Templated content = duplicate content?
-
I'm curious where the line is drawn for "duplicate content" by the search engines. Obviously the same article, or even the same article with minor edits, can and should be detected as duplicate.
I have a use case where there is a database of similar, but not duplicate, content that changes as time passes. I want to serve this content up via html template but don't want the 1000 pages to be considered duplicates of each other.
Example: Imagine local weather. You could create a template for city name, longitude, latitude, altitude, and current weather conditions. The values for all fields would be different for each of the 1000 database entries (cities) and one of the "current weather conditions" would change frequently (hourly, let's say).
Now, if I have a nice heirarchical index pages (first one maybe points to 50 state sub-pages, and each state page points to 20 city pages) that point to the 1000 city-specific pages, would the city-specific pages be considered 'duplicate' since they are based on the same HTML template but all have different values in key areas? Does the answer change based on the % of the template (or visible text) that changes for each city?
My goal is to get these 1000 subpages as part of my site, have them indexable, and have them each flow a little bit of link juice to my home page.
Best practices? What should I be careful of?
Thanks!
-
I'd like to know the answer too...
Our page is an e-commerce site, and Google sometimes gives the duplicate content reports for pages that don't match, but haven't got much of unique content. Thought maybe you solved the problem?
-
Don't you get any duplicate content messages at Google webmaster tools?
-
Hi Mike,
I'm wondering what you decided to do here, and if you have any interesting results that you'd be willing to share with the Q&A community. Thanks!
-
Figured it wasn't weather based... just sticking with the theme.
How's that saying go... "The good thing about the internet is that you can always test it, the bad thing is that you are always testing."
-
It's a single site. It's not a weather app; I was using weather as an example. I have another (non-weather) data set that has similar characteristics -- 6 or 8 unique data points per item (a couple of which are dynamic and change as time passes). And several thousand of these items. I want to display them via template.
I guess I'll try it and see if Webmaster tools complains about dup content. Thanks for the ideas, guys...
-
Often wondered myself
i think google makke the right choice. they would of thought about this and i am sure they get it right.i have much the same thing on one of my sites, and they rank quite well, so i dont think they are seen as duplicates.
-
Excellent point. The more unique the content the higher the value.
-
Hi Mike,
This is an interesting question. Depending on the nature of the content, you might want to try to get user generated content on those pages to make them more unique and valuable.
Best regards,
Guillaume Voyer. -
If you are running this on a single site then I would say per your example that you have enough unique variables that it wouldn't be considered duplicate content on your website. Giving each City, State, Weather, on a page should solve your problem. As long as the titles and headers of the pages are not all the same. But the only real way to know would be to test it. Validate it with webmaster tools, it will tell you if your pages are too similar.And if you do pull this off let me know. I am always interested in GEO specific content for our pest control service areas.
The problem I see you running into is creating enough unique content so that it's not duplicate content from other weather sites. Maybe run it against a copyscape.com query. That should let you know if the weather info is unique enough. I would test this on a small scale prior to launching the entire project. Just hand create 10 pages and run it against copyscape.
Now if you are trying to create a content generator for mulitple websites based on this same data set then you may run into duplicate content issues. ...But there may still be some value in this.
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
-
Link Building where link building is dead. Latest tactics in a land of content.
Hello, What is your latest link building techniques considering manual link building is basically dead, and you should really build good content to drive results. Link building has really become less important. It seems to be much more 10X content now. What would you recommend for basic link building considering this besides the 50 first Links video by Rand, which is excellent. Thanks, Bob
Link Building | | BobGW0 -
Backlinks from archived content? SEO penalty?
I'm curious, if I go to webmasters and suggest a change to an article in their archives (convincing them that the new link offers more value to their readers), how would Google look at that? It seems to me that if a two-year-old article all of a sudden gets a new link, it might look fishy, and might even bring penalties with it. Thoughts?
Link Building | | JABacchetta0 -
About Duplicate Content
if i share our blog to multiple document sharing site in form of pdf.it is spamming or not..?..if yes what is the drawback?
Link Building | | afycon0 -
Content Writing for the Internal blog or guest posting on external blogs
Hi All My question is If I am writing an informative article for quality content and to help attract visitors Do I add the article to my own website and try to get visitors via link building or do I post the article as a Guest post on another website with links back to the relevant pages or should I do both and if so what % eg 50% blog posts and 50 % intenral posts thanks in advance
Link Building | | ingageseo0 -
Press Releases - duplicate content
Does anybody know if Google makes allowances for duplicate content from press releases? If you submit a press release to a press release distribution service, does it have to be different? Any help would be much appreciated.
Link Building | | AAttias0 -
Duplicate Content: is it a myth?
Hi everyone, just wanted to clarify some things, i've heard about a million different things on this; I just wanted to ask if duplicate content is a myth or its not thanks. Peter
Link Building | | PeterRota0 -
What is the Best Way to Site Structure My New Content?
I am about to start adding some serious content to my site in hopes of providing more info to my visitors and to build organic traffic. I am looking for the best structure and places to put my inbound links. My website is tradethink.com and we specialize in trading systems for the commodities markets. I am going to be adding content about the particular commodities markets we follow; gold, soybeans, crude oil, etc. From my research I see it is best to place as many inbound links as possible to the content pages. On the other hand I see that it is important for the site to be user friendly and not have to much link clutter on the home page. I have a few options. Lets use "gold trading" instance. 1. Have individual links on the home page and most other internal pages that link directly to tradethink.com/gold-trading.html (lots of link clutter, but best SEO?). Problem is that I am doing this for like thirty pages and would have an additional thirty links on all of my pages. A possible work around is to place these individual links at the bottom of my pages. 2. Have home page and other internal pages link to tradethink.com/trading/ (just 1 link to add to each page), with the individual link still going to tradethink.com/gold-trading.html. Here I am adding a folder "/trading/" to place all of the links in, but when you click on the link inside the trading folder it goes to tradethink.com/gold-trading.html and bypasses the /trading/ folder to get better SEO, shorter url? 3. Have home page and other internal pages link to /trading/, with the individual link going to /trading /gold-trading.html This seems the proper way, but am I giving up link juice by going to trading/gold-trading.html vs #2 above going direct to /gold-trading Any advise/questions appreciated.
Link Building | | trader2470 -
How Do You Monitor & Deal With Plagiarism Of Your Content?
Hi everyone - hope you can help. I have an e commerce store with lots of products. I write unique, original content for all of the products we sell. I must be doing a good job because I repeatedly find my content being used in blogs, word press sites, and pay per posts which then link back to competitors. I have the standard free copyscape logo pasted a the bottom of each page - hasn't deterred anyone. I'm now thinking about using some sort of a cookie based software and installing the code on each page so that when they lift my content and use it, it will send a link back to that page on my site. I have called numerous plagiarizers in the past and threatened to sue using the "Digital Millennium Copyright Act" phrase in the course of my conversation. It's tiresome. It's work. I am thinking after many years of frustration, that if I can't beat them I might as well try using this type of cookie based script/software approach to at least garner a link out it. And if the abuser catches it then maybe he'll stop mid stream and think twice about using...I mean copying my content. Is using this type of cookie/link back to us script a good or a bad idea? How do you all prevent your unique, original content from being used? And finally, if I'm looking at this from a positive link building standpoint (meaning, maybe I'm looking at it from the wrong angle), what is the best practice for garnering a link from this type of ongoing occurrence?
Link Building | | dmedirect_sbcglobal.net0