Duplicate content on domains we own
-
Hello!
We are new to SEO and have a problem we have caused ourselves. We own two domains GoCentrix.com (old domain) and CallRingTalk.com (new domain that we want to SEO). The content was updated on both domains at about the same time. Both are identical with a few exceptions. Now that we are getting into SEO we now understand this to be a big issue.
Is this a resolvable matter?
At this point what is the best approach to handle this? So far we have considered a couple of options.
1. Change the copy, but on which site? Is one flagged as the original and the other duplicate?
2. Robots.txt noindex, nofollow on the old one.
Any help is appreciated, thanks in advance!
-
Although both pages are very similar sans the logo color and some verbiage, if we do the rel canonical from GoCentrix->CallRingTalk.com then CallRingTalk.com will be the preferred site for indexing?
** Yes.
You can also add rel canonical to it self on CallRingTalk.com.
Lastly, will having had the duplicate content for some time now have any sort of lasting effect on our potential ranking once we implement the canonicalization?
** No, you are more then safe. This rel canonical will only help google understand what is your preferred version and it will display it accordantly.
Overall the only downside of duplicate content is that Google might show in serps the version that is teh secondary as importance in your opinion - but there is no algorithmic or manual filter / penalty for this even if you don't implement rel canonical.
Hope it helps.
-
Everyone,
Thanks for the quick responses! Unfortunately we cannot do a 301 in this case so the rel canonical is probably going to be the option to take.
To verify what I'm reading/understanding. Although both pages are very similar sans the logo color and some verbiage, if we do the rel canonical from GoCentrix->CallRingTalk.com then CallRingTalk.com will be the preferred site for indexing?
Lastly, will having had the duplicate content for some time now have any sort of lasting effect on our potential ranking once we implement the canonicalization?
Thanks!
-
I agree, that is good solution. You should use .htaccess to redirect 301 for gocentrix.com. I have same problem with 2 sites, one sandbox test content vs main site content. And I created 301 redirect for sandbox.
-
Mike is right - it's a good approach.
Another option will be to use rel canonical cross domain -> it works like a charm. (as long as it make sense and you want to keep both domain "in business")
In this way you can still leverage both domains if needed.
here is a good and clear resource on the subject covering both 301 and rel canonical:
http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.co.at/2009/12/handling-legitimate-cross-domain.html
Hope it helps !
Cheers.
-
I had the same issue with an old client that I had. They actually had three different domains with the same content. The best solution is to focus on CallRingTalk.com and use 301 redirects for GoCentrix.com. Make sure that you are using 1 to 1 redirects so that you're able to maintain link juice from both site. Aside from the obvious benefit of no duplicate content issues, you will also no longer be competing against yourself and updating will be easier. Another benefit is that you will be able to transfer all the inbound links for your legacy domain to the new domain. Just make sure that you use OSE to figure out the important inbound links and see if you can get those links changed to your new domain.
I hope that helps!
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
-
Snippet showing as domain name with apostrophe, instead of page title when searching for the domain name.
Hi, We have an issue with one of our websites, with the snippet dispaying differently in Google serps when searching for the domain or the website name rather than a search term. When searching for a search term, the page title shows as expected, but when searching for the site by the domain name either with or without the tld, it shows the snippet as the domain name with an apostrophe at the end. Domain is subli.co.uk Thanks in advance for any advice!
On-Page Optimization | | K3v1n0 -
Duplicate Content - Bulk analysis tool?
Hi I wondered if there's a tool to analyse duplicate content - within your own site or on external sites, but that you can upload the URL's you want to check in bulk? I used Copyscape a while ago, but don't remember this having a bulk feature? Thank you!
On-Page Optimization | | BeckyKey0 -
Is this hidden content?
Hi all, I was wondering if the homepage of www.dirtylooks.com has hidden content in a search engines eyes. There is some text which appears underneath a tile called "hair tools" that has to be scrolled in order to be viewed by a visitor. As this isn't the typical white on white or off page by CSS hidden content are we in danger of being penalised?
On-Page Optimization | | BenfromBNKR0 -
Can Robots.txt on Root Domain override a Robots.txt on a Sub Domain?
We currently have beta sites on sub-domains of our own domain. We have had issues where people forget to change the Robots.txt and these non-relevant beta sites get indexed by search engines (nightmare). We are going to move all of these beta sites to a new domain that we disallow all in the root of the domain. If we put fully configured Robots.txt on these sub-domains (that are ready to go live and open for crawling by the search engines) is there a way for the Robots.txt in the root domain to override the Robots.txt in these sub-domains? Apologies if this is unclear. I know we can handle this relatively easy by changing the Robots.txt in the sub-domain on going live but due to a few instances where people have forgotten I want to reduce the chance of human error! Cheers, Dave.
On-Page Optimization | | davelane.verve0 -
What to do about resellers duplicating content?
Just went through a big redevelopment for a client and now have fresh images and updated content but now all the resellers have just grabbed the new images/content and pasted them on their own site. My client is a manufacture that sells directly online and over the phone for large orders. I'm just not sure how to handle the resellers duplicate content. Any thoughts on this? Am I being silly for worrying about this?
On-Page Optimization | | ericnkatz0 -
Duplicate Content on Event Pages
My client has a pretty popular service of event listings and, in hope of gathering more events, they opened up the platform to allow users to add events. This works really well for them and they are able to garner a lot more events this way. The major problem I'm finding is that many event coordinators and site owners will take the copy from their website and copy and paste it, duplicating a lot of the content. We have editor picks that contain a lot of unique content but the duplicate content scares me. It hasn't hurt our page ranking (we have a page ranking of 7) but I'm wondering if this is something that we should address. We don't have the manpower to eliminate all the duplication but if we cut down the duplication would we experience a significant advantage over people posting the same event?
On-Page Optimization | | mattdinbrooklyn0 -
Duplicate Page Content for Product Pages
Hello, We have one website which URL is http://www.bannerbuzz.com & we have many product pages which having duplicate page content issue in SEOMOZ which are below. http://www.bannerbuzz.com/backlit-banners-1.html
On-Page Optimization | | CommercePundit
http://www.bannerbuzz.com/backlit-banners-10.html
http://www.bannerbuzz.com/backlit-banners-11.html
http://www.bannerbuzz.com/backlit-banners-12.html
http://www.bannerbuzz.com/backlit-banners-13.html We haven't any content on these pages, still getting duplicate page content errors for all pages in SEOMOZ. Please help me how can i fix this issue. Thanks,0 -
Why Does SEOMOZ Crawl show that i have 5,769 pages with Duplicate Content
Hello... I'm trying to do some analysis on my site (http://goo.gl/JgK1e) and SEOMOZ Crawl Diagnostics is telling me that I have 5,769 pages with duplicate content. Can someone, anyone, please help me understand: how does SEOMOZ determine if i have duplicate content Is it correct ? Are there really that many pages of duplicate content How do i fix this, if true <---- ** Most important ** Thanks in advance for any help!!
On-Page Optimization | | Prime850