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London | 20–24 Feb, 2012 | #seslondon

Identifying, Removing & Preventing
Duplicate Content

@SamuelCrocker


Introduction

• Personally responsible for delivery for enterprise
level clients in travel, retail/ecommerce,
restaurants, entertainment, etc.

• Dealt with some really large, really ugly sites
suffering from a number of these issues

@SamuelCrocker


Before we begin…

@SamuelCrocker


Single Site Issues

@SamuelCrocker


Old Architecture & Hoarders*

@SamuelCrocker
*The worst offenders


The First Step is to Clean House

@SamuelCrocker


Target Suspected Duplicate Content First

Known Properties

Unknown Properties

@SamuelCrocker


An Idealistic Approach*

Identify Duplicate
Content

Step 1

*In my experience a short-midterm “fix” only makes
@SamuelCrocker
these issues worse and more expensive in the LT


Now The Most Critical Part…

Identify Duplicate Create a sensible
Content I/A

Step 1 Step 2

http://www.slideshare.net/a4uexpo/successful- @SamuelCrocker
information-architecture-richard-baxter


Followed by the Delivery Part…

Create mapping
Identify duplicate Create a sensible
and rewrite rules*
Content I/A

Step 1 Step 2 Step 3

*You’re going to need a lot of time for this: which page
@SamuelCrocker
currently ranks, which page converts better, etc.


Process is Important

Create mapping Create a process
Identify duplicate Create a sensible and STICK TO IT*
and rewrite rules
Content I/A

Step 1 Step 2 Step 3 Step 4

*obviously processes need to evolve, but don’t forget
@SamuelCrocker
how quickly this can get out of control (again)


That’s Cool Sam, But In The Real World We Have
Budgets

“That’s true [client], but organic traffic already accounts for [x]% of
your online revenue - and by my estimates, getting this problem
sorted could save you [x]% in PPC spend, as well as £x per month
in link building - and contribute an additional [£X] in revenue... It
would also greatly improve usability”

“Just out of curiosity, how much money did you spend on TV and Display last year?”

@SamuelCrocker


“Legacy” & Other Orphan Pages

Ask for a full DB Dig through server Ask for a proper
dump? logs? XML sitemap

External Links?

Yes No

301 to most relevant
page, update links as Lower Priority
possible

@SamuelCrocker


PPC Landing Pages

Rel = canonical (if
actually duplicate)

NOINDEX, FOLLOW
also possible if not

@SamuelCrocker


Templated Solutions

@SamuelCrocker


Why Are You Doing it?
PPC Landing Pages?

Possible.

Plausible.

Not really.

Debatable.

@SamuelCrocker


Why Are You Doing it?
SEO Benefit?

*I’m not saying you can’t rank this way anymore, I’m
just saying you have to work a lot harder and it’s not a @SamuelCrocker
great user experience


What You Should Be Doing

Focus on the high converting Focus on the high volume
pages search queries

Create (at a minimum) some Create (at a minimum) some
unique content. unique content.

And if you know you’re never
going to have unique content
for some pages – noindex.

@SamuelCrocker


Product Descriptions

@SamuelCrocker


Product Descriptions – Big(ish) Budget

Big Budget

•Hire loads of in-house copywriters
•Outsource quality UNIQUE content
•Email newsletters for reviews (UGC)
•Incentives for reviews (UGC)
•Video product reviews + transcripts
•For every product
•Video Sitemaps

@SamuelCrocker


Product Descriptions – Smaller Budgets

Smaller Budget

•Fiverr
•Interns
•UGC
•Listen to Ralph

@SamuelCrocker


Problems from Sites You Don’t Control

@SamuelCrocker


Catch & Stop Your Competitors Scraping Your Content

Not Shady Options

1. Create a script to automatically set-up Google Alerts for
the first couple sentences of everything you publish.
2. Snippet test your own content from time to time.
3. Use rel=canonical (if scraping entire source), infrequent.
4. Use rel=author on all internal links (can also be done in
content) – makes more sense for bloggers.
5. Monitor server logs for traffic spikes and carefully block IPs
6. When all else fails, DMCA

@SamuelCrocker


Dealing with Relatively Innocent Image Theft

Oh look, link
targets!

@SamuelCrocker


Less Innocent Image Theft/Hotlinking?

