Franchise-Like Duplicate Sites
-
I know that ideally businesses that operate as franchises should have 1 site with separate location pages. However, I have a slightly different issue.
Each location is owned by a different parent company, and named accordingly. For example, there is "Location by XYZ Company" and "Location by ABC Company." In addition, each location, while carrying similar products, does not carry the same exact products and brands.
So my question is how would you go about writing the content for each of these sites, keeping the same tone but avoiding duplicate content?
-
When it comes to duplicate content, Google typically compares one web page versus another web page. So, if the site does have a different company name (franchise name) and carries a different set of products or a some similar products, then it sounds as if the pages on the site won't be considered duplicates. They may be similar, but not necessarily duplicates. It would be best to make sure that each site doesn't use the same exact web design template, as well.
You can run the site through Copyscape.com and Siteliner.com to identify duplicate content issues with the sites. Most good writers will be able to write the content in a way that talks about the same products or services but doesn't include the same text as other sites.
-
As Donald says you can rewrite content for each location and give it a location specific flavor.
One thing I would also recommend when working on something like this is spend the time trying to get some user generated content such a reviews and testimonials. This will give it a more unique local feel.
If each location has similar products but not exactly the same could you slightly vary product focus and weight of content accordingly.
I don't know you setup or budget but you could even look to get different writers for different locations. You may even look to get different business owners/franchise managers to have input on the content for their site. In some situations you may even have some keen to write some content that you can proof/edit.
Hope this helps
-
Avoiding duplicate content is easy, do not copy the content written for one site and paste to another site. The key here will be creativity. Writing uniquely different content that is specific to each location is a challenge but it will pay off in the long run.
Say the service is doggy day care, the content can be uniquely different from each location while promoting the services located at each location. Just write it differently. Use terms common to each location while being specific to services. Maybe one service in the scenario is outside playtime. One location may have a Nancy who runs the dogs out side and has unique qualifications then Bob who does the same thing at another location. Same service different content.
Is the site an online store that sells products online?
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
-
Blog.site.com vs site.com/blog
Which is better for SEO: blog.site.com or site.com/blog. In other words, is it better to have the blog running in a subdomain or as a director within the main site? Right now we are running as a subdomain, but want to be sure Google isn't considering that a separate site. The blog shows up separately on Google Analytics, which makes me think site.com/blog is better if for no other reason, it would give our domain greater traffic. Not sure if this matters, but some site info: our site is a sharing economy tool for renting your stuff we are running the blog on Wordpress blog traffic is about 5% of total traffic
Content Development | | TapGoods0 -
Product descriptions, when do they become classed as duplicate content, how different do they have to be?
I look after 3 sites which have a lot of crossover on products. We have 1000s of products and I've made it a requirement that we give each it's on description on each of the sites. This sounds like the right thing to but it's very hard for our content writers to write three different versions descriptions, especially when we have variations on the products so potentially writing unique product descriptions for 4-5 very similar products on three separate sites. We've worked very hard to create unique content deep through the site on all categories, subcategories and tag combinations and along with the other SEO work we've done over the last couple of years is producing great results. My question is now far do we have to go? I'm busy writing some product descriptions for a 3rd party site for some of our products, the easy thing to do is just copy and paste but I want Google to see the descriptions as unique. Whilst all SEO advice will say 'write unique descriptions' from a practical point of view this isn't especially useful as there doesn't really seem to be much guidance on how different they need to be. I gather we can't just move around the paragraphs or jumble up sentences a bit but it is easier to work from a description and change it than it is to start from a blank slate (our products range form being very interesting and unique, to quite everyday so sometimes tough to create varied unique content for). Does anyone know of any guidance or evidence of just how clever the Google algorithm is and how close content has to be before it becomes classed as the same or similar? Thanks Pete
Content Development | | PeterLeatherland0 -
Duplicate content between my web and Youtube
I have a web with 90 vídeos hosted in my Youtube channel and each video have an description in single url, but Youtube videos have no description. If I copy description from my web and paste to Youtube description, this is duplicate content for Google ?
Content Development | | VisualService1 -
How to add Press Releases the site without it will be consider Copied ?
Hello guys,
Content Development | | WayneRooney
There is a Press Releases company that posting every month 2 Press Releases in their website about our company. I want to show the Press Releases post in our company as well.
How can i do it without that it will be consider Copied text ? Thank you0 -
Duplicate Legal Content
Oftentimes lawyer websites will publish laws (codes, statutes, regulations, case law, etc). They add no value to the text, it's just copy pasted. Therefore, the same text/content may be on potentially hundreds of websites. Does google interpret this as duplicate content, or does it recognize government content as special? I want to have the laws on my website as well, however I am debating whether to add no follow tags or not. Or I'm thinking about adding value to the content by breaking down the specific law. However, even then at least 50% of the content on the page will still be the law, and I'm not sure if that is enough to be considered duplicate content.
Content Development | | irnikij0 -
Will a comment section on my site help with seo
I have never been a fan of comment pages such as the sun http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/tv/4783642/bruce-willis-appears-on-the-one-show-in-awkward-interview.html but i was told the other day that not only is it good for the reader but it is also good for seo and increase the number of times that google would visit the page and i would like to know if that is true. if you have added a comment section to your articles i would like to know if you have noticed any change.
Content Development | | ClaireH-1848860 -
Need help deciding how to display directory listings in way Google will like best
My blog site currently has maybe 100 posts and I do about 7-8 new a week. I am creating a directory for an this site, which will end up eventually being a few hundred or more entries eventually. In the directory browse/search listing, each directory listing will have a title and a short description (one or two lines) and will show about 10-20 per page. And then the user can click an entry to see more details for the particular directory listing. This is where I have a choice, and I want to know what is the best for my site, in Google's eyes of course. Options: 1. The listing detail is displayed on a separate page. 2. The listing detail is displayed below the entry that was clicked, on the same page, by use of jquery to slide down the other content blow it to make room for it. (It actually looks slick, I've tried it). If I were writing full, unique pages for each listing detail, I'd choose option #1. But the vendors are submitting the content. It's possible they might just copy and paste their site's About page into it, or they might not even add any more detail other than their address. I can't control it. So, if going with option #1, let's say a third of the vendors add nice unique content, a third paste in some dup content, and a third just leave it blank (there would still be an address, couple line short description, and a title on the page). Would this situation be good, not good or neutral for my site? I'm not sure if adding additional pages, maybe half to two-thirds of which could be somewhat duped or of minimal word length would be bad or neutral for my site overall. As for my existing and ongoing blog pages--they are all unique, long and Google seems to love them.
Content Development | | bizzer0