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
-
Does changing content and design of the website gonna affect my all the backlinks i have made till now
i have been working on my link profile for a month now, after learning about 5 step moz methodology i have decided that i would like to change all of the content of my site and taylor it to what my customers need, am i gonna loose all the domain authority if make changes? if it gonna affect, hows that gonna come out
Web Design | | calvinkj0 -
Ecommerce web design read more toggle vs menu link on home page and product pages
Hello, We have an Ecommerce store. We have a lot of content on the home page and product pages and we are going back and forth between which one to use between a toggle "Read More" "Show Less" toggle for each section and a anchor linked menu. We have long product pages We're thinking a read more toggle is more appropriate for category descriptions so that they can go at the top of the category and not take up space. But the read more toggle with lots of content scrolls the page down and doesn't scroll it back up when you hit "show less" We're leaning towards a linked menu for the home pages and product pages for this reason, but an accordion type set of toggles would look nicer. What do you recommend, and how have you set up your read more toggles if they have lots of info so that they are not confusing? Are there other options? ' Not looking for code (I can do that) I'm looking for ideas on the cleanest home page, category pages, and product pages when they have tons and tons of textual content. Wanting to trim it up and make it look compact and neat! Thanks!
Web Design | | BobGW0 -
Crawl Diagnostics Summary - Duplicate Content
Hello SEO Experts, I am a developer at www.bowanddrape.com and we are working on improving the SEO of the website. The SEOMoz Crawl Diagnostics Summary shows that following 2 URL have duplicate content. http://www.bowanddrape.com/clothing/Tan+Accessories+Calfskin+Belt/50_5142 http://www.bowanddrape.com/clothing/Black+Accessories+Calfskin+Belt/50_5143 Can you please suggest me ways to fix this problem? Is the duplicate content error because of same "The Details", "Size Chart" and "The Silhouette" and "You may also like" ? Thanks, Chirag
Web Design | | ChiragNirmal0 -
How Important is Title Tag while viewing in browser's tab
Hi SEOmozer,I have a dumb/silly question. Ok, I know Title tags are important for SEO and users and it shows up in the SERP and all that. My question is that, using a weird CMS, I have the title tag implemented and it appear in the SERP the way I want it. However, the problem is that when I hover over the tab on the browser, it doesn't appear the same way it is in the SERP. Does that really matter that it appears differently? I checked the HTMl and this what I got<title>Example Keywordtitle><meta name="layout" content="main"/><meta name="description" content="Keyword 1 | Keyword 2 | Company Name"/>So whats within the "content" is showing in the SERP and what is in "title" tag is showing in the browser tab. Shouldn't they be the same?
Web Design | | TommyTan0 -
Mobile Sitemap for Site with Media Queries
I'm doing SEO for a site. It uses Media Queries and the CSS to automatically resize the site for the screen size in use. I.e. the site detects the screen size of say an iPhone and the CSS knows which elements to hide for that screen size and still make it look good. This is great because it will automatically cut down the content to display nicely on small screens - obviating the need for a separate mobile site. What kind of sitemap should be generated since the urls are for desktop and mobile use? Yoast (sweet SEO) said it should have both regular and mobile style sitemap to get both the regular and mobile bots to visit, but didn't elaborate on how that sitemap should look. Do you have a recommendation for how exactly the sitemap should look? Should the sitemap have the urls all twice, i.e. once regular and once with the mobile indicator?
Web Design | | GregoryHaze1 -
Outsourcing Content - Finding Superior Providers...
I am looking for content writers. Not textbroker.com, I want content written that isnt scraped and reworded from information already in google. Can anyone recommend a company which isnt afraid to read a book or a magazine, dig up old information to write something truly unique? This should likely be in a fresh thread, but ill put it here as a side note. If you also can recommend a wordpress or joomla theme designer who has his own creative ideas and is highly skilled...
Web Design | | getbigyadig0 -
Are slimmed down mobile versions of a canonical page considered cloaking?
We are developing our mobile site right now and we are using a user agent sniffer to figure out what kind of device the visitor is using. Once the server knows whether it is a desktop or mobile browser it will deliver the appropriate template. We decided to use the same URL for both versions of the page rather than using m.websiteurl.com or www.websiteurl.mobi so that traffic to either version of these pages would register as a visit to the page. Will search engines consider this cloaking or is mobile "versioning" an acceptable practice? The pages in essence are the same, the mobile version will just leave out extraneous scripts and unnecessary resources to better display on a mobile device.
Web Design | | TahoeMountain400 -
Crawl Budget vs Canonical
Got a debate raging here and I figured I'd ask for opinions. We have our websites structured as site/category/product This is fine for URL keywords, etc. We also use this for breadcrumbs. The problem is that we have multiple categories into which a category fits. So "product" could also be at site/cat1/product
Web Design | | Highland
site/cat2/product
site/cat3/product Obviously this produces duplicate content. There's no reason why it couldn't live under 1 URL but it would take some time and effort to do so (time we don't necessarily have). As such, we're applying the canonical band-aid and calling it good. My problem is that I think this will still kill our crawl budget (this is not an insignificant number of pages we're talking about). In some cases the duplicate pages are bloating a site by 500%. So what say you all? Do we just simply do canonical and call it good or do we need to take into account the crawl budget and actually remove the duplicate pages. Or am I totally off base and canonical solves the crawl budget issue as well?0