Categories VS Tag Duplicate Content

[neoconsulting]

Hello Moz community,

I have a question about categories and tags . Our customer www.elshow.pe just had a redesign of its website. We use the same categories listed before . The only change was that two sub categories were added ( these sub-categories were popular tags before ) .Then now I have 2 URL's covering the same content:

• The first is the URL of the subcategory : www.elshow.pe/realitys/combate/
• The second is the URL that is generated by the tag "combate" that is www.elshow.pe/noticias/combate/

I have the same with the second sub category: "Esto es guerra"

• www.elshow.pe/realitys/esto-es-guerra/
• www.elshow.pe/noticias/esto-es-guerra/

The problem is when I search the keyword "combate" in my country (Perú), the URL that positions is the tag URL in 1st page. But, when I search for "esto es guerra" the URL that positions is the **sub category **in the second page.

I also check in OSE both links and sub categories goes better than tags. So what do you guys recommend for this? 301 redirect? canonicals? Any coment is welcome. Thanks a lot for your time.

Italo,
@italominano

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[dohertyjf]

The solution completely depends on what your goals are. Are you investing in those tag pages? Is there a reason to keep them around?

If you noindex as the others here suggested, you're not only not going to rank with that page, you probably won't with the other. I'd decide what you want to support (it seems categories) and redirect the tag pages. Second best option is a canonical, but then you still have the support the tag pages, the search engines might not respect it, and you're putting a bandaid on a bigger wound.

Hope this helps you think through it!

[Ria_]

I would suggest noindexing these tag pages so that they don't appear in Google and therefore pose no duplicate content issues with Google. Bit of pet peeve of mine to have tag pages being indexed... though they're great for on-site navigation!