Duplicate Content Issue: Mobile vs. Desktop View
-
Setting aside my personal issue with Google's favoritism for Responsive websites, which I believe doesn't always provide the best user experience, I have a question regarding duplicate content...
I created a section of a Wordpress web page (using Visual Composer) that shows differently on mobile than it does on desktop view. This section has the same content for both views, but is formatted differently to give a better user experience on mobile devices. I did this by creating two different text elements, formatted differently, but containing the same content. The problem is that both sections appear in the source code of the page. According to Google, does that mean I have duplicate content on this page?
-
HI Dino,
I don't see any issues. It is okay to use multiple H1 tags for reasons such as this. Google has confirmed multiple H1 tags are okay.
My example above was probably more alarming to you then I could have realized. My effort was to point out a simple case of how to use css for multiple device types. In your case having different text is for the benefit of the user which is exactly as it should be.
Good job,
Don
-
My developer (in training) figured out a solution to eliminate the duplicate content; however, I'm still wonder if having two H1 tags (one shows on mobile and the other shows on desktop) in the source code will hurt my SEO. I usually like to stick to one H1 so there is no confusion for Googlebots. Here's one of the pages in question:
view-source:http://new.brooklynmanhattanlocksmith.com/services/automotive/
Thanks for the help! Dino
-
HI Dino,
Before I said to much I had to look at Visual Composer. Spent about 10 minutes there and didn't really see how the code turns out. Perhaps if you like to post a link to the webpage or just message me if you don't want it public. I'll be happy to review the source and offer a thumbs up or any suggestions I can.
Good luck,
Don
-
Thanks, Don. Would this work if I have a separate H1 tag for each version as well? I want Google to recognize each H1 for each version and not get confused as to which headline is a priority.
Regards,
Dino
-
Hi Dino,
Is your code something (basic) like this.
I love lamp!
I love lamp!
Then you use a switch to determine which view to show?
If so, the correct way would be to use the switch to select which CSS to load instead. Thus you can use the same class but it will show up different based off of the users view.
I love lamp!
Here is a nice article about switching CSS based on views.
Hope that helps,
Don
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
-
Wordpress: Pages vs Posts vs Portfolio
Hi All, I'm looking to put pen to paper and design my main structual template for my website. I will be creating the new site in Wordpress. My understanding of Wordpress is broken into the Static Pages, Posts and Portfolio. Static PAGE
Web Design | | Mark_Ch
Static one off content.
No tags, categories or archived Posts
content entries, which is listed in reverse chronological order.
Update post entry to maintain overall freshness of your website.
tags, categories & archived Portfolio
????? Question What are the benefits of a portfolio page over Static Pages & Posts When creating feature rich articles should i use static pages, posts or portfolio. Thanks Mark0 -
Duplicate Product Descriptions for Each Variant
Hi, I am setting up a Shopify e-commerce store and I have a questions about duplicate product descriptions. I have written unique product descriptions for all our products. Each product has at least 10 color options. I am thinking that it would look better if I created each color variant as a unique product. i.e. store.com/nice-shirt-blue, store.com/nice-shirt-red ect. Here is the kicker. Would I be penalized for using the same product descriptions for each product type?
Web Design | | Jon_B0 -
Content Migration & cost of moving pages
Hope you are all having a great day! I am wondering if anyone would be able to provide general feedback. I work for a medium size company in Chicago. Currently our site is static html and we are seeking to migrate to Wordpress. After speaking with a number of website companies and receiving proposals, I am trying to understand if there is an approximate going rate or range for moving content from static html to a CMS like Wordpress? i.e. a cost per page? We don't have any dynamic content. Most of our pages are text and images. The site itself, including the blog is around 220 pages. Thanks in advance for any insight or resources!
Web Design | | SEOSponge0 -
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 -
Subscription Video Content
I've never used video other than embedding youtube videos. This time I want to host my own with encryption for the subscriber content and sample videos for general consumption. Would love any pointers at all. I would also like the content to be streamable on ipad etc. What platform would you use (adobe etc) and why? I don't want to start out on one road to discover down the line that it sucks for SEO. Obviously the subscription content will suck since it will only be available to logged in users, but the rest..... In a nutshell I want to know how to host video well for SEO and make it shareable, but with the option to also have some of the video content subscription only. (should have put it like that to start with probably.)
Web Design | | Serpstone0 -
Real Estate and Duplicate Content
Currently we use an MLS which is an iFrame of property listings. We plan to pay an extra fee and have the crawlable version. But one problem is that many real estate firms have access to the same data, which makes our content duplicate of theirs. Is there any way around this ? Thanks
Web Design | | SGMan0 -
How much content is too much? Best Pages For Content?
To my understanding content has a lot to do with organic rankings if written correctly. My question is, how much content is too much and what pages are best to place content. Our company sells very costly products. Our customers call to purchase, we do not have an eCommerce site. Write now we have on average 350 words per page. We have about 200+ pages. Each page is written for that general category and each product has its own unique content. It seems to me that the pages with less content, tend to rank a bit better. As we are in the process of redoing our website, is there any recommendations on writing content, or adjusting the amount of text. I am thinking a lot of our text is informative only to a certain extent. Would writing content just for the main category page be better, and then on the actual product page, have only about 250 words as a description? Are there any other recommendations for SEO that are fairly new? Besides the Title, Description, Heading Tags, Image Alts, URLS etc.
Web Design | | hfranz0 -
Duplicat Content?start=1
I am currently trying to figure out how to fix this basically our subcategory pages are being flagged for duplicate content. Basically we have items listed on these pages and usually we show 12 items and users can click to go onto the next page of items. Here is an example of what I am seeing. I'm just not too sure on how I would go about fixing this... Thanks for any Help! http://www.example.com/Beer-Coolers-sz3193.htm?start=1 http://www.example.com/Beer-Coolers-sz3193.htm
Web Design | | MichealGooden0