 Printer Friendly Pages Duplicate Content? |
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High Rankings Search Engine Optimization Forum > Search Engine Optimization > SEM/SEO Resources and Advice  |
 Jul 20 2005, 03:31 PM
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#1
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 sfgirl  Group: Active Members Posts: 261 Joined: 11-February 04 User's local time: Feb 9 2010, 10:06 AM From: Beautiful San Francisco Member No.: 2,476  |
Our printer friendly pages are prime content for search engines. Should we exclude them in the robots.txt file, or should we let SE's crawl them? And if the latterm will it be considered duplicate content?
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Jul 20 2005, 04:05 PM
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#2
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 HR 2 Group: Members Posts: 11 Joined: 18-May 05 User's local time: Feb 9 2010, 07:06 PM From: Alexandria, Egypt Member No.: 7,511 |
Isn't the problem on duplicate content when YOU duplicate content from ANOTHER site, or an AFFILIATE duplicates YOUR content and X gets indexed at Y's expense.
If both pages are from the same URL - surely that's NOT duplicate content, you've just repeated yourself. (IMG:http://www.highrankings.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) |
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Jul 20 2005, 04:12 PM
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#3
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 Convert Me!  Group: Admin Posts: 17,377 Joined: 17-August 03 User's local time: Feb 9 2010, 11:06 AM Member No.: 551 |
The same site or different site, the search engines strive to only show one version. Not both.
There's no penalty per se, just that only one or the other is going to show up in the SERPs. So as long as they're making it to your site, you're better off than if they make it to someone else's site. Laura: It's usually best to exclude those printer friendly pages via robots.txt in my experience. The real pages have your navigation so those are the ones you want people to land on, generally speaking. |
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Jul 20 2005, 06:03 PM
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#4
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 Internet Marketing Consultant Group: Active Members Posts: 671 Joined: 16-August 03 User's local time: Feb 9 2010, 12:06 PM From: Birmingham Alabama Member No.: 547 |
QUOTE It's usually best to exclude those printer friendly pages via robots.txt in my experience. EXACTLY what I was gonna say. The "printer friendly" version is ONLY for the user, not the SE. Just dissallow the SEs and there is NO problem. But boy the user really appreciates nice clean printable material!! Leann |
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Jul 20 2005, 06:48 PM
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#5
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sfgirl Group: Active Members Posts: 261 Joined: 11-February 04 User's local time: Feb 9 2010, 10:06 AM From: Beautiful San Francisco Member No.: 2,476 |
Yes - it all makes sense. Thanks for the input everybody.
(IMG:http://www.highrankings.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) |
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Jul 21 2005, 11:48 AM
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#6
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 Vintage Babe  Group: Moderator Posts: 4,142 Joined: 31-July 03 User's local time: Feb 9 2010, 12:06 PM From: Triangle area, NC, USA, Earth (usually) Member No.: 89 |
Or you could just use CSS print style sheets to format your "regular" pages for print on the fly when someone goes to print them, and not have to worry about duplicate content at all. (IMG:http://www.highrankings.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)
(Saves the effort of creating all those duplicate pages in the first place... (IMG:http://www.highrankings.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/thumbup1.gif) ) --Torka (IMG:http://www.highrankings.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/mf_prop.gif) |
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Jul 21 2005, 02:31 PM
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#7
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 Keyword Super Freak Group: Moderator Posts: 861 Joined: 23-July 03 User's local time: Feb 9 2010, 12:06 PM From: Texas, y'all Member No.: 14 |
Torka is wise...
You could also offer a PDF version of the articles, Laura, those don't seem to be tripping any duplicate content filters. |
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Jul 21 2005, 02:49 PM
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#8
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Vintage Babe Group: Moderator Posts: 4,142 Joined: 31-July 03 User's local time: Feb 9 2010, 12:06 PM From: Triangle area, NC, USA, Earth (usually) Member No.: 89 |
QUOTE(DanThies @ Jul 21 2005, 02:31 PM) Torka is wise... (IMG:http://www.highrankings.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/offtopic.gif) I nominate this as a quote for next year's forum birthday contest... (IMG:http://www.highrankings.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/angel_not.gif) (IMG:http://www.highrankings.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/lol.gif) (IMG:http://www.highrankings.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/hysterical.gif) --Torka (IMG:http://www.highrankings.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/mf_prop.gif) |
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Jul 21 2005, 03:20 PM
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#9
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sfgirl Group: Active Members Posts: 261 Joined: 11-February 04 User's local time: Feb 9 2010, 10:06 AM From: Beautiful San Francisco Member No.: 2,476 |
Thanks Dan & Torka! (IMG:http://www.highrankings.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/notworthy.gif)
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Jul 21 2005, 09:42 PM
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#10
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Convert Me! Group: Admin Posts: 17,377 Joined: 17-August 03 User's local time: Feb 9 2010, 11:06 AM Member No.: 551 |
QUOTE(torka @ Jul 21 2005, 01:49 PM) I nominate this as a quote for next year's forum birthday contest...  You would... (IMG:http://www.highrankings.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/jester.gif) |
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Apr 8 2006, 05:23 PM
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#11
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HR 5 Group: Active Members Posts: 344 Joined: 1-November 04 User's local time: Feb 9 2010, 01:06 PM Member No.: 5,554 |
Hope you don't mind me resurrecting this thread, it seemed the most relevent.
There's a chap here who is arguing against using robots.txt to exclude duplicate content; vbulletin-faq.com/forum/showthread.php?t=80 I'd be very keen to hear the experts opinions on this point of view, which basically puts forward the opinion that duplicate content is fine, for the user and for Google. More over he argues that Google is happy to list duplicate content and positively encourages it (OK, the author qualifies that last statement). Any thoughts? |
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Apr 8 2006, 06:56 PM
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#12
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 High Rankings Advisor Group: Admin Posts: 29,201 Joined: 21-July 03 User's local time: Feb 9 2010, 12:06 PM From: Ashland, MA Member No.: 2 |
Duplicate content IS fine. As long as you don't want all your various instances of it to show up in the engines.
We have numerous posts were we've said as much. |
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Apr 9 2006, 02:49 AM
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#13
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HR 5 Group: Active Members Posts: 344 Joined: 1-November 04 User's local time: Feb 9 2010, 01:06 PM Member No.: 5,554 |
Except this author appears to show with his examples that the duplicate content WILL show up in the engines.
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Apr 9 2006, 03:27 AM
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#14
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 HR 9 Group: Moderator Posts: 4,356 Joined: 13-August 03 User's local time: Feb 9 2010, 05:06 PM From: Blackpool UK Member No.: 492 |
sometimes they do.
sometimes the "wrong" version takes priority (from your POV). sometimes all the different versions will disappear. If you want a say in which version(s) are going to be shown, then you have to exclude the bots from the versions you don't want appearing. |
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Apr 9 2006, 09:41 AM
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#15
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High Rankings Advisor Group: Admin Posts: 29,201 Joined: 21-July 03 User's local time: Feb 9 2010, 12:06 PM From: Ashland, MA Member No.: 2 |
QUOTE Except this author appears to show with his examples that the duplicate content WILL show up in the engines. Which is fine. As Chris said, the issue really is whether you want to control which page shows for each piece of content on your site. If you don't care, and many don't, then it doesn't really matter. |
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