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Not sure what you mean "https site". I tend to use https pages for secure areas where users are logged in or are about to submit data.

Therefore http are generally better for ranking as they are public pages.

In the construction of the site make sure pages are allocated to https or http rather than have a duplicate version of the site on either. You will need to check with your hosting whether it is possible to do this.

If it was me I would have different blogs. Any chance of cross selling in SM? Corporate people get married and vice versa. Really depends on your content strategy, resources and what you believe you can achieve in either space via SM. Can't see any SEO issues - except on the blog side.

in essence it tells Google it is that page so removes it from the index

Chris is right. The issue is that you won't have control of which version gets in the results - which one people link to or share via social media. You won't get a penalty but you would be best to get rid of the duplicates using 301s and rel=canonical - this will get the issue sorted the quickest and the page will get the maximum benefit from shares and links.

be careful with rel=canonical

your homepage would be: <link rel="<a rel="nofollow" target="_blank">canonical</a>" href="http://www.colourbanners.co.uk">

then lower page 1: <link rel="<a rel="nofollow" target="_blank">canonical</a>" href="http://www.colourbanners.co.uk/lower-page-1.htm">

then lower page 2: <link rel="<a rel="nofollow" target="_blank">canonical</a>" href="http://www.colourbanners.co.uk/lower-page-2.htm">

do not put the same tag across all pages

With Google it depends on a range of factors. The URLs will be removed from the index once Google crawls them again.

If I was you I would still implement <link rel="<a class="attribute-value">canonical</a>" href="full URL of page"> in the head section - note the URL should be the www version of the page and must change to the URL of the page you are on.

Have no idea how long Moz takes.

you'll need to 301 redirect http://www.colourbanners.co.uk/index.htm and http://www.colourbanners.co.uk/index.html to http://www.colourbanners.co.uk/ to avoid duplicate homepages

Hi Kelly,

Also consider making sitemaps if:

• you have alternate versions of the website - like a mobile version for example
• you are using video content on the website

With the video content a sitemap will help you get a thumbnail in the results which can attract more clicks - especially with your how to type articles. If you are using a service like Wistia.com it's very easy to create a Video Sitemap.

Hi Chris,

Take a look at some of Aleyda's posts: http://moz.com/community/users/14053

Working on an international project and am using a combination of country level domains: .co.uk. .de etc. and folders on a .org domain i.e. domain.org/italia. It kind of depends on the size of the operation and budget available.

Most advice I found was don't do it.domain.org.

Ok. I would set up these tags:

https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/189077?hl=en

can't see them on the site...

Hi,

Can you do me a favour?

Open an incognito window in chrome and repeat the search on www.google.ee

then add &pws=0 to the end of the url for the results and hit enter.

Do you still have the same problem?

probably need to see the site... have you an error with href lang ?

maybe re-read this:

http://moz.com/blog/using-the-correct-hreflang-tag-a-new-generator-tool

You can request removal via WMT if the URL is no index.

And as above no harm having island pages... in fact it is best practice for PPC so you get message match from ads to landing pages.

Hi,

For user engagement and cedibility the FB plugin might be better but I don't think Google will pick up the content (whereas it will if you cut and paste).

Hi Kristian,

For me duplicate content is more about control. Google will only show one set of content (what it sees as the original). For the quotes you mention, I would not worry. Just be natural, post on both. Give an intro on your site that reflects your SEO objectives(can you do in 250-400 words?) and use FB plugin.

G

I'd go back to the drawing board and rework your strategy.

Do you need additional sites? 150K orphaned pages you want indexed sounds spammy or poor site architecture to me.

If using an iframe plugin from FB it is not actually on your site

FB has MASSIVE duplicate content issues 'cos it's a poorly constructed site, so don't worry, be happy

Use FB to drive traffic to your site. Always put quality content on your site (and get it indexed) b4 placing on FB (if at all - users will come to your site if teaser info on FB is good enuff)

If it goes viral it will appear on those sites anyway. So no beef from Google. Be careful about paying for distribution on these sites.

Links from a holding page won't help. Drop the concept. Forget short-cuts. Invest in decent content. Push that content and reap the rewards

This is not a problem.

The issue with duplicate content is that you lose control over the copy that appears in the search results. Google will only show one page from your site if it thinks they are the same content. If Google sees each of your pages as unique then you can manipulate the positioning of the pages in the results.

So duplicate content is not an issue on the same page. You do however need to be wary of keyword stuffing i.e. putting in the keywords an unnatural amount of times.

Hi,

If I was you I would go into Google Webmaster tools and verify both versions of the site, then go to Configuration >> Setting >> Preferred domain and tell Google your preference.

You will need to do this with both verified versions of the domain. You can then delete the listing for the one you do not want

You will only need one Google Verification code.

