Clarification on duplicate content

[smiller76]

Hi, if I have a page that unintentionally ranks for a term that I want to create a page for - say "atlanta apartments" - should I still create a page specifically intended to rank for "atlanta apartments"? Will canonical tags be crucial in this case?

Hoping to avoid creating duplicate content and instead create the correct content for a specific term.

[chegsayshi]

@smiller76 Hey there, this is something I've plenty of experience with.

Canonical tags are helpful when there's a single page that's accessible by multiple URLs, or different pages with similar content.

In this instance, your page is ranking for 'atlanta apartments,' but is it in the first organic position? Is 'atlanta apartments' the target keyword for the page? These are improtant questions to ask, because they'll help you understand what your next steps are.

A page will rank for many different keywords, but it's unlikely to rank in the first position for every keyword.

Let's say your page ranking for 'atlanta apartments' has content relevant to apartments in Atlanta, but this isn't the main target keyword. Well there's an opportunity to create a new page with unique content targeting that keyword ('atlanta apartments'), and so long as the content is unique and doesn't include duplicate content from the other page, the canonical tag should point to the new page URL.

To summarize, if the new page is unique, the canonical tag should point to the new page URL. If it's a duplicate of the existing page (which I wouldn't recommend), the canonical tag should point to the existing page URL to avoid duplicate content penalization.

Keyword research will help you develop your content strategy and understand what keywords to target without cannabilizing current keyword rankings. Here's a helpful blog post from a colleague at our agency: SEO keyword research guide

Hope all of this is helpful and good luck with your content creation efforts!

[piotrstarzynski]

@smiller76 If I were You, I would create a specific page for a keyword you mentioned as long as it's worth your effort. That means it's a kewyord with some popularity.

It should raise up conversions. If the content doesn't match to keyword the position may be temporary. So if the keyword popularity is decent I would add some more content to the current page to match the keyword.

If you choose new address, don't forget to link it well.

I am doing exactly the same stuff. My business website is about SEO in general, but I prefer to have exact address with the details about SEO.

Take a look:
https://piotrstarzynski.com
https://piotrstarzynski.com/pozycjonowanie/

I choose the second approach to have one page, but stronger at start. In the end I plan to add dedicated address for few the most important SEO subservices.