Hi there,

A relatively old post on this from the Moz blog might be of use: http://moz.com/blog/how-to-solve-keyword-cannibalization

Have you done any link building to the primary vinyl banners page? When a range of different pages rank for one query, it can often indicate a problem with the strength of the primary page, with site hierarchy not favouring that page as the canonical source of generic information about the topic.

Hi there,

Is there any way you might be able to show us an example of this? Could be easier to spot if there is a problem.

In general, you want to avoid going through 301 redirects if you don't have to. You should be able to maintain your rankings / authority from one URL to another when it is redirected properly but there are no guarantees. It's best to avoid doing it at all unless it's really necessary.

Hi Jason,

If you use the unique ccTLDs and the href lang / rel="alternative" tag, this duplication will be fine. The tag was brought out in late 2011 and tells Google: "just because this content is the same on an Australian site, a British site and an American site, this is okay - it has been done on purpose." You can also use it to point to direct translations, e.g. "this Spanish content is the same as this English content over here, but one is meant for the UK and one for Argentina." Lastly, you can also use this tag as mark up to say "This is French content meant for Canada, and this English content over here is also meant for Canada".

More information about the tag is available here and here.

Cheers,

Jane

I would look more for a site that has a squeaky-clean profile of its own (both in terms of its inbound and outbound links), has an appropriate page to link to you from and (for extra credit) is perhaps marginally related to your business (also in tech, for instance), rather than go on its numbers and try to shoe-horn a link in there, if that makes sense.