Optimizing 2 identical sites for different States
-
We have 2 websites that are about 99% similar in content, the only difference being the references to the State (CO and IN) and location information. Any recommendations on meta information or other ways to make sure we are not penalized for duplicate content? Thanks in advance!
-
Meghan,
The main focus should be around having as much original content in the sites as possible. If you create future content, don't duplicate that content too, be creative and unique when writing about the same topic. Put different ideas into it, make one 5 Tips and other 9 Tips so to speak or How To and Things to Know twists. Applying a lot of what Jeff mentioned above will be beneficial as well. Those were all great points! All the best in your launches!
Patrick
-
Meghan -
This is a pretty common occurrence with companies that have locations in different areas... especially if the ownership is slightly different.
What I would do is add as much unique content to each site, including:
- Photographs of each location, inside, outside, merchandise.
- Directions to the location from different areas. For example, for the Colorado location, give driving directions from DIA (airport), downtown Denver, Boulder, Grand Junction and Colorado Springs.
- Customer testimonials that are unique to each location.
- Local resources in each area. For example, if the location sells picture frames, put together a list of photographers in the area who are able to create amazing, award-winning images to fill those frames. Get images from those photographers to add to the site, and testimonials, etc. Another example might be if the location is a hotel or motel... you could list the "must see" attractions, restaurants around the business.
- Try to make sure your page names are different. Instead of /about-us/ or /about.html for the "About page" name this page /about-Denver-Colorado-businessname/ and /about-Indiana-Business-Name/ to keep page names as different as possible.
- Use a slightly different methodology for Title and Description tags as well.
- If possible, use different image names, sizes and alt-tag description for the images in the navigation and throughout the two different sites.
- Consider using RDFa microtagging to keep the sites Name, Address, Phone # information (NAP) separate and distinct.
- Consider using different Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterst pages to keep things separate.
- Consider using different hosting providers to keep the C-blocks as separate as you can. You could try hosting one site in Indiana and one in Colorado, or just use two different hosting companies.
Hope this helps!
-- Jeff
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
-
What are the best practices for optimizing a site for multiple locations?
I have a client that operates in multiple states. I am trying to find a way to best optimize their website, but all of the best practices for "local SEO" seem to be for things such as restaurants, small businesses, etc. I am looking for a way to optimize for the industry keywords as well as location. Any best practices/suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
Image & Video Optimization | | Scratch_MM0 -
Optimizing Images
I have realized that our images are way to big. I would like to resize them and upload back again but I am afraid to do it as every image in wordpress is uploaded and has own link and then all this links will be not found. Is there some other way how to do it without a plugin. Or it is not a problem that I will delete that old large images and then upload the new smaller? Thank you very much for any advice Iris
Image & Video Optimization | | Rebeca10 -
Finding Resources for Content Marketing with a Difference?
We have been creating written content for a client over the last year with great success. Locating websites across the internet to publish our articles was not difficult, just a little time consuming. Now we have decided to take this a step further by creating a comic strip for the same client. The only problem is, we are having great difficulty finding a site that would be suitable for publishing this content. Its not an infographic, or slideshow, or video and its not a written article. The usual search operators are no good as this is our first attempt and REAL comic geeks are so serious about the art im scared we'd be pulled apart. Does anyone know of any resources which would publish this type of visual content? Thanks for your help! Hayley
Image & Video Optimization | | Silkstream0 -
New site, SEO well considered, no traffic :/ What next?
Hi There! We've built whatphone.com.au with SEO at the top of the list but things are not going as expected. Yes, there's still a lot of work to do, but I was hoping to get some guidance on what to do next to make sure we keep the right focus. This is what we've done to date: Added lots of unique and relevant content, particularly to our blog (and will continue to do so on a weekly basis) Ensured internal linking is strong Optimised each product page around product name (and relevant internal links pointing to it) Ensured the code is clean (ok, we are not a 100% but in a good place) URL structure, metadata, page titles, file names and alt tags following best practice Named the company and registered our domain around one of main keywords we are currently targeting "what phone" What we're working on: Link building Site speed Social signals Rich media (videos, more images) Not a bad effort right? No love from an organic traffic perspective 😕 Ok, the site / domain is no older than 2 months old, it's a very competitive industry, and no inbound links yet, but come on! Questions: Are there any benefits of engaging external providers to help with link building? I'm talking about outsourcing from elancer or similar.. Or is this playing with fire? Have we missed something obvious here? Any help will be greatly appreciated! PS: we currently have some issues with our pricing tables, but will fixed as soon as possible..
Image & Video Optimization | | whatphone0 -
Video xml sitemap: how to build with 1000 videos on your site?
Hey Mozzers, We have a vacation rental site where every property has its own video of the property. (i.e. YouTube embedded video) So, with more than 1000 homes, how do you make a video xml map? Or, should we have an xml map with 1000 links on it? Can't wait to see your insights!
Image & Video Optimization | | Discountvc0 -
Has anyone created a top (Insert # Here) list of local business listing sites?
Has anyone created a top (Insert # Here) list of local business listing sites we should manually submit to? I have around 20 or so but I was wondering if someone could give me a list to cross reference. I have quite a few local business that I work with and I want to make sure I'm hitting all of the main local listings. I also spend time searching for niche listing sites too for each client, so if you have any suggestions on easier ways to find these as well, I'm game. If you have created a list and its out in the wild somewhere I will be happy to link to it from my site. I'm always open to giving some LL to helpful people. Who's up for building a tool that will search through X number of local directories and report back to you if you are listed or not. (Not getlisted.org) You can select a checklist of sites that you want to check. (; Thanks Aaron
Image & Video Optimization | | Shipyard_Agency0 -
Video Dictionary Site
Hi , Recently launched a video dictionary site - http://www.megavocab.com With whatever I could learn of SEO , I included the transcript for the video in the page - http://www.megavocab.com/dictionary-definition-maladroit.html But this makes the page look shabby (when compared to page like - http://www.megavocab.com/dictionary-definition-zealot.html) and the transcript per say does not help much to user ... I am in a delimma whether to include the transcript or not ... please guide...
Image & Video Optimization | | krishru0 -
How do I get Google Places to pick up my reviews from other sites?
I have reviews on Yelp, Insiderpages.com, and Citysearch. All of my contact information matches up, but Google does not seem to be finding them and adding them to my Google Places page. Is there anything I need to do to make this happen?
Image & Video Optimization | | vinnyb20000