Subcategories within "New Arrivals" section - duplicate content?
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Hi there,
My client runs an e-commerce store selling shoes that features a section called "New Arrivals" with subcategories, such as "shoes," "wedges," "boots," "sandals," etc. There are already main subcategories on the site that target these terms. These are specifically pages for "New Arrivals - Boots," etc. The shoes listed on each new arrivals subcategory page are also listed in the main subcategory page.
Given that there is not really any search volume for "Brand + new arrivals in boots," but lots of search volume for "Brand + boots," what is the proper way to handle these new arrivals subcategory pages? Should each subcategory have a rel=canonical tag pointing to the main subcategory? Should they be de-indexed? Should I keep them all indexed but try to make the content as unique as possible?
Thank you!
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I would just set the rel=canonical to the main categories. It would reduce duplicate content, send more strength to the main categories and as you said, people would probably prefer to see the full product list as opposed to just new arrivals on your site (so you don't need that to appear in search).
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