approach of

                      domain.com/products/products-abc

                      and just completely separate your product URLs from your category URLs.

                      It would seem that with the use of photographs you will need to always have multiple categories and so this may be your best approach.

                      You need to sit down with a big whiteboard and map all of this out as it will get complicated real quick.  Then run all your products through it and see if it makes sense.

                      Kelly_S 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
                      • 1 / 1
                      • First post
                        Last post

                      Got a burning SEO question?

                      Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.


                      Start my free trial


                      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.

                      • See all categories

                      Related Questions

                      • megan.helmer

                        Recurring events and duplicate content

                        Does anyone have tips on how to work in an event system to avoid duplicate content in regards to recurring events? How do I best utilize on-page optimization?

                        Technical SEO | | megan.helmer
                        0
                      • Lina500

                        How does Google view duplicate photo content?

                        Now that we can search by image on Google and see every site that is using the same photo, I assume that Google is going to use this as a signal for ranking as well. Is that already happening? I ask because I have sold many photos over the years with first-use only rights, where I retain the copyright. So I have photos on my site that I own the copyright for that are on other sites (and were there first). I am not sure if I should make an effort to remove these photos from my site or if I can wait another couple years.

                        Technical SEO | | Lina500
                        0
                      • bobjohn1

                        Duplicate content on Product pages for different product variations.

                        I have multiple colors of the same product, but as a result I'm getting duplicate content warnings. I want to keep these all different products with their own pages, so that the color can be easily identified by browsing the category page. Any suggestions?

                        Technical SEO | | bobjohn1
                        0
                      • kathiravan

                        How to resolve this Duplicate content?

                        Hi , There is page i get when i do proper menu navigation Caratlane.com>jewellery>rings>casualsrings> http://www.caratlane.com/jewellery/rings/casual-rings/leaves-dew-diamond-0-03-ct-peridot-1-ct-ring-18k-yellow-gold.html When i do a site search in my search box by my product code number "JR00219" The same page is appears with different url http://www.caratlane.com/leaves-dew-diamond-0-03-ct-peridot-1-ct-ring-18k-yellow-gold.html So there is a duplicate content. How can we resolve it. Regards, kathir caratlane.com

                        Technical SEO | | kathiravan
                        0
                      • ericmccarty

                        How much to change to avoid duplicate content?

                        Working on a site for a dentist.  They have a long list of services that they want us to flesh out with text.  They provided a bullet list of services, we're trying to get 1 to 2 paragraphs of text for each. Obviously, we're not going to write this off the top of our heads.  We're pulling text from other sources and trying to rework. The question is, how much rephrasing do we have to do to avoid a duplicate content penalty?  Do we make sure there are changes per paragraph, sentence, or phrase? Thanks! Eric

                        Technical SEO | | ericmccarty
                        0
                      • hawkvt1

                        Duplicate content and http and https

                        Within my Moz crawl report, I have a ton of duplicate content caused by identical pages due to identical pages of http and https URL's. For example: http://www.bigcompany.com/accomodations https://www.bigcompany.com/accomodations The strange thing is that 99% of these URL's are not sensitive in nature and do not require any security features.  No credit card information, booking, or carts.  The web developer cannot explain where these extra URL's came from or provide any further information. Advice or suggestions are welcome!  How do I solve this issue? THANKS MOZZERS

                        Technical SEO | | hawkvt1
                        0
                      • CPLDistribution

                        Duplicate Content issue

                        I have been asked to review an old website to an identify opportunities for increasing search engine traffic. Whilst reviewing the site I came across a strange loop. On each page there is a link to printer friendly version: http://www.websitename.co.uk/index.php?pageid=7&printfriendly=yes That page also has a link to a printer friendly version http://www.websitename.co.uk/index.php?pageid=7&printfriendly=yes&printfriendly=yes and so on and so on....... Some of these pages are being included in Google's index. I appreciate that this can't be a good thing, however, I am not 100% sure as to the extent to which it is a bad thing and the priority that should be given to getting it sorted. Just wandering what views people have on the issues this may cause?

                        Technical SEO | | CPLDistribution
                        0
                      • jackson_lo

                        CGI Parameters: should we worry about duplicate content?

                        Hi, My question is directed to CGI Parameters. I was able to dig up a bit of content on this but I want to make sure I understand the concept of CGI parameters and how they can affect indexing pages. Here are two pages: No CGI parameter appended to end of the URL: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/13/world/asia/13japan.html CGI parameter appended to the end of the URL: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/13/world/asia/13japan.html?pagewanted=2&ref=homepage&src=mv Questions: Can we safely say that CGI parameters = URL parameters that append to the end of a URL? Or are they different? And given that you have rel canonical implemented correctly on your pages, search engines will move ahead and index only the URL that is specified in that tag? Thanks in advance for giving your insights. Look forward to your response. Best regards, Jackson

                        Technical SEO | | jackson_lo
                        0

                      Get started with Moz Pro!

                      Unlock the power of advanced SEO tools and data-driven insights.

                      Start my free trial
                      Products
                      • Moz Pro
                      • Moz Local
                      • Moz API
                      • Moz Data
                      • STAT
                      • Product Updates
                      Moz Solutions
                      • SMB Solutions
                      • Agency Solutions
                      • Enterprise Solutions
                      Free SEO Tools
                      • Domain Authority Checker
                      • Link Explorer
                      • Keyword Explorer
                      • Competitive Research
                      • Brand Authority Checker
                      • Local Citation Checker
                      • MozBar Extension
                      • MozCast
                      Resources
                      • Blog
                      • SEO Learning Center
                      • Help Hub
                      • Beginner's Guide to SEO
                      • How-to Guides
                      • Moz Academy
                      • API Docs
                      About Moz
                      • About
                      • Team
                      • Careers
                      • Contact
                      Why Moz
                      • Case Studies
                      • Testimonials
                      Get Involved
                      • Become an Affiliate
                      • MozCon
                      • Webinars
                      • Practical Marketer Series
                      • MozPod
                      Connect with us

                      Contact the Help team

                      Join our newsletter
                      Moz logo
                      © 2021 - 2025 SEOMoz, Inc., a Ziff Davis company. All rights reserved. Moz is a registered trademark of SEOMoz, Inc.
                      • Accessibility
                      • Terms of Use
                      • Privacy

                      Looks like your connection to Moz was lost, please wait while we try to reconnect.