Site Navigation

when 2 "sections" need the same content

[old_expat]

I hope this is the correct place to post this.

I'm wondering if some of those who are expert at site navigation can make some suggestions.

I have a "country" travel site that is slowly but continually growing. Each "area" has a separate directory/section/index page. Some of the directories/sections have as many as 50 pages.

My navigation is split, but both are SSI snippets.

I have a top navigation that lists "info", "maps" etc, plus each "area".

Then each "area" has a unique left side navigation menu.

My delimma is my "maps" section. I believe it is a good idea to have that directory separated (searches, convenience), yet I want to be able to list the maps specific to an "area" on the "area" side menu.

But I don't want to get hit with the duplicate content problem by having the same maps pages in 2 directories.

Right now I'm opening a new window for a map that is listed on an "area" menu. Of course that window then has the "maps" side menu rather than the "area" side menu.

It seems a bit clumsy. Or am I over-anticipating?

I don't want to use javascript drop-down menus for a couple of reasons ... size (smallest I have found when configured for my site was 15+ k) ... plus the number of browsers with JS turned off seems to be about 10%.

I would really appreciate some recommendations.

[saoi_jp]

In directories such as DMOZ, what they'd do in your case would be to place a link to the relevant section of the "maps" directory. So, for example, you've got your fully-developed maps directory, as well as your developed area directory. So in the menu of the area, there would be a link to the page for "this area maps", and in the map menu, there's a link to "this map's area info".

For example,
domain.com/continent/country/region/culture
could have one of these cross links to
domain.com/maps/area234

These are considered a type of cross link, and you can often see in DMOZ that the link description has an "@" sign in front to indicate that you'll be taken out of the current "directory path" and into a separate cross-linked area.

So you'll avoid the dup content risk by linking across to "associated pages".

/edit reason: added example/

[goodroi]

Cross linking is best because it increase the links and is simplest. Another solution is to publish duplicate content but block it using robots.txt. This is annoying because it doubles the number of pages that need to be maintained.

[old_expat]

saoi-jp and goodroi

Thanks very much for your help. I will continue to use the cross-linking and will add a "@" at the beginning of each link.

Every time I visit this place I learn something.:>)

"too soon old, too late smart", Walter Brennan?