Clarification on duplicate content
-
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.
-
@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!
-
@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.
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
-
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 -
Same content but translated. Penalization?
Hi There, I’ve got a question. There are two website that are under the same proprietor but must stay not related (different brand, different IP, different country, different language). The question is: Does google penalize one of the site if I entirely translate the content from site 1 to site2? Thank you very much for you input 😉
Content Development | | Midleton0 -
Duplicate Content
Hi All, I am doing work for a rug company that acts as a third party. They have close to 4,000+ products. Each rug belongs to a collection. The collection has one main description that is the same throughout every rug in the collection. Ex. One Collection has 15 rugs, all with the same description. Should I take the time and change every single description? I think the answer is yes but I wanted another opinion. Thanks
Content Development | | Mike.NW0 -
Similar Content
I'm in the process of launching two new websites (redesign / rebrand) - one website represents the manufacturer while a second website represents the retail side of the manufacturer (same company essentially but two different brands). The sites have co-existed historically without worry of canibalizing the other's traffic, but I want to make sure in this redesign that we're all set. I'm curious if anyone has any recommendations on how to handle two sites with different branding but VERY similar content (product descriptions are essentially the same). I was thinking it could be smart to just no follow the content on the manufacturers site since we're just trying to drive traffic to the consumer-facing retail side mostly anyway but would love to hear from the experts! Thank you.
Content Development | | TheBatesMillStore0 -
How to Get Rid of Duplicate Content Captured on Article Lists
We have a ton of articles and blog posts on our site. Currently, we display summary lists of articles that contain the first paragraph of the article in the summary list. However, in my reports, this is coming back as duplicate content with the full article itself. How do I fix this? Ex: article main page- http://www.robots.com/articles/10 First article on that page- http://www.robots.com/articles/viewing/grippers-for-robots (which shows up as duplicate content with the main artilce page). With our blogs, we have the most recent 5 blogs (in the same summary format) listed on our main blog page. We then have categories that people can sort by. But again, this is causing us duplicate content because those pages show the first paragraph of the blogs related to that category. Ex: blog main page- http://www.robots.com/blog. First blog listed on that page- http://www.robots.com/blog/viewing/robots-and-automation-bringing-jobs-back-to-the-united-states (which then shows as duplicate content with the main blog page). And then you can also select categories to see related topics: http://www.robots.com/blog/category/buying-a-robot which is showing as duplicate content also. Help! How can I prevent this? Thanks! JWanner
Content Development | | jwanner0 -
Duplicate Content
I am wondering what is the best way to show google that there is duplicate content on the page. for example on our product pages they are unique content except we give the same guarantee and promise on every product providing some duplicate content. What is the best way to fix this issue?
Content Development | | DoRM0 -
Can you link build without adding any content to the website?
I am an agency-side SEO who has a few different SEO clients. A couple of them absolutely refuse to add any content to their site - no blog, no articles, no link bait, nothing. They have resisted efforts for any content to be placed on their site - whether it is written by us, them, or a third party. They just don't see the value in it, despite my attempts to persuade them. As a result, these websites are just brochure websites. What are your options for link building in this situation? If content is the foundation of white hat link building, what do you do if the client refuses to add content to their site? All help gratefully received! Thanks
Content Development | | kevinmorley0 -
Does content have a shelf life for link building efforts?
Do you think that content (that doesn't have a date attached) has a shelf life? Especially content that is effectively timeless such as a quiz? I've noticed in my link building efforts that most links are achieved within the first couple of weeks, and that there seems to be a point of diminishing returns. Why do you think that may be?
Content Development | | nicole.healthline0