'Results pages'
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Hey there,
I have a website that my client is update it every day with some 'results' for example - see attached image.
What is the best way to avoid 7 duplicate content pages every day? -
Hi John! Did Don's response help?
I have to say, I'm also curious as to why it's necessary to have 7 variations of these pages.
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Hello John,
If I understood correctly, you have 7 variations of a page that gets updated daily. However the variations are only distinct in that they have different numbers and dates.
So my first question, is this an A&B test? Meaning is your client trying to figure out which one of the 7 pages is the best? If that is the case then the first variation should be normal with each other variation being "No Index". Here is some help on A&B testing here on Moz. Link Of course once you find the "best" version then you use that and stop using the other variations.
If this is not a test then I have to question the purpose of having 7 variations of the same page with the same text. This is the reason that there are duplicate content penalties. People do not want to read the same page 7 different ways, Google realized this awhile ago and started ignoring or penalizing sites that were doing exactly this. What Google wants is what people want and that is actual content that is helpful, insightful, and well written. If your client wants to auto generate and butcher a dictionary on 7 different pages then let them, I wouldn't want to be part of it.
That may sound harsh, but the point is there is no viable reason I know of outside of A&B testing that would warrant creating multiple versions of a page. In the case of testing you simply add the no-index tag to the page and capture the metrics to find the best version. Once that is accomplished you have your page. Everything outside of that is black hat search engine manipulation and receives a well deserved frown.
My thoughts,
Don
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