Directories and duplicate content.
-
Part of our link building strategy for a dentist is to submit their site to several relevant directories. If I enter the same description in each directory, is it possible that Google will consider this duplicate content and prevent link juice from being passed back to the dentist's site?
Thanks folks,
Jason
-
Matt Cutts claimed that they do not count some links just last month (Pubcon). So, they can decide not to if the other site (not yours) is of too low of quality.
-
You are in the clear duplicate content will only be an issue when Google is indexing your site. I wouldn't worry with it when you are giving a description for a directory.
-
This doesn't fall into the duplicate content category. Especially if the description is honestly describing what your site is. All relevant and honest directories need a description of a site to accurately list them. Also, Google does not determine if juice will pass from one site to another, it's up to the site to tell Google that. They do this by adding rel="nofollow" to the page or link.
Straight from Google's Webmaster Tools help;
"Nofollow" provides a way for webmasters to tell search engines "Don't follow links on this page" or "Don't follow this specific link."
How does Google handle nofollowed links?
In general, we don't follow them. This means that Google does not transfer PageRank or anchor text across these links. Essentially, using
nofollow
causes us to drop the target links from our overall graph of the web.That pretty much says it there. Hope this helps!
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
-
Content - Onsite Blog vs Article Submission
Hey Folks, First post! I have a 4 year old site with reasonable authority (49) and lots of content. Easy first question. I plan to create lots more unique, useful and relevant content however I'm in a quandary as to whether to: A. Post the content on our sites blog or B. Submit the article to an article directory like ezine-articlesand backlink to my site. Is one better than the other? Thanks, Richard
Link Building | | Rich-O0 -
Open Directory Project
Hello. Is it useful to have a site listed in the Open Directory Project? Thank you.
Link Building | | nyc-seo0 -
Directory Submissions = Negative?
I see that a lot of SEO companies offer a large 5,000 directory submission package with slow, 160 day submissions. I don't mind spending the money to have this done, but my question is... would they help, or would they actually hurt my rankings? Since a lot of these directories are basically just copies of each other on different domains. As an added question, would it be worth submitting to all of the general directories on this list? http://www.seomoz.org/directories
Link Building | | JABacchetta0 -
When placing content on external sites, what are some best practices for back links?
Hi there, I am working on a content strategy that includes placing content (i.e. bylined articles, how-to's, guest blogs, etc.) on other web sites and embedding links back to our site. In some cases we're very limited to what we can do with our bank links (i.e. just a company url), and in other cases we are free to place multiple anchor links within the content. In cases where we have no limitations, what are some best practices for implementing back links? I understand it's important to link to deep pages (not just our home page), have diverse anchor text, and make the anchor links relevant to the surrounding content. Are there other things I should be thinking about in order to maximize the SEO value of such placements? For example, is it better to have just one anchor link per placement? Or should I aim to embed multiple anchor links within a single placement? Any advice would be much appreciated! Sincerely, Debra
Link Building | | Cherwell-Software0 -
Yahoo Directory Question
I'm working on building some links for a used car store and thinking about submitting a site to the Yahoo Directory. The page that I want to rank for this category is not the homepage of the site (as the store also sells new vehicles), so I'm curious if anyone knows if I can submit a specific page instead? If not, how does the idea sound of creating a separate domain that 301 redirects to my page of choice and submit that to the directory? EDIT: Found this in the Yahoo TOS: "The site may not appear in the Directory under a different URL." "The site must not be dedicated to directing the user to another page." Hm. Any ideas? Should I just submit the homepage?
Link Building | | kylesuss0 -
Doing Local Directories for Online Stores?
I am working with some customers on SEO and wonder what to do about directories when they have an online store only. They do not want to list their home address (if they did would this be a good idea?). I know the big push now is for local directories so I'm wondering if anyone has tips for other types of directories to get into that aren't spammy. Or tips for doing SEO for sites that are online only? I know Rand talked a lot about the importance of being "real" with an about us page, contact us, etc. on his Future of Link Building Webinar and I'm wondering how to best make that work in this situation when they can't show themselves as real by being in local directories.
Link Building | | hwade0 -
Should we focus on Directory Submissions
When reviewing our competitors links in Open Site Explorer I noticed that many of them have directory links. We are an online retailer of gourmet food gifts. So should we focus some of our link building efforts on directory submissions?
Link Building | | agolomb0