Using (duplicate) content in different contexts
-
I have three distinct hosting products, each solving three different problems. While these three products have different features in terms of functionality, they are all built on the same platform. Now, in terms of marketing some features of the platform, f.ex. High Availability, is significant to all of the products. How do I go about to include information about this feature on all product pages without getting penalized for duplicate content?
Is there a way to tell Google that parts of the content on the pages for product 1-3 is duplicated with intent, or duplicated from f.ex. a page that explains the technical aspects of the platform?
-
I guess it might depend a bit on what are the most important features of each product. Are the differences most important or the generic (but important) features across all products more important? If the first then separate pages makes sense, if the second then maybe consolidating onto one page makes more sense. You could also try giving a full feature rundown on your most important/visible product page and then give a shortened version on the other two referencing the first one with a "for a complete rundown of all features" type link.
-
Agreed, but the point isn't that it's hard to create enough unique content; I got unique content up the yingyang My point is that I'm unable to elaborate on (important) key features of a product - on the product page - just because other products share those features. And that's just stupid
-
I know it can be tough but even in the car example I don't think it is so difficult to get unique content. Different cars = different target groups with different interests, needs etc. It forces you to try to get inside the mind of your various target audiences, but that is a good thing right?! I wouldnt often consider trying to hide the content with javascript etc, I am sure you can get enough unique content to make it non duplicate with a bit of brainstorming about what each product means to each group.
-
I've come to the same conclusion myself, but I still find it to be a huge drawback. Consider three different cars, all using the same fantastic engine technology; you won't be able to elaborate on the different landing pages because Google find it to be duplicate content. You would have to link to it, and thus leading the customer to another page, with the engine technology as topic. You'll lose focus, risk losing interest and sales and would have to put a lot of work into maintaining a positive and selling experience just because you want to use key engine features in the content on the actual product page.
A plausible workaround is using an IFRAME and/or JavaScript, but that is not a very nice approach. When Google is measuring (ranking) pages they also skew the web in how we design pages, layouts, content, and IMHO the absence of something like rel canonical for content sections is fueling bad approaches in webdesign. (Read it and weep, Matt)
-
Hi,
If the 3 products are aimed at solving three different problems then I would think you could write enough unique content for each page that you wont have a problem. Explain what each product is good for, how it differs from the others, what kind of customer it is aimed at etc. As long as you dont have just one unique sentence at the top of each page and then a massive list of features duplicated across the pages you should be ok.
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
-
Parallax, SEO, and Duplicate Content
We are working on a project that uses parallax to provide a great experience to the end user, and we are also trying to create a best case scenario for SEO. We have multiple keywords we are trying to optimize. We have multiple pages with the parallax function built into it. Basically each member of the primary navigation is it's own page, with all subpages built below it using the parallax function. Our navigation currently uses the hashbang method to provide custom URL's for each subpage. And the user is appropriately directed to the right section based on that hashbang. www.example.com/About < This is its own page www.example.com/about/#/history < This is a subpage that you scroll to on the About page We are trying to decide what the best method will be for trying to optimize each subpage, but my current concern is that because each subpage is really a part of the primary page, will all those URL's be seen as duplicate content? Currently the site can also serve each subpage as it's own page as well, so without the parallax function. Should I include those as part of the sitemap. There's no way to navigate to them unless I include them in the sitemap, but I don't want Google to think I'm disingenuous in providing them links that don't exist, solely for the purpose of SEO, but truthfully all of the content exists and is available to the user. I know that a lot of people are asking these questions, and there really are no right answers yet, but I'm curious about everyone else's experience so far.
