Duplicate Content The 5 W Questions Answered Kate Morris

Duplicate Content

Definition From Google: Duplicate content generally refers to substantive blocks of content within or across domains that either completely match other content or are appreciably similar.

Who has issues with Duplicate Content?

Everyone.

Two Main Types Intentional Unintentional This Does NOT Mean Bad and Good

Intentional DC Article Farms Paid Posts Content from APIs Scraper Sites Keyword Targeted Pages International Domain Content Mirrored Sites/Domains Microsites

Unintentional DC Ecommerce Sites Share/Print Similar product names Products in multiple categories Use of geography Search pages Session IDs Tag Pages Homepages (yes, plural) (Sub)Domain Issues

When is Duplicate Content an Issue?

Warning Signs Dropping Indexation Google Webmaster Tools Lower traffic Analytics Lost Rankings Over at least a month Over multiple phrases

What should you do about it?

Fixing Intentional DC Don’t Do It. Give credit to sources and use snippets NoIndex paid search pages Write Original Content Redirect, Don’t Mirror

Using Snippets

Using Snippets UpTake Give Credit and Link Deep Use something from the meat of the review/content Think about users first

Paid Campaign Pages Targeting to the Keyword is Best Noindex any paid pages Don’t duplicate content to rank for similar words Auto refinance Auto loan refinance

Fixing Unintentional DC Share/Print Rel canonical Nofollow all links to the pages Similar Product Names Find a way to distinguish the content Merge the pages to a main page Maybe rel canonical to the main page

Fixing Unintentional DC Geography City Names, use state also Tag Pages Mainly blog issues, noindex these (Sub)domain issues Use absolute linking

Homepages www, non-www, index on both Pick one version 301 server side redirect all others Ensure that the redirect for www or non-www works on all pages

eCommerce/Session IDs Rel canonical is your best friend Reduce the number of parameters Set Google and Bing to ignore un-necessary parameters Make pretty URLs if possible Examples Sofa.com DepartmentofGoods.com

Search Pages Nofollow links to the results pages Noindex pages if not necessary If necessary (think photography and review sites), make popular searches actual pages, 301 redirect

Why Should You Care?

Remember Duplicate Content is not typically a penalty … Crawl Time is Limited Indexation is at stake

Track Indexation Build good sitemaps using sitemap indices Track once a week/month as to how many are submitted/indexed Don’t sweat the small stuff

Where can you find out more?

Resources Google on Duplicate Content http://dis.tl/dYVwHf SEOmoz on Duplicate Content http://dis.tl/ijWFxz Google on Dealing with DC http://dis.tl/eUxYoj

Kate Morris Thanks for attending! Email me with any questions.