How detrimental is duplicate page content?
-
We have a local site wherein we have multiple advanced search parameters based on facilities available at a particular place. So for instance, we list a set of fun places to take kids to in a city. We have a page for this. We now have ability to select a list of fun places that have parking facility available or which are "outdoor". Now we use parameters to address these additional search criteria. Would search engines treat them as duplicate pages and in case it would how detrimental would this be?
-
As others had answered before, if the pages with parameters are just a consequence of a filter, but don't actually add nothing relevant (aka: substantially duplicated of the not parametered URLs) or nothing all, than the best idea is having those URLs with noindex meta robots.
This will ensure that those pages, if they were crawled, will disappear from the index.
But this is just a general rule, because can exists many variations to that same rule (and we don't know how really has been developed your site).
For instance, if those pages cannot be physically crawl because the filters are behind a Javascript selector (something that can be verified disabling Java in the browser), then you should not suffer issues and, eventually, using the meta robots "noindex" should be just a prevention not really an intervention to something already happened.
-
If you no-index, any link pointing to that page will waste its link juice.
If you must do that no-index,follow so the link juice can flow back out.
if your site is mainly duplicates then you have a problem, but if it is just a few pages, don't worry.
google will give credit to one page and will disregard the others. -
I guess it depends how much duplication there is. If the pages contain completely duplicate content with no unique content at all then the best move would be to noindex or nofollow them. Otherwise rel=canonical is probably fine.
-
Does rel="canonical" only indicate to Google the preferred page or does it also indicate that the content on the current page is duplicate in nature? Should it be better if we actually remove these pages from the index by providing for a "noindex" on the page?
-
Duplicate content is detrimental but the issue is relatively easy to solve. Just ensure you add rel="canonical" tags to the duplicate pages to allow Google to identify and rank the preferred page.
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
-
Why is my site stuck on page 2 even though it has higher DA?
Hi, I'm just trying to figure out why we're still not on first page for 'criminal lawyer sydney' (stuck on result #15) - I checked out SEO Moz and I can see the Domain Authority for our site 'criminal-lawyer.com.au' - is at 23 which is higher than other sites that rank on first page of this search. I've done a bunch of technical stuff on the site too - so if anyone can give any insight on why this could be happening it would be much appreicated. Thanks!
Local Listings | | SEOByTheMinute0 -
Multiple Local Domains and Location Pages Question
Hello Everyone, So we have a priority site (domain.com) but also a geo-specific site for another location we have (domainNYC.com). Assuming both have completely unique content, different contact information and it’s justifiable to have a second domain (i.e. resources, brand/link equity…etc.) would it be recommend to also use the sub-folder approach on our primary (meaning domain.com/nyc)? And then potentially linking to domainNYC.com (just the once, not overdoing it)? Or just play it safe and keep them separate. Our concern is doing both sub-folder and separate domain might cannibalize on local searches resulting in us essentially competing with ourselves for those terms. The benefit would be leveraging the priority domain and driving visitors there. We could always ‘noindex, follow' the sub-folder page so users have access to the address on the primary domain too but wanted to see if anyone had any thoughts or suggestions as well as how it could pertain to linking (scarcely). We have found a lot of information on choosing one over the other but not as much for whether both is recommended so any extra insight would be very appreciated. Looking forward to hearing from all of you! Thank you in advance for the help! Best,
Local Listings | | Ben-R0 -
How Do I Remove Address from Google Business Page?
Not very up to date in handling local listings, so here's my situation. I have an office that is not going out of business, but instead going virtual. So that physical address will no longer exist but the team is intact. So I am dealing with the Google Business Listing page for this office at https://business.google.com/ In the "Published on" section, it has Google Search, Google Maps, and Google+. I want to remove it from Maps and the address from this account. There's an address for this store, but editing it only seems to allow changing, but not removal. There is also the option of "Mark as Permanently Closed", but surely that isn't the best option since that will leave a nasty red "PERMANENTLY CLOSED" in the results when searching. What's the best course of action here?
Local Listings | | nbyloff0 -
Home Page Online Citations, Blogs, etc
I have 400 backlinks to home page no backlinks to the other 20 pages, i have used yelp, free index and other online citation sources all lead to my home page as do articles, blogs etc. My home page ranks position 1 page 1 google for keyword, should i know start adding backlinks to the other 20 pages via links from blogs, articles, youtube, etc Site is 2 months old thanks
Local Listings | | nickowain0 -
Google keeps updating/tweaking my Local business branch addresses ? to whats different in my citations and on page. how can I stop it?
Hi All, I have a number of branches as we have separate branch pages and separate google local listings for these. I have been trying to keep them in consistent for citation purposes but google keeps trying to tweak the address in the local listings. Sometimes for example , google is trying to remove the premises number from the Road e.g 78 Doncaster Road is the actual branch address but google local business wants it as Doncaster Road, I also see Google is wanting to sometimes remove the locality name etc?.. Also If the local listing has a county ( in America - you would have State) , google is sometimes wanting to remove this add United Kingdom in Country instead ?. Is this a problem and how to deal with it as I think this is obviously impacting my local rankings?. If i approve all these changes then do I need update all my citations and page addresses all the time ? Or can I just leave the suggested "Update" or overwrite googles suggestion with what I had originally. Does anyone else have this problem ? thanks pete
Local Listings | | PeteC120 -
Local Search - Multiple Locations, do i link the home page or the inner page?
Hello, For a business with multiple locations that has a web url built for each location such as: Website.com/miami Website.com/los-angeles For local search (Google+, Yelp, etc), is it best to link the local search pages to the specific page of that location? Or is the homepage sufficient enough? I ask that because it is ALREADY touch getting NATURAL links to a location page, so would local search do me good by linking to the exact page of the location?
Local Listings | | Shawn1241 -
Duplicate Content From Citations?
Hi everyone, A number of citations ask for a business description, so I want to use one from our website. However, would this get flagged as duplicate content or some other problem? Do I need to write unique descriptions for every listing site? Thanks, Ruben
Local Listings | | KempRugeLawGroup0 -
Google+ Local and a Google+ Company Page
I have an established G+ company page but also want a G+ Local listing in order to appear on Google maps. The company does have a physical address, phone number etc. to qualify for a G+ Local listing. No current local listing exists to claim. Should I: a) Switch the currrent G+ company page to be a G+ Local page; or b) Create a new G+ Local page and keep the G+ company page; or c) Ignore G+ Local and create the listing through Google Places Thanks
Local Listings | | bjalc20110