Duplicate content affects on overall rankings

[KerryK]

Hi guys,

I have a website that has 23 pages with duplicate content. These pages serve the same function, which enables customers to upload their images. There is not much content on each one but we require a different page for each of our products, here is an example page: http://www.point101.com/giclee_printing/upload#/upload

I don't think it makes sense to use a canonical tag as each page is for a different product and I think its going to be difficult to differentiate each page. I was wondering:

1. If this has a negative effect on the ranking of our homepage and other main product pages or if its an issue we do not need to worry too much about.

2. If anyone has any other ideas as to how we can resolve this issue.

Thanks,
Kerry

[KerryK]

Thanks for the suggestions Guys. I'll have a think and see what fits best.

[AlanMosley]

I would not no-index them, as links pointing to no-indexed pages waste link juice. I don't think you have a problem. The duplicate or thin content pages may not rank well, but they will not have a negative affect on your home page.

http://www.searchenginejournal.com/matt-cutts-explains-duplicate-content-affects-rankings/82327/

[David-Kley]

Since this focuses more on usability rather than search engine optimization, just block the pages in robots, and set them to no index. If you want on page to be able to be found, then leave one as index, follow. Generally, Google will index the page that was created last, as an attempt to index the newest, freshest content.

Also, check your site map and see if all the urls exist in there. If they do, remove all but one. This should take care of getting the pages unindexed and not affecting any seo efforts.

Hope this helps!

[TheeDigital]

Do the pages really need to be indexed?  I would say in your case it makes sense just to no-index them.  At worst, Google will probably just hide some of the pages in the search result anyway, so save them a step.