Third party pages
-
Suppose you are using a third party tool such as an affiliate program. Typically, all the files are organized under one subdirectory. In addition, you may have little or no ability to modify any of the files in terms of SEO. Would you recommend hiding the entire subdirectory with a noindex?
Best,
Christopher -
I am unclear on what you are asking. The only thing I can share based on your question is to noindex any content you don't wish Google to index or otherwise have concerns about.
-
If I noindex all links from my pages to the main page of the affiliate program, and Google can still see all the other pages within the affiliate subdirectory, is that OK? In other words, if I put a noindex firewall between my pages and the third party pages, is it OK that the third party pages exist in a subdirectory on my site?
Best,
Christopher -
I would recommend using the noindex meta tag over blocking pages with the robots.txt file. Either will achieve the same result, but the noindex tag is a superior solution for several reasons:
-
the noindex tag will allow a crawler to see the rest of the page and for your PR to continue it's natural flow throughout your site.
-
there are times when a robots.txt file is deleted or modified in error, and then you have a big headache on your hands. Even if a meta tag is erased, it would just affect a single page so the damage is a lot more manageable.
-
-
I should have been more clear. The affiliate code that we licensed tracks the referrals from our affiliates and pays commissions for conversions to sales. We installed the package in a subdirectory. While the package does allow some customization, the code is not written to be modified. A number of pages have the same titles.
Per your suggestion, I added a Disallow in the robots.txt to keep the bots away from that subdirectory.
Best,
Christopher -
You should have the ability to completely control any and all content which appears on your site. An affiliate program may provide images, suggested text, and may have certain requirements such as always including certain phrases, etc. That is fine, but not entire content blocks.
If you are sharing any content, affiliate or otherwise, which is not under your control or is duplicated on other sites, then yes, I would recommend the noindex tag being applied to the content.
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
-
Will it upset Google if I aggregate product page reviews up into a product category page?
We have reviews on our product pages and we are considering averaging those reviews out and putting them on specific category pages in order for the average product ratings to be displayed in search results. Each averaged category review would be only for the products within it's category, and all reviews are from users of the site, no 3rd party reviews. For example, averaging the reviews from all of our boxes products pages, and listing that average review on the boxes category page. My question is, will this be doing anything wrong in the eyes of Google, and if so how so? -Derick
On-Page Optimization | | Deluxe0 -
SEO Optimization for Sales Page
Hi, I am new to eCommerce. Traditionally I have run a couple of semi-successful websites relying largely on Adsense revenue and affiliate income. So I have a bit of experience with on page and off page SEO. This time around I am creating a membership site and also sell eBooks as bundles that non members can buy. My question is, should I SEO optimize the sales page for my eBook or use another content page that links to the sales page. For example, if I am selling an ebook on Dog Training and targeting the main KW "Dog Training Tips", should my sales page be optimized for "Dog Training Tips"? The reason I ask is because typically Sales pages do not provide a lot of useful information but are more geared around selling the product. The other option would be to create a helpful information page targeted for "Dog Training Tips" and lead users to my sales page through contextual links, banners, popups (I hate popups), etc. This would be the approach for the other LSI keywords anyways. Any thought would be appreciated.
On-Page Optimization | | dwautism0 -
Issue: Duplicate Page Content
Hello SEO experts, I'm facing duplicate page content issue on my website. My website is a apartments rental website when client search apartment for availability. Automatic generate same url's. I've already block these url's in robots.txt file but facing same issue. Kindly guide me what can I do. Here are some example links. http://availability.website.com/booking.php?id=17&bid=220
On-Page Optimization | | KLLC
http://availability.website.com/booking.php?id=17&bid=242
http://availability.website.com/booking.php?id=18&bid=214
http://availability.website.com/booking.php?id=18&bid=215
http://availability.website.com/booking.php?id=18&bid=256
http://availability.website.com/details.php?id=17&bid=220
http://availability.website.com/details.php?id=17&bid=242
http://availability.website.com/details.php?id=17&pid=220&bid=220
http://availability.website.com/details.php?id=17&pid=242&bid=242
http://availability.website.com/details.php?id=18&bid=214
http://availability.website.com/details.php?id=18&bid=215
http://availability.website.com/details.php?id=18&bid=256
http://availability.website.com/details.php?id=18&pid=214&bid=214
http://availability.website.com/details.php?id=18&pid=215&bid=215
http://availability.website.com/details.php?id=18&pid=256&bid=256
http://availability.website.com/details.php?id=3&bid=340
http://availability.website.com/details.php?id=3&pid=340&bid=340
http://availability.website.com/details.php?id=4&bid=363
http://availability.website.com/details.php?id=4&pid=363&bid=363
http://availability.website.com/details.php?id=6&bid=367
http://availability.website.com/details.php?id=6&pid=367&bid=367
http://availability.website.com/details.php?id=8&bid=168
http://availability.website.com/details.php?id=8&pid=168&bid=168 Thanks and waiting for your response | |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |0 -
"City page" links in footer of home page: Spammy?
Is listing a bunch of links to city pages in the footer of a home page considered "spammy" to Google? (ie- Chicago Alarms, Illinois Alarms, Naperville Alarms, etc.) What are the negative affects this might have on ranking, if any?
On-Page Optimization | | MChi0 -
Sold Products appear as duplicate pages 'Page Not Found' ???
Hi there, I'm down to just 6 duplicate page warnings but I'm not sure how to deal with this one: Information Page Not Found! http://www.vintageheirloom.com/index.php?route=information/information&information_id=6 My Ecommerce shopping site products are unique, 1 of a kind. So once one product has sold and been delivered we take the product off our website, hence the Information Page Not Found! As I understand when search engines re-index these warnings will drop off but new sold products would replace them. So redirecting seems like hard work and never ending. Is it ok to ignore these warnings? Thanks Mozzers..
On-Page Optimization | | well-its-1-louder0 -
Jquery in top of page vs text on bottom page
Is it the best way to use jquery sliders on the top of your page to still get all your text above the fold and score in search engines? for example: http://www.wolf-howl.com/wp-conte... is much better to score high ranks in search engines than http://www.wolf-howl.com/wp-conte... ?? Thanks!
On-Page Optimization | | HMK-NL0 -
Blog page outranks static page for KW -- why?
Blog page ranks 10 in Google, while the static page is on page 7. What makes it more interesting is that the blog page scores an "F" with the Term Target tool while the static page scores an "A". Static page has more inbound links and a mR/mT of 3.89/ 4.54 vs. 3.71/ 4.14 for the blog page. Any ideas on how to approach this one?
On-Page Optimization | | 540SEO0 -
Wordpress Pages vs. Posts
When building a blog to promote a particular affiliate offer, I usually like to use a static "page" homepage and then have my posts displayed on another part of my site. I've noticed that my wordpress pages almost always rank higher than wordpress posts and I can't explain it... Here are some possibilities I've thought of: XML Sitemap priority is set at 60% for pages and only 20% for posts My main navbar lists the pages which consequently means they get linked to on every page on my website. Some other phenomenon within the wordpress framework... If it helps, I use Thesis v1.8 on all my sites. I guess my ultimate question is: If pages do in fact rank higher than posts, is it worth it for me to go back and change the site structure on all my blogs which are using posts instead of pages. I know making major modifications like that can be disasterous but will it ultimately pay off? Thanks
On-Page Optimization | | drewhammond1