13 replies to this topic

[houndog]

Hi,

A website has 3 URLs that point to the same page. This is b/c of how the navigation was built in order to show 1. the right left nav and 2. a certain color scheme to visually show what section of the site you are in. Do these URLs make the engine think that these pages are duplicates? I know it can weaken links to it b/c depending on how a user got to the page, they could create a link to it with different URLs, thus weakening the collective link power.

Thanks!

Edited by houndog, 14 August 2008 - 09:02 PM.

[SEMSEO]

Probably you can try this method:

http://www.jillwhalen.com

[Jill]

I don't understand the question, and even moreso do not understand the answer by the second poster.

Please elaborate and we might be able to provide you with a helpful answer.

[houndog]

I don't understand the question, and even moreso do not understand the answer by the second poster.

Please elaborate and we might be able to provide you with a helpful answer.

Ok. And I know this has been covered before, but I just got a little panic, so wanted to run past. I may need to better understand what is viewed as a "duplicate page" by the engines. Before I clarify, is it correct that a website can be unindexed if it is displaying pages that have the same content on them. In my search tonight in this forum, I cam across a thread where a person mentioned that a website had this problem - where they were ranking well, and then lost all rankings and it was because of duplicate content on that website. The person removed the duplicate content, and rankings eventually returned.

I can certainly understand why pages with the same content on them, on the same domain, would be viewed as a bad thing. It's just not helpful to the reader.

That said. If this is in fact true, what makes a page? We have an asp/SQL website, where content pages are identified with a 5 digit number. The menu/navigation and content manager were custom built, so we had to think through how to make our menus work to 1. pull the right site style and 2. open the correct left hand navigations. These details aren't really that important, except to know that there are 3 ways to get to one page on our site. Of course, we didn't set out to purposefully have 3 urls going to one page (which pulls that article page that is IDed by five digets), it just turned out that way after we customized everything.

So, these URLs all go to the same place:
/article.asp?ClickedLink=293&ck=10212&area=27
/article.asp?ck=10212
there is a third, but I can't remember it. It's some form of the above. When we are internally linking our content, we use /article.asp?ck=10212. This produces the correct left navs to open to the correct sub page when you click on a text link. However, when you get to a page by clicking on left menu, you get the first and longer example. The sets of numbers stand for the specific left menu, then the article, then the main section which has a color theme assigned to it.

Sorry that was so long. Would these URLs constitute as duplicate pages?

Further, if you have http pages, and those pages are also available as https pages for the same site, do those count as duplicate pages.

Perhaps all of this is a non issue. Thanks for reading!!

[SEMSEO]

I don't understand the question, and even moreso do not understand the answer by the second poster.

Please elaborate and we might be able to provide you with a helpful answer.

Sorry. I am not quite fully understand the question either.

A website has 3 URLs that point to the same page.

I guess he/she has 3 urls pointing to one web page i.e. e.g.

http://highrankings.com
http://jillwhalen.com

So, I asked him/her to follow what the SEO expert did i.e. by redirecting http://jillwhalen.com to http://highrankings.com .

This is the part that I don't quite understand:

This is b/c of how the navigation was built in order to show

1. the right left nav and

2. a certain color scheme to visually show what section of the site you are in.

Do these URLs make the engine think that these pages are duplicates?

I believe the engines are smart enough to know that they are duplicates.

I know it can weaken links to it b/c depending on how a user got to the page, they could create a link to it with different URLs, thus weakening the collective link power.

I guess this part, he or she meant that he or she could have 100 web sites linking to http://highrankings.com should he/she decided to use only one URL instead of three. By using three URLS, some (50) might link to http://highrankings.com and some (e.g. 50) linking to http://jillwhalen.com. So with only one URL, his/her web site could have Google PageRank of 4 instead of 2. I guess that is what he/she meant by "thus weakening the collective link power."


Jill my Sifu (If you have watched Kung Fu Panda, you will know what it means),

Sorry for using your URLS as an example. I don't want to use example.com or domain.com because according to your T&C I'll be linking to other web sites.

[houndog]

Hi,
My example does not involve two different domains. It is the same domain with different ways navigationally of getting to one page - within the domain. I do not need to redirect another website to the main website, nor, I hope, do I need to redirect a URL within the domain to another. If I did that, we'd have hundreds of redirects, that would be a little insane.

[SEMSEO]

So, these URLs all go to the same place:
/article.asp?ClickedLink=293&ck=10212&area=27
/article.asp?ck=10212
there is a third, but I can't remember it. It's some form of the above. When we are internally linking our content, we use /article.asp?ck=10212. This produces the correct left navs to open to the correct sub page when you click on a text link. However, when you get to a page by clicking on left menu, you get the first and longer example. The sets of numbers stand for the specific left menu, then the article, then the main section which has a color theme assigned to it.

