Duplicate Content
-
Is making tabs with general product information on similar products considered duplicate content?
-
That content is duplicate content, yes. However, it's more important to have a decent amount of unique content on each page than it is to worry about how much duplicate content is on each page. Duplicate content isn't the end of the world if each page has substantial unique content, which is the first explanation I'd put forth in why you're still seeing those other domains ranking fine. This is how you'd strike a balance between having useful duplicate content and pleasing search engines.
Regarding having too many products to write unique descriptions, unfortunately you're going to have to bite the bullet on that one if you want to rank better. It might seem unfeasible for you to write all of those, but writing them one by one or hiring a writer to rewrite each one in batches is going to be essential to you ranking well.
-
I have issues with duplicate content due to the way our system works and the CMS feeds. It bothers me, but I've also realized we can OK in spite of it. So, to your point of seeing sites rank anyway, it helps to have a quality domain and be credible
I partly suspect duplicate content is a hold over from the old days of spammy sites who intentionally created a lot of duplicate content in an attempt to appear to have depth of content. I think Google has figured out that businesses that sell similar products, but maybe are only different via color or size, will have duplication. And that it's not misleading to try to fool the search engines.
-
I feel you, I know that sometimes is very difficult to play around with content only to please Google, especially when you know that you did the right thing for your users.
But I wouldn't worry that much... I mean if you have only some general info as dupe content, and you have also some product related unique info, it should be ok (I'm sure that you can describe each product a bit ... color, size, fabric, a testimonial, distinct images and alt texts etc.)
I think Google can handle these situations.
Also, if you haven't, check this out:
http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=66359
-
Thanks guys,
I actually already knew the answer to the question, but I see a lot of websites ranking high while still using tabs with general information (exactly the same) on similar products.
My website has mainly custom made products so the general information is the same and there are too many products to write it as unique content. I now use a button that leads to a separate page with all the information but somehow I just don't like it. It just looks so much more informative to have all this information on the product page itself without having to go to another page.
If Google really cares about giving as much information as possible, why isn't there a way to have this type of duplicate content?
-
Hello Sylvana,
duplicate content refers to content that is similar and appears on two or more pages of the same website (or different).
So, if those tabs are displayed on a single page, than you should not worry about but if the same tabs are displayed on multiple pages you might want to think writing unique product infos for each of your pages.
Cheers.
-
Yes, after all, the content is 'duplicate' across these pages. It depends on the amount of duplicate content across pages whether Google will consider it a problem though.
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
-
Content Mismatch
Hi, I've added my app to search console, and there are reported 480 content mismatch pages. How can I solve this problem?
On-Page Optimization | | Silviu0 -
Multilingual site with untranslated content
We are developing a site that will have several languages. There will be several thousand pages, the default language will be English. Several sections of the site will not be translated at first, so the main content will be in English but navigation/boilerplate will be translated. We have hreflang alternate tags set up for each individual page pointing to each of the other languages, eg in the English version we have: etc In the spanish version, we would point to the french version and the english version etc. My question is, is this sufficient to avoid a duplicate content penalty for google for the untranslated pages? I am aware that from a user perspective, having untranslated content is bad, but in this case it is unavoidable at first.
On-Page Optimization | | jorgeapartime0 -
Content Writing for Ecommerce Products
Any idea where I can find content writers / or get content written for my online shop's product descriptions? I need to get a lot of volume done fast. Thanks
On-Page Optimization | | bjs20100 -
301 redirected Duplicate Content, still showing up as duplicate after new crawl.
We launched a site where key landing pages were not showing up in google. After running the seomoz crawl it returned a lot of duplicate pages which may expalin this. The actual url of the page is /design and it was telling me the following were dupes: /design/family-garden-design
On-Page Optimization | | iterate
/design/small-garden-design
/design/large-rural-garden-design
/Design All of these URL's were in fact pointing to the /design landing page. I 301 redirected all of the pages so they all now resolve to /design After running another crawl the day after doing this it's still showing up as duplicate content on seomoz. Does seomoz evaluate the new changes right away?0 -
Duplicate Content
Part of a site I am working on, features many different bags in all thicknesses colors and sizes. I'm getting an error when some pages have different content like different thicknesses. The only differences between the pages are a single digit - but in trash bags that makes it a whole different product! I can't do a canonical because it's not the same. For example: http://www.plasticplace.net/index.php?file=productdetail&iprod_id=274 and http://www.plasticplace.net/index.php?file=productdetail&iprod_id=268 Any ideas?
On-Page Optimization | | EcomLkwd0 -
Duplicate content list by SEOMOZ
Hi Friends, I am seeing lot of duplicate (about 10%) from the crawl report of SEOMOZ. The report says, "Duplicate Page Content" But the urls it listed have different title, different url and also different content. I am not sure how to fix this issue.. My site has both Indian cinema news and photo gallery. The problme mainly coming in photo gallery posts. for example: this is the main url of a post. apgossips.com/2012/12/18/telugu-actress-poonam-kaur-photos . But in this post, each image is a link to its enlarged images (default wordpress). The problem is coming with each individual image with in this post. examples of SEOMOZ report 3 individual urls as duplicate content...from the same above post.: http://apgossips.com/2012/12/18/telugu-actress-poonam-kaur-photos/poonam-kaur-hot-photo-shoot-stills-4 http://apgossips.com/2012/12/18/telugu-actress-poonam-kaur-photos/poonam-kaur-hot-photo-shoot-stills-3 http://apgossips.com/2012/12/18/telugu-actress-poonam-kaur-photos/poonam-kaur-hot-photo-shoot-stills-2 Some body please advise me.. Appreciate your help.
On-Page Optimization | | ksnath0 -
Duplicate meta descriptions
Hi all, I'm using Yoast's SEO plugin and when I run a On Page report card here on SEOMOZ it says there are 2 descriptions tags I've been trying to fix this but can't (I'm new!) Anyone any ideas on this? Thanks Elaine
On-Page Optimization | | elaineryan0 -
My website is saying I have duplicate page content and page title. How do I fix it?
Hi, I created a website on webstarts.com. After I launched it then ran a scan through SEO it says I have duplicate page content and page title. The 2 pages it is reading are technically the same page. www.mobilemowermedicsinc.com and www.mobilemowermedicsinc.com/index . I am unsure how to get rid of on of these as it keeps saying this is an error in the SEO scan. Could someone please advise me of what to do from here. Thanks!
On-Page Optimization | | bcarp880