@SamuelCrocker


Mobile Sites

@SamuelCrocker


The Single URL SEO Camp
Champions

“Mobile copies of websites seem to me
to be more likely to cause duplicate
content issues, technical challenges,
waste engineering resources and draw
away attention from real mobile
opportunities than to earn slightly
higher rankings in mobile searches.”
- Rand Fishkin, 2011

@SamuelCrocker


The Mobile Site Camp
Champions

“In my experience, duplicate content
doesn’t apply to the mobile paradigm.”
- Bryson Meunier, 2012

@SamuelCrocker
Source: http://bit.ly/xwHmeW


A Mobile Specific Experience is Preferable

• A mobile specific experience is *usually* preferable based on the data I have seen
(conversions, rankings, keyword targeting, etc.).

@SamuelCrocker
Source: Morgan Stanley


BUT, a Separate Mobile Site Should Serve a Purpose

Local monthly searches (mobile) Local monthly searches (desktop)
Car hire 8100 90500
Car rental 4400 33100

Desktop Mobile

Car hire is 2.73x more Car hire is 1.8x more
searched than car rental searched than car rental

Focus on car hire. Target both terms on homepage.

In which case duplicate content shouldn’t be an issue
@SamuelCrocker
anyhow.


You Can’t Ignore Mobile, But Use Resource Wisely

• If you can achieve a better experience using style sheets and do not have the resource or need
to target mobile users differently (with your content and/or UX) then a single URL solution will
make your life easier.
@SamuelCrocker


Problems With International/Multi-lingual Domains

@SamuelCrocker


Translation & Other Issues from International Domains

Bigger Budget

•Localise – do not translate

•Never machine translate

•Be wary of your local market resources
(check Wikipedia)

•ccTLD’s for all markets (personal
preference)

•Be very careful with your Geotargeting
settings in Webmaster tools

•Unique servers/physical addreses
(ideally) for each country @SamuelCrocker


Translation & Other Issues from International Domains

Smaller Budget

•Manual human translation
preferred, even if direct translation.

•If you must auto-translate, block
non-unique pages with Robots.txt

•Make sure you try to adhere to one
language per URL

•hreflang: use with caution.
•Perhaps most appropriate for
GB and US situations.

@SamuelCrocker


Problems from Controlling Multiple Similar Sites, in the
same niche.

@SamuelCrocker


Multiple Brands/Sites, Same Niche?
Choose a brand
voice and stick to it.

*It can be a hassle but tying this into everything @SamuelCrocker
you do can help ensure unique content.


Only speak to one
audience at a time

@SamuelCrocker


Prioritise and go
with what converts!

@SamuelCrocker


Rapid Fire Survival Tips: Questions You Should
Constantly be Asking

@SamuelCrocker


Why does this property exist?

Who are we trying When do we want What terms tie into
to target? to send users here? that user journey?

@SamuelCrocker


Why did we choose this page/focus?

Support it with
Know your strategy
numbers.

@SamuelCrocker


Why are we joining this new platform?

What benefit do we What resource Where will this content What about problems on
expect? would this require? come from? existing sites?

@SamuelCrocker


Finally: Is it worth rocking the boat?

@SamuelCrocker


Image Credits
• Dolly - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/8169817/Dolly-the-Sheep-reborn-as-four-new-clones-created.html

• Overwhelmed: http://comerecommended.com/blog/2011/09/13/dealing-with-feeling-overwhelmed-at-work/

• Single- http://www.davidwygant.com/blog/being-single-means-no-bitching-allowed/7280/

• Hoarding: http://coverlaydown.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/messy.jpg

• Clean Office: http://www.momoy.info/uploads/interior-design/June-09/syzygy-office-02.jpg

• Pandshake: http://www.genzel.ca/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Stephen-Harper-best-pm-ever.jpg

• Two Camps: http://www.summarynewspaper.com/high-winds-hit-the-two-camps-on-mount-everest/1735.html

• Sumo: http://www.quicksprout.com/images/littlebig.jpg

• Scrapers: http://seomemes.com/post/6314149329/scrapers-gonna-scrape

• Graffiti: http://raymondpward.typepad.com/newlegalwriter/2009/08/graffiti.html

• Pick your battles: http://www.etsy.com/listing/62656583/pick-your-battles-red-8x10-screenprint

@SamuelCrocker

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