Sorry that was so long. Would these URLs constitute as duplicate pages?

According to Google they are duplicate content.

Here is Google's suggestions in solving your problem:

Consider blocking pages from indexing: Rather than letting Google's algorithms determine the "best" version of a document, you may wish to help guide us to your preferred version. For instance, if you don't want us to index the printer versions of your site's articles, disallow those directories or make use of regular expressions in your robots.txt file.

Use 301s: If you've restructured your site, use 301 redirects ("RedirectPermanent") in your .htaccess file to smartly redirect users, Googlebot, and other spiders. (In Apache, you can do this with an .htaccess file; in IIS, you can do this through the administrative console.)

Be consistent: Try to keep your internal linking consistent. For example, don't link to http://www.example.com/page/ and http://www.example.com/page and http://www.example.com/page/index.htm.

Understand your content management system: Make sure you're familiar with how content is displayed on your web site. Blogs, forums, and related systems often show the same content in multiple formats. For example, a blog entry may appear on the home page of a blog, in an archive page, and in a page of other entries with the same label.

Minimize similar content: If you have many pages that are similar, consider expanding each page or consolidating the pages into one. For instance, if you have a travel site with separate pages for two cities, but the same information on both pages, you could either merge the pages into one page about both cities or you could expand each page to contain unique content about each city.

[SEMSEO]

Hi,
My example does not involve two different domains. It is the same domain with different ways navigationally of getting to one page - within the domain. I do not need to redirect another website to the main website, nor, I hope, do I need to redirect a URL within the domain to another. If I did that, we'd have hundreds of redirects, that would be a little insane.

Sorry, I was replying to your first question.

[houndog]

According to Google they are duplicate content.

Here is Google's suggestions in solving your problem:

Thanks. Do you have the Google link of where you found that? So, would this be punishable by Google? Or it sounds like maybe the engine understands that you'll have URLs that go to the same place b/c of the CMS, but just advise you to clean it up...

Thanks!

[SEMSEO]

Thanks. Do you have the Google link of where you found that? So, would this be punishable by Google? Or it sounds like maybe the engine understands that you'll have URLs that go to the same place b/c of the CMS, but just advise you to clean it up...

Thanks!

http://www.google.co...mp;answer=66359

Check out other articles as well.

You also need to read Matt Cutts' articles on duplicate content. I hope my Sifu Jill don't mind if I link to authority site like Google and recommending someone like Matt Cutts.

[Jill]

Before I clarify, is it correct that a website can be unindexed if it is displaying pages that have the same content on them.

No. You need to read the pinned thread on duplicate content in our seo no-no forum. That might help clarify things for you.

As long as you believe there is a duplicate content penalty (there's not) you won't understand.

Still no idea what my redirected site has to do with anything. A url that is redirected has no duplicate content. It has no content whatsoever. It's simply a redirected URL. Not a site. Not a duplicate site.

[houndog]

http://www.google.co...mp;answer=66359

Check out other articles as well.

You also need to read Matt Cutts' articles on duplicate content. I hope my Sifu Jill don't mind if I link to authority site like Google and recommending someone like Matt Cutts.

Oh, many thanks. Hmmm...I wonder how our specific situation could be blocked, however. Our internal links are /article.asp?ck=XXXXX. But the public would more easily grab the longer one b/c they get to it from a menu, which produces the longer link. Thus, the longer link versions might have more links pointing to them. Our printer friendly version could certainly be blocked, which I overlooked.

But. If we somehow excluded our shorter, internal links from the search engine, would the search engines then ignore our internal links...? I don't think so....I don't even know how to tell the engine to ignore that. The formula doesn't seem easily to define since it's used in the longer link without blocking the wrong things.

[Jill]

But. If we somehow excluded our shorter, internal links from the search engine, would the search engines then ignore our internal links...? I don't think so....I don't even know how to tell the engine to ignore that. The formula doesn't seem easily to define since it's used in the longer link without blocking the wrong things.

You need to find a way to feed the search engines only the shorter links, not the tracking ones. You want Google to index only the ones in you navigation and exclude the rest if you can. They will indeed think they're different URLs. You won't be penalized, but you also don't want your content indexed under multiple URLs.

There are many technical ways of accomplishing what you need to do. I would suggest consulting with a technical SEO on how to reprogram the site correctly.

[SEMSEO]

Still no idea what my redirected site has to do with anything. A url that is redirected has no duplicate content. It has no content whatsoever. It's simply a redirected URL. Not a site. Not a duplicate site.

I made the wrong assumption earlier that he/she had 3 different domains. I asked him/her to follow the expert i.e. redirect.