Partially Duplicated Content Advice
-
Hi Folks,
I have a question about how duplicate content works. We sell all different kinds of goat milk soap. Each kind has its own product page and unique description. However, there are some benefits that all of the different soap have in common. I'd like to list those benefits on each individual goat milk soap page, with the product-specific benefits and description right below it. My questions are:
1. If I include the same exact block of text and images on each page, along with the unique description. Will the search engine see that as duplicate content?
2. Furthermore, will this dilute any keyword ranking ability that content brings to a page, because it occurs on 15 different pages? (i.e. the search engine can't tell which one is the "best" result).
If so, what do you recommend in this kind of situation?
Thanks,
Hal
-
Ahhh ok. So i won't worry about the duplicate content so long as there is a substantial amount of good quality original content on each page. Glad to have an understanding on this as I found it a little confusing after reading about it. Thanks!
Hal
-
Hi Hal,
Hope you don't mind me taking a stab at this question also.
Blocks of duplicate content, whether they be images or text, repeated among several pages is often known as "boilerplate" material.
Boilerplate material is okay, but if you have to much of it, without enough unique content to balance it out - that's when you get in trouble.
In general, you want to make sure you have a minimum amount of unique content on each page. My own personal rule of thumb is at least a couple hundred words - but it varies from situation to situation. if you have a lot of boilerplate, you want to make your original content front and center. This means placing it near the top of the body copy, above the fold and first in the HTML. Then place the necessary boilerplate info after this.
It's best to try to generate as much unique content for each product as possible. You can do this by including reviews, how-to videos, testimonials, or whatever value-added content you can dream up, as long as it's quality content and serves your customer.
Finally, make sure when "optimizing" the page (things like the title tag and meta description) make sure to focus these elements on the unique content of your page, and not the boilerplate material, so as to not dilute your rankings.
Best,
Cyrus
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
-
Which is more important - exact match on two pages with slightly similar content or completely unique content but no exact match?
I want to rank for two terms - one is the abbreviation and one is the actual phrase (think UX and user experience). Is it better to create two separate pages to benefit from the exact match keyword (given that the content is 51% unique) or should I work both the acronym and the phrase into one page? If I made the two pages, I could get in a lot more longtail keywords, however it's my belief that I should make one really robust page to ensure all possible link equity and user signals aren't split. Is this a valid argument or does the power of exact match keywords override the need for user signals?
Keyword Research | | DigitalMarketingSEO0 -
Duplicate content across domains
I have a client with 2 websites - one is a trucking and rigging company that specializes in installation / moving / removal of safes (site #1), the other offers a product line of safes (site #2). I originally designed / implemented site #1 and was able to get "safe installation New York", "safe moving New York", and "safe removal New York" in the top 3 search results in. A little over a year ago, client was approached by another marketing company to create the site #2, who also provided commercial services that I don't. It was a business decision, and we remained in good relations. As a result Site #1 went to the new marketing company and they built Site #2. Fast forward to about 3 months ago - Site #1 was infected with malware, client wasn't happy with new service, and asked me to take back the Site #1 ( and remove malware), and take Site #2, and re-work the SEO. SEO had dramatically fallen off for Site #1, so I've been working the SEO once I was able to get the malware completely removed and reviewed by Google. Site #1 had been redesigned by the other marketing company, essentially retaining the content that I created. Site #2 has mostly new content, but under "Services", it references the same services that Site #1provides, but the content is exactly the same, except that references to the company for Site #1 also link to Site #1. So there is duplicate content for 5 pages on both sites. As it happens, Site #2 that SELLS safes, is ranking #2 for "safe installation new york" for exactly the same content as Site #1 that provides the services. Site #1 ranks >50 for the same keyphrase. Why would this be? Has Site #2 taken the lead on this keyphrase because of the malware situation and now Site #1 is being penalized for duplicate content? One other major change on Site #1 is that the web technician used Wordpress's built in page nesting (page is set as child to parent page - nested 3 deep in some cases). What are the consequences (if there are any) of having a page listed as (for example) oztruckingandrigging.com/services/safe/safe-installation vs. oztruckingandrigging.com/safe-installation? The reason I ask this is that when I Moz page optimize for the first one for "safe installation" I get a lower grade then when I Moz page optimize for the second one.
Keyword Research | | chill9861 -
Is content really king?
I have a good sized website with lots of pages. Many pages are designed around specific keywords and for the most part, they rank well. I have many pages packed with good content that don't rank well, but the keywords are related to those pages that score well. Are the under performing pages contributing to the good performing pages and/or to the overall benefit of the website because of the additional content? In short, if i remove under performing pages, will it affect good performing pages and the overall performance of the website?
Keyword Research | | KrisIrr0 -
Way of including Keyword into content
Hi all! My website is that of a large 7 bedroom luxury villa in Barbados (www.bruadair.com). Now, I am having problems understanding how i can include my targeted keywords in to my content without it looking unnatural and disrupting the quality of the content. I wish to use the keyword phrase 'Large luxury villa in Barbados' however including this directly into on-page elements seems to look unnatural. My current content on my home page is as follows 'Bruadair is a large luxurious villa situated on the prestigious Platinum West Coast of Barbados, located in a beautiful tropical setting with gorgeous beaches just minutes walk away' I want to rank for this keyword however changing to 'Bruadair is a large luxurious villa in Barbados, located in a beautiful tropical setting with gorgeous beaches just minutes walk away' degrades the quality of the content... is there anyway i can get round this issue? I greatly appreciate any help/advice given to my problem! Thanks once again, T
Keyword Research | | Tmgale0 -
Internal Linking inside page content
Hi! Actually, i have been getting down after i fix internal links on each page. What i have done is linked keywords to the concern pages from other pages on same website. But i see the result going down in the google organic list. is this bad practice? example: http://www.nortekk.no/vi-utforer/blikkenslager-15/ Keyword : blikkenslager 1. Internal link, i doubt on this. May be it is not good. please confirm and help me 2. Main keyword usage in document. Must i reduce it? Thank you in advance Vels
Keyword Research | | Webworld_Norway0 -
E-commerce site Content guidelines
Hi Everyone. Im the owner of a mens underwear company start up I have heard so many things about content on e-commerce sites that I'm at a point where I have no idea what to believe people tell me do a blog, but honestly on a start up who has time for that? plus we are not shedding money to hire a full time employee to take care of that. I have inserted text related to the category i try to keep my ratio below 7% and under 120 words. but is that enough? I have seen sites ranking #1 under mens underwear with way less content or almost non existent. Any comments would help me a lot. Thanks R
Keyword Research | | seoUndies0 -
Help with understanding how to target keywords not in content ?
I have a customer suggesting the use of keywords related to his competitors but not in the content of his site or how he promotes his brand. The page content is product specific and I use keyword matches for page and site strength. 1.) Does it hurt or help to load up the keywords with misc. keywords (example- the site is for a premium product use the terms "cheap", "affordable") 2.) Any suggestion for almost blank/generic landing pages ? 3.) Any benefit or penalty for using fewer keywords on multiple pages ? (example - target 6-8 words on 30 pages) I need a few discussion points for my next meeting and to clarify my position.
Keyword Research | | sd11sine0 -
Ad Words Advice
Looking to start an Ads Word Campaign. Any words of advice?? How can I use SEoMoz to help with Adwords?
Keyword Research | | CapitolShine0