That will sort the issue with Google

Geoff

Thanks,

Might pass that on to the developer

Thanks Andrea,

The info on rel=alternate was really useful.

https://developers.google.com/webmasters/smartphone-sites/details

Can you not just use href='/search.php' rel='canonical' /> in the head of all pages that serve the results?

Google will then index the original page people search from and ignore pages with query stringslike:

• /search.php?seo
• /search.php?ppc

Probably none of them. Don't do anything that has no benefit to your actual visitors.

Hi Mozzers,

I am looking to develop a mobile version of one of my sites and was wondering what was considered best practice for the following:

• Where to host it: m.domain.com or domain.com/mobile ?
• Is rel='canonical' enough to avoid mobile version being indexed or should I use "noindex" on mobile version?
• How to handle tablets? Which screen size sees mobile version? Which sees full site version?

Thanks in advance

Geoff

Tried rel=canonical tags in the ? Usually clears up dup content issues better than noindex

I'd go for #2

Hi,

Do some research here: http://www.reelseo.com/

Thanks Tim, I'll look into it.

Hi Keri, the UK (then Ireland, Spain and Germany). UK is most important at this time but a supplier who does all would be ideal.

Hey Mozzers,

I want to start recording phone calls as a result of PPC campaigns. Can anyone recommend an easy to implement system for setting this in place which will allow me to track calls placed as a result of PPC advertising. The ability to record the calls for training purposes would be a bonus.

Thanks in advance

Geoff

Hi,

I'd use Wistia.com (you can get a discount from Pro Perks) and it will generate a sitemap for you plus attribute your website as the original source of the content. And it looks way more professional than YouTube.

I might have misunderstood the question but what really matters is how you get to the content not necessarily the URL structure (relevancy required - no spam please).

Given this "freshness" aspect i.e. recent links / social shares will enhance the opportunities for this particular page to appear in the results (given other SEO boxes are "ticked"), the "extra" folders will not matter.

Hi Kandice,

Personally, I don't use tags on blogs. Why? They are unnecessary and could confuse search engines.

In my opinion a blog post needs:

• author pages
• category pages

if you are able to post every day, or more, then your teasers appearing on the category pages will be OK. But with less regular updates, I would recommend using the Excerpts feature on WordPress so your category pages contain unique content that differs from the main blog teasers. With your author pages, which are needed to attempt to appear in Google News and/or get rich snippets in Google SERPs (unless you send a rel=author tag to the About page on a single author blog) that have the potential to display author images in the results; I would recommend only showing the titles of previous posts.The above tactics ensure you avoid potential duplicate content issues where you lose control of the page that will get links / be shared / appear in the results.Basically given these needs, why include tags that could risk losing control of the above?

Hi,

I would add:

<link rel="canonical" href="http://www.sbo.nl/cursussen/schoolleider-primair-onderwijs/"> in your tag

This tells search engines the real name of the page.

I would definitely send the URL with 800 backlinks to a permanent page on your site

yeah, you want to avoid duplicate content issues where google has to choose which content to display so go for the snippet option.

I like Wordpress. If you are using this platform I use the first 2 paragraphs for the main post feed and use the "Excerpt" option to control the snippets on category pages.

Hi Gareth,

Thanks for the Googlebot info. Still concerned with cloaking content but will look into it in more detail.

Thanks again

Hi Highland,

Thanks for responding. The offering is the same in each location it's just the way we process the leads differs. For example, in Los Angeles / London we get lots of leads - almost too many for the regional sales staff to handle so they try to pre-qualify the leads. In the mid-west / Scotland the sales staff have to nurture the leads so are happy with a phone number.

For another stream on the site we are targeting local segments but this particular element has a national approach.

Thanks for your input.

Hi,

We have an issue with a particular channel on a lead generation site where we have  sales staff requiring different quality of leads in different parts of the country. In saturated markets they require a stricter lead qualification process than those in more challenging markets.

To combat the problem I am toying with the idea of severing very slightly different content based on IP address. The main change in content would be in terms of calls to action and lead qualification processes.

We would plan to have a "standard" version of the site for when IP location can not be detected. URLs on this version would be the rel="canonical" for the location specific pages.

Is there a way to do this without creating duplicate content, cloaking or other such issues on the site?

Any advice, theories or case studies would be greatly appreciated.

301 them to the parent page in that category

Agree. Google will follow the links. Keep checking webmaster tools and 301 the pages Google can't find. I can't see why you would not get the link value.

In my opinion, duplicate content is one of those things people get unnecessarily hung up about. I think it is about control. Duplication means loss of control - Google will choose which version to display in the results.

For video, keep the full or extended versions on your domain. Syndicate the teasers or ads everywhere. That way you keep control and meet the aim of driving traffic to your site

The example directories you have given look pretty spammy to me. They all have the same design and look to have been made to make money rather than service a need. In the print world they would be the crap newspapers put through people's doors, left in supermarkets / shopping centres.

My advice would be to try to avoid these. Look for directories that provide a benefit to users and look to have unique content i.e. specific to niche or region.