Optimizing 2 identical sites for different States
-
We have 2 websites that are about 99% similar in content, the only difference being the references to the State (CO and IN) and location information. Any recommendations on meta information or other ways to make sure we are not penalized for duplicate content? Thanks in advance!
-
Meghan,
The main focus should be around having as much original content in the sites as possible. If you create future content, don't duplicate that content too, be creative and unique when writing about the same topic. Put different ideas into it, make one 5 Tips and other 9 Tips so to speak or How To and Things to Know twists. Applying a lot of what Jeff mentioned above will be beneficial as well. Those were all great points! All the best in your launches!
Patrick
-
Meghan -
This is a pretty common occurrence with companies that have locations in different areas... especially if the ownership is slightly different.
What I would do is add as much unique content to each site, including:
- Photographs of each location, inside, outside, merchandise.
- Directions to the location from different areas. For example, for the Colorado location, give driving directions from DIA (airport), downtown Denver, Boulder, Grand Junction and Colorado Springs.
- Customer testimonials that are unique to each location.
- Local resources in each area. For example, if the location sells picture frames, put together a list of photographers in the area who are able to create amazing, award-winning images to fill those frames. Get images from those photographers to add to the site, and testimonials, etc. Another example might be if the location is a hotel or motel... you could list the "must see" attractions, restaurants around the business.
- Try to make sure your page names are different. Instead of /about-us/ or /about.html for the "About page" name this page /about-Denver-Colorado-businessname/ and /about-Indiana-Business-Name/ to keep page names as different as possible.
- Use a slightly different methodology for Title and Description tags as well.
- If possible, use different image names, sizes and alt-tag description for the images in the navigation and throughout the two different sites.
- Consider using RDFa microtagging to keep the sites Name, Address, Phone # information (NAP) separate and distinct.
- Consider using different Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterst pages to keep things separate.
- Consider using different hosting providers to keep the C-blocks as separate as you can. You could try hosting one site in Indiana and one in Colorado, or just use two different hosting companies.
Hope this helps!
-- Jeff
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
-
How to rank my site planetdocumentation.com
Hello, i created my site some months ago i know nothing about SEO , since then i have domain authority 3 only and have almost no visitors on my website . i don't know how to make it rank please someone could help me? or even recommend a site where i can even monthly pay directly so they do the SEO for me. Please contact me on my site chat i'm always online https://planetdocumentation.com
Image & Video Optimization | | planetdocs1 -
Redirecting photos during site redesign?
Hello, We are doing a website redesign for a long-standing client. Their new website is completely different and includes mostly new elements, My question is do we need to redirect photo URLs if they are no longer on the site, and if so where do we redirect them, the homepage? Thank you! Tyler
Image & Video Optimization | | BeyondIndigo0 -
Identical pages with different URL's
Hi All,I have a page with the titleFunny charactersanother page as Funny Characters/VideosAlmost all data is same in both URL's except the videos page will have 20+ video thumbnailsHow can i set Google not to index the images only on this page and consider both pages as identical and not create any issues but yet scan the videos.Thanks
Image & Video Optimization | | jomin740 -
Optimizing Images Already on Website
I am familiar with tools to reduce jpeg images file size etc before uploading to website. After jpeg images are uploaded to a website, what can be done to enhance load speed of these images? Any software to compress images on a website already?
Image & Video Optimization | | khi50 -
Feedback on this site
Can I get some feedback on this site's seo efforts? I would like to know what they are doing right and what can be improved, especially the ones under the Locations menu. Link
Image & Video Optimization | | Atomicx0 -
Local listing sites - are they better than directories and is there a list?
Do you guys know of any local listing sites that are better quality than general directories that still give you a link back. I know a lot of them for local citations, but I'm wondering if there is a list somewhere of ones that include a link. Thanks.
Image & Video Optimization | | BobGW0 -
Video Optimization
Our videos are not appearing in Google video search. We use Brightcove for our videos and thety are in embedded in the site as flash and html 5. We are using meta data on the Brightcove videos We have added a video sitemap and submitted it to GWT - but after several months, our videos are still not showing up Any ideas how we can address this problem and better optimize our videos for the search engines? While we post some of our videos on Youtube, we use Brightcove when we embed and publish the videos on our site
Image & Video Optimization | | tim.mcgovern0 -
Has anyone created a top (Insert # Here) list of local business listing sites?
Has anyone created a top (Insert # Here) list of local business listing sites we should manually submit to? I have around 20 or so but I was wondering if someone could give me a list to cross reference. I have quite a few local business that I work with and I want to make sure I'm hitting all of the main local listings. I also spend time searching for niche listing sites too for each client, so if you have any suggestions on easier ways to find these as well, I'm game. If you have created a list and its out in the wild somewhere I will be happy to link to it from my site. I'm always open to giving some LL to helpful people. Who's up for building a tool that will search through X number of local directories and report back to you if you are listed or not. (Not getlisted.org) You can select a checklist of sites that you want to check. (; Thanks Aaron
Image & Video Optimization | | Shipyard_Agency0