Why is this store getting hurt in SERPs when they removed duplicate content?
-
I work with an e-commerce client who got hit hard by Panda. They are very cautious, and want small-scale tests to prove each hypothesis before committing to larger changes.
Recently, we reworked content on 30 product detail pages. Before, these product pages featured some original content mixed with some manufacturer content. The change we made was to remove the manufacturer content completely from the product page, leaving about 300 words of high-quality, original content--all of which was written by subject matter experts.
I assumed that Google viewed this manufacturer text as duplicate content. However, when these 30 modified pages were compared to the control, they performed significantly worse.
Question 1: Does any have any idea why these pages would perform worse than the control?
Question 2: Do you have any tips for convincing this client to try another test or get the buy-in to make the larger changes that--in theory--need to happen?FWIW, this client has about 10,000 product detail pages--the vast majority of which contain just manufacturer content.
I appreciate your thoughts.
-
I would be curious to look at each form of the pages using the LDA tool.
The main reason to use the tool is to understand if you are significantly reducing the page's relevancy to your target keyword(s).
-
Hi Ryan,
Thank you for your thoughtful reply.
We didn't make any changes to any of the titles or any overall site changes. We measured the changes using internal tracking tools to get the daily traffic by search engine to each product detail page. We also used Google Webmaster Tools to estimate SERP positional data.
The updated pages do have about half as many total words as the control, so that could definitely explain it.
For followup testing, I'm thinking of trying:
- test versus control, same word count, test is 100% original, control is 0% original
- test versus control, same word count, test is 50% original, control is 0% original
- test versus control, same word count, test is 25% original, control is 0% original
-
Hi Sarah.
I can't blame the client for wanting small tests. It's actually a prudent strategy.
I think having some manufacturer content mixed in with other quality content is fine. Normally 300 words would be a bit thin but for product pages that is not bad at all.
What changes to the page were made other then the content? Did the title change at all?
How exactly are you measuring the performance of these pages. Please provide as much detail as possible.
Is there any other site wide changes being made at the same time?
Does any have any idea why these pages would perform worse than the control?
Assuming there are no other factors involved, which is a big assumption, the only logical response I can offer is the revised pages are viewed by Google as weaker. By removing the manufacturer's content the pages are thinner and less relevant to the keywords involved.
Do you have any tips for convincing this client to try another test or get the buy-in to make the larger changes that--in theory--need to happen?
How to restore a client's confidence after making an error?
Assure the client you realize they are highly dependent upon their rankings for sales. You are proceeding under your experiences and knowledge, which has been successful in the past. Panda is a new thing and Google is still making rolling out new changes. The industry is still learning and adjusting to these changes. You are consulting with others regarding the unexpected results and you are committed to ensuring this project is properly completed.
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
-
Project content marketing SEO value and Traffic
I'm creating a content marketing plan and need to project the visitor impact it could have on an exact-keyword domain name. The plan will produce at least 10 quality, original articles per day. Are there any common metrics or ways to guess what the visitor impact could be?
Content Development | | msantore821 -
Repurpose/reuse blog content - email address to make available for this
Hi, From Rand's recent Whiteboard Friday, I learned this: "Have right on the blog page the email address to use if they want to repurpose/reuse the content. That way if someone wants to give us a backlink and quote/reference our blog, they have an easy way to get permission." My question is, what do I say with the email address when I list our contact email? Something like 1. Just list the email address 2. "To reuse/repurpose our content, please contact [email protected]." or something else?
Content Development | | BobGW0 -
Why do other sites rank higher for our blog content?
Our site has always allowed other sites to RSS feed our content. Recently, we've noticed that searches for a title of our blog post will rank 2 sites that only publish said content, while our links are nowhere to be seen on the SERPs for Google. Is there any way I can fix this or prod Google to adjust it for us? Background: We were ranked highly in many long tail keywords, but lost many of them in June 2013. During this time going forward, we received no manual action.
Content Development | | FreedomKeepsMe0 -
Content: Best Blogs Article
Hello, For an Ecommerce site, I think a good way to get known is to write a "Best X Blogs" article, where X is a topic in your industry, and then letting the people you link to know about the article. I got the idea from a Mozinar. My question is, how close does the X from above have to be in your niche? For example, if your product is running shoes can you write a "best athlete blogs" article? I'm worried about them reading the article, then leaving. In some smaller niches the topics closest to the product don't have much in the way of blogs out there. So how close to your niche does the Best X Blogs topic have to be?
Content Development | | BobGW0 -
Is there a way to repost content (with permission) to another site without being penalized by Google?
I write a monthly Social Media Marketing column for a local Business Journal and the column is printed in their paper as well as posted on their website. Is there any way I can repost these articles on my website's blog without being penalized by Google for "duplicate content"?
Content Development | | vyki0 -
If we use content copied from another site ( assuming we have not plagerized), does it hurt our Google Rankings?
We have permission from another company to copy their content and use it on our site. This happens when we are describing a manufacturer's product and we copy pages from their site and add these pages to our site in order to describe the product we are selling. Is this considered duplicate content? Can this practice hurt us?
Content Development | | huskers0 -
Hosted eCommerce with Outstanding Content Management
Can anyone recommend a hosted eCommerce solution that makes blog/article creation very easy and seamlessly integrates the content into the storefront? If the solution also offered great social media tools, also, that would be great.
Content Development | | DenverKelly0 -
Duplicating Articles/Blogs
Two years ago, some articles and blogs were written and submitted to certain tech and news sites relevant to our field. Will it be fine to submit those to other sites now. It is our content only and not some one else, but would it be penalty to submit the copy to other article sites whereever those articles/content are relevant today also?
Content Development | | sayeed0