Web Design | | PaulRonin2 -
Duplicate page title caused by Shopify CMS
Hi, We have an ecommerce site set up at devlinsonline.com.au using Shopify and the MOZ crawl is returning a huge number (hundreds!) of Duplicate Page Title errors. The issue seems to be the way that Shopify uses tagging to sort products. So, using the 'Riedel' collection as an example, the urls devlinsonline.com.au/collections/riedel-glasses/ devlinsonline.com.au/collections/riedel-glasses/decanters devlinsonline.com.au/collections/riedel-glasses/vinum all have the exact same page title. We are also having the same issue with the blog and other sections of our site. Is this something that is actually a serious issue or, perhaps, is Google's algorithm intelligent enough to recognise that this is part of Shopify's layout so it will not negatively affect our rankings and can, essentially, be ignored? Thanks.
Web Design | | SimonDevlin0 -
Duplicate Titles for Large Lists
Our blog (www.cowleyweb.com/blog) has recently been given topic categories so we can utilize our old blogs. Otherwise, users would only see what's new and never look back (our blogs are organized by the month they were published) and all that hard work would kind of be a waste after a while. So we came up with a few topics (i.e. social media, internet marketing, etc.) and adding those as tags to blogs. Now, users can click the topics and get a results page on our blog of all the previously published blogs related to that topic. Sounds great. BUT, it's hurting our SEO crawl report. If the list goes beyond one page of search results, the 2nd and subsequent pages get dinged as "duplicate title" b/c they share the same title (i.e. "Social Media"). How can I fix this? I'm not the web designer but something tells me maybe some sort of tag that says "Page 2" or something would do the trick. We use Drupal which is good for customization. I assume tons of bloggers and websites have dealt with this problem. Please help. Want to give the web guy some solutions. Thank you.
Web Design | | JCunningham0 -
Web Developer Using Stock Photos
Hello, The organization is selling a cms system in a niche market across the country. It has the normal SEO challenges, in addition he is using purchased stock images. This seemed ok, while he was smaller but now we are growing rapidly and these images are VERY STOCK- and well used ( I have checked with Tiny Eye). I remember a few years ago this was a flag to the search engines who went through manual review, is this still true? It seems to me that the theme's that come with the images, are duplicated ( including navigation & footers), so having the duplicated images would be another negative. Thank you for your suggestions!
Web Design | | TammyWood0 -
Question re. crawlable textual content
I have a client who is struggling to fit crawlable textual content on their pages. I'm wondering if we can add a "Learn More..." feature that works as a mouse over pop up. When a page visitor runs their curser over the link or button, a window bubble pops up and textual content about the page will show. Not knowing much about code, can text in this format be crawlable by search engines and count as unique and relevant content? Thanks, Dino
Web Design | | Dino640 -
How does using a CMS (i.e. Wordpress/Drupal) affect backlinks and SEO?
So I need to build a website with over 100 pages in it. Elements of the design will probably be moved around and or tested so I need to use a CMS. It's pretty much a review site so while the content will remain static I'd like to employ A/B testing to mess with conversion rates. Wordpress has a plugin for that even. So I'm just wondering, since CMS pages are pretty much created on spot and not retrieved from a library, how this affects backlinks and anchor text? How exactly does the external website point to yours if the URL is dynamically generated? Or am I misunderstanding something? Please recommend any extra resources as well if you can.
Web Design | | seochump0 -
Website Blog causes duplicate pages
Hello, I added a blog to my website, which is hosted at weebly. I was told this would drive traffic but I have actually fallen way, way down in Alexa rankings. When I ran a campaign here, the results show over a 100 errors, all to do with the website blog. It states they are duplicate pages and titles. I dont see a way to rename the pages. Am I better off getting rid of the blog? Thanks
Web Design | | Gardengirl0 -
Using H1 Headings - More than 1?
I've known about avoiding the use of more than 1 H1 Heading Tags, however, with HTML5 is this going to change... at least that's how I understand it. According to HTML5 Specs, Each 'section' can have an H1 heading, which at least theoretically means certain web pages that have multiple "sectioning elements" can have more than 1 H1 heading... true? False? What I'm looking for here is some insight into the ramifications HTML5 will have on the use of H1 tags. And would like to know how search engines currently handle this and are they anticipated to change as the HTML5 outline algorithm becomes widely supported? thanks in advance Kelly
Web Design | | KellysTutorials0