Duplicate website pages indexed: Ranking dropped. Does Google checks the duplicate domain association?
-
Hi all,
Our duplicate website which is used for testing new optimisations got indexed and we dropped in rankings. But I am not sure whether this is exact reason as it happened earlier too where I don't find much drop in rankings. Also I got replies in the past that it'll not really impact original website but duplicate website. I think this rule applies to the third party websites. But if our own domain has exact duplicate content; will Google knows that we own the website from any other way we are associated like IP addresses and servers, etc..to find the duplicate website is hosted by us? I wonder how Google treats duplicate content from third party domains and own domains.
Thanks
-
Hi John,
Thanks for the response. I agree with you about using "rel=canonical". But there are too many pages to manually add these tags. Is there any other way to implement this?
Thanks
-
It's never a good idea to rely on the search engines "figuring out" confusing/contradictory signals from your website, vtmoz. While they claim they can do it in some cases, in reality, they very frequently get it wrong. (Though I've never seen any indication from Google that it makes any effort to find any connecting ownership signals between dupe sites when deciding whether to index a dupe. That would be way outside the scope of the crawler.)
So yes, it's entirely possible that wholly duplicate website is causing ranking and authority issues. Assuming what you mean by a site for "testing new optimisations" is a development website for testing new code before deploying to the live site, you'll need to get the dev site placed behind a password-protected login, or at the very least, have no-index meta tags added to every page. Once those are in place, you can use Google Search Console to request removal of the site from the index to hopefully speed things up. It's possible that when you had the dupe site before, it didn't get fully indexed, but this time it did, which would be why you're seeing more problems now. And having a dupe site in the index can definitely cause problems with the original site, as well as the dupe.
There's no guarantee removing the dupe site from the index will immediately resolve all the problems you are having, but leaving the dupe site in place in the index is just too big a risk. You'll still have to look deeper into what else may be causing or exacerbating the ranking issues.
Paul
-
This can be partially resolved by setting up "rel=canonical" tags on the website that you want Google to index. This is particularly advantageous when there is live duplicate content. It is basically a hint to the search engine that says "Look here!!".
Also, a better strategy to test landing pages, may be using a tool called Google Optimize, this will allow you to employ A/B and multivariate testing, without having a separate domain
Hopefully this helps!
John
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
-
Will more landing pages with related keywords improve ranking of main keyword?
Hi all, We are in the process of creating new landing pages and noticed something what our competitors been following with landing pages. They have created multiple landing pages targeting the related keywords of a main topic / main keyword. Like "seo defined", "seo history", "seo benefits", "seo strategies", "types of seo", etc being "SEO" as main keyword or main topic. Will this works? Thanks
Algorithm Updates | | vtmoz0 -
The evolution of Google's 'Quality' filters - Do thin product pages still need noindex?
I'm hoping that Mozzers can weigh in with any recent experiences with eCommerce SEO..... I like to assume (perhaps incorrectly) that Google's 'Quality' filters (formerly known as Panda) have evolved with some intelligence since Panda first launched and started penalising eCommerce sites for having thin product pages. On this basis i'd expect that the filters are now less heavy handed and know that product pages with no or little product description on them are still a quality user experience for people who want to buy that product. Therefore my question is this...
Algorithm Updates | | QubaSEO
Do thin product pages still need noindex given that more often that not they are a quality search result for those using a product specific search query? Has anyone experienced penalty recently (last 12 months) on an ecommerce site because of a high number of thin product pages?0 -
Google sidebar advertising dropped
Has anyone noticed how the google sidebar advertising has completely disappeared? They only display top 4 adwords and then remaining on the bottom of each search page. I can't find any info on it or when it actually happened?
Algorithm Updates | | Purplesars110 -
50% drop in search, no changes to site over 2 days, no notifications, A rank...
My URL is: http://applianceassistant.com
Algorithm Updates | | applianceassistant
With no changes to my site, I suddenly experienced a huge drop in search queries on Aug1. Your company has still given me an overall rating of A. I just thought you may be able to help or be interested in my case due to it's strange nature. Due to some suggestions on the webmaster forums, I have disavowed all low quality back links to the site, and I am currently working through each page trying to make the key words a little less spammy. Here are some screen shots of the action...
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-WgXUf-lvUyg/U-nrWNgspPI/AAAAAAAAAEI/imoI190LUns/s1600/Analytics_081214.tiff
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-srmvn288rr0/U-pxlwoycVI/AAAAAAAAAEg/ckmyX_2Sl_Y/s1600/PAGES_AUG.tiff
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-DVCYxhkutbQ/U-pxpQVfYfI/AAAAAAAAAEo/MN9PiLFT-zs/s1600/pages_july.tiff This appears to be almost a 50% 2 year set back. Any ideas or suggestions are greatly appreciated0 -
How to follow up Google search in a Joomla website
Hello ! I'm facing a stupid issue but cannot solve it. Google Analytics can track the seach into a website. When I try to activate it I need to add some more parameters that I do not know. http://awesomescreenshot.com/03f1bnau8d Has anyone ever tried to configure Google analytics search for a Joomla website ? Tks a lot !
Algorithm Updates | | AymanH0 -
Can a google data refresh knock your pages out of the rankings?
I see that around mid November 2013 a handful of my sites pages dropped off of Google completely. It was around the data refreshes in November, and while everyone says it doesn't effect that much I was wondering if anyone knew if it could knock some of my pages out of the rankings for a specific keyword. Note - we had previously held muliple listings for different pages on our site for this particular keyword. Google kept the highest ranking and knocked the lower ones off. See attached image of our keyword ranking history to see what I mean. DcJJM0M
Algorithm Updates | | franchisesolutions0 -
Privacy page ranking above home page in serps
I'm using OSE to try and get some clues as to why my privacy page would rank higher than my home page. Could anyone help me figure out which metrics to review to rectify the issue? My key word is: Mardi Gras Parade Tickets The url that is ranking is <cite>www.mardigrasparadetickets.com/pages/privacy</cite> I'm happy to be ranking in the top 3 for the keyword, but I'd rather hoped it wouldn't be my privacy page. Any help would be awesome, Cy
Algorithm Updates | | Nola5040 -
How can we start to improve Domain MozRank & MozTrust for our website?
A simple question maybe, but how and where do we start if we want to improve our 'Domain MozRank & Moztrust', 'assuming of course that by improving both these we will improve our rankings with Google plus sales?
Algorithm Updates | | ewanTHH0