Block /tag/ or not?
-
I've asked this question in another area but now i want to ask it as a bigger question. Do we block /tag/ with robots.txt or not. Here's why I ask:
My wordpress site does not block /tag/ and I have many /tag/ results in the top 10 results of Google. Have for months. The question is, does Google see /tag/ on WordPress as duplicate content? SEOMoz says it's duplicate content but it's a tag. It's not really content per say.
I'm all for optimizing my site but Google is not penalizing me for /tag/ results.
I don't want to block /tag/ if Google is not seeing it as duplicate content for only one reason and that's because I have many results in the top 10 on G.
So, can someone who knows more about this weigh in on the subject for I really would like a accurate answer.
Thanks in advance...
-
Thanks for all the info. Last question, does having a list of monthly archives on the bottom of my site hurt in terms of dup content? I just have at the bottom the month/year and when you click it, it shows all the posts in that month. Should I be removing this or does it matter?
-
It would be meta noindex. Yoast is my plugin of choice. Happen to have a little article right here if you need to see if its "safe" to remove them from a traffic standpoint.
-Dan
-
I use All in one SEO pack and have checked noindex for the tags and the categories and the archives. I suppose it doesn't make any difference if I do it there or in the robots.txt file. Either way their being blocked. Do you know if there's a penalty for having blocked them in WP and the robots file?
-
I'd say noindex, follow them - many SEO plugins can do this for you, Yoast SEO for example. That way Googs can still crawl them, which may assist with discovery, but won't index them.
-
Exactly what I was looking for. Thank you!
So, I suppose the best and proper way to block it is by robots.txt correct?
-
You mean "more about this" than me? I run 3 businesses on 3 Wordpress blogs. I've done the research. Many of my clients are Wordpress users. But here's what others think:
- Yoast thinks it's duplicate content: http://yoast.com/articles/wordpress-seo/#advancedseo
- David Fuller ranked for tags then didn't: http://www.seomoz.org/q/wordpress-tags-duplicate-content Same link Dan at Evolving thinks you should noindex tags as well.
- WPMU and Matt Cutts think it's duplicate content: http://wpmu.org/categories-tags-and-how-to-avoid-duplicate-content-on-wordpress/
- How to Tech thinks it's duplicate content: http://howtotechtips.com/remove-wordpress-duplicate-content-search-results-and-tags-from-google/
- As you said, SEOMoz thinks it's duplicate content.
- Many Warriors suggest noindexing tags for dupe content reasons: http://www.warriorforum.com/adsense-ppc-seo-discussion-forum/373744-wordpress-tags-death-me-duplicate-content-question.html
- 3 other pro SEOs say to noindex here: http://www.seomoz.org/q/solving-link-and-duplicate-content-errors-created-by-wordpress-blog-and-tags
Google search shows
_No results found for _"tags do not create duplicate content".
No results found for "tags are not duplicate content".
And 2.5 million results for tags "duplicate content"
The short term answer is that you're ranking for them now so leave them be.
The long term answer is it's duplicate content and you need to fix it.
Even if your tag pages don't show the entire post, multiple tag pages show the same excerpt. This is duplicate content. By itself - not even talking about the post.
**You said: **_SEOMoz says it's duplicate content but it's a tag. It's not really content per say. _
If you want to see with your own eyes the duplicate content, please post a URL.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
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
-
Tags problem I need help
Hello I have a problem on my site and I want to help solve it I allow adding tags in search engines However, when writing new content, tags are not added to search engines This is my website link مجلة الحلوة
Technical SEO | | ahmedahmed3230 -
Duplicate pages with "/" and without "/"
I seem to have duplicate pages like the examples below: https://example.com https://example.com/ This is happening on 3 pages and I'm not sure why or how to fix it. The first (https://example.com) is what I want and is what I have all my canonicals set too, but that doesn't seem to be doing anything. I've also setup 301 redirects for each page with "/" to be redirected to the page without it. Doing this didn't seem to fix anything as when I use the (https://example.com/) URL it doesn't redirect to (https://example.com) like it's supposed to. This issue has been going on for some time, so any help would be much appreciated. I'm using Squarespace as the design/hosting site.
Technical SEO | | granitemountain0 -
Hreflang Tag great for Google, what about Bing or others?
I've read that the Hreflang Tag is all the rave for International solutions on a per page basis. I haven't read much about what International agencies are using for non-Google search engines such as Bing. Is the common language meta tags the only solution? would love to see an article that addresses this
Technical SEO | | MikeSEOTruven0 -
Title Tags in 2013
For blog posts do you think it is better to use something like "Atlanta Plumbing Company" or "Choosing an Atlanta Plumbing Company" (article title). I have been using the article titles but I think it might be hindering rankings a bit. I use to use the keyword but it seems a bit spammy now. I want to create titles for the readers but rank well too. Any suggestions? Thanks!
Technical SEO | | SeattleJoe0 -
Duplicate page/Title content - Where?
Hi, I have just run a crawl on a new clients site, and there is several 'duplicate page content' and 'Duplicate Page Title'' issues. But I cannot find any duplicate content. And to make matters worse. The actual report has confused me. Just for example the about us page is showing in both reports and for both under 'Other URLs' it is showing 1? Why? Does this mean there is 1 other page with duplicate page title? or duplicate page content? Where are the pages that have the duplicate page titles, or duplicate page content? I have run scans using other software and a copyscape scan. And apart from missing page titles, I cannot find any page that has duplicate titles or content. I can find % percentages of pages with similar/same page titles/content. But this is only partial and contextually correct. So I understand that SEO Moz may pick percentage of content, which is fine, and therefore note that there is duplicate content/page titles. But I cannot seem to figure out where I would the source of the duplicate content/page titles. As there is only 1 listed in both reports for 'Other URLs' Hopefully my long question, has not confused. many thanks in advance for any help
Technical SEO | | wood1e20 -
Meta Title Tags
Hi, Are Meta Title Tag deemed by google to be unique if I use the same phrases by in a different order. For example 3 different pages <colgroup><col width="475"></colgroup>
Technical SEO | | Studio33
| Online Invoicing Software | Online Invoicing | Invoicing Software |
| Online Invoicing | Invoicing Software | Online Invoicing Software |
| Invoicing Software | Online Invoicing Software | Online Invoicing | You will not it is the same keywords just in a different order. Is this unique enough or will google not be happy about it. Thanks Andrew0 -
Tags - Should i add description for every tag ?
Hi 🙂 Should i add description for every tag in wordpress and i am using Yoast WordPress SEO and there is also option to add SEO title for tags , should i add also titles for tags ? and how should look title for tag, can you give me example from my blog : http://www.dota2club.com thank you !!!!
Technical SEO | | wolfinjo0 -
Should I include A Description Tag for an article page
Hi, I am wondering if i should include a description tag for an article page where the news on that page will change around five times a day. I am not sure if to fill a description in for local news or to leave it blank so the search engines pick up the latest local news and then the next day they show the latest local news again in the search engines instead of having a static description of the news page. any help would be great
Technical SEO | | ClaireH-1848860