Duplicate pages workaround

will same content with differnt flavors or sizes be seen as duplicate pages

[latimer]

We have created a new site with new domain name and turned off the googlebot access to the original site in an effort to rebound from the google penalty. We did not allow googlebot access to 2/3 of the pages on the new site, as they are item level pages and we wanted to play it safe to start. We want to give google access to these pages now, but are concerned that specific product pages that only differ slightly may be seen as duplicates. For example: we may have 2 pages with identical content except for the size of the product ie., 8 oz. vs 12 oz. or, we may have same content with only difference being flavor ie., peppermint vs. spearmint. Would google see these pages as duplicates and put us back in the penalty box if we let google at them? Any of you have experience with this issue?

[jimbeetle]

Hi latimer,

8 oz., 12 oz ain't a lot of difference and as we know it's easy to get into Google's doghouse.

I'm planning to do the same thing -- and for the same reasons -- with one of my sites. I'm going to use the same basic content reworked somewhat so it will look different to the site visitor. Unfortunately, except for some word order changes and other cosmetic changes it will probably look almostthe same to a spider.

And as with you, most of my "items" are very similar. So, I'm also going to change the "wrapper" -- header, footer, navigation scheme, etc. -- add or subtract some links, make the page size different.

Whatever solution I decide on I want to be sure that it looks and reads completely differently to both spiders and visitors. Also thinking about a "Rate this widget" type thing to further differentiate the pages and add good, credible content.

The Sim Spider at searchengineworld.com or Lynx from download.com should give you a real good idea of what a spider sees and just how different your pages are.

Curious as to how this works out for both of us.

Jim

[omegadm]

I have had some problems submitting dynamic pages on google, but maybe something like php could help you here.

On a simple level you could add a time stamp/some ENV variables to the page or include different content (copy text) e.g. have 3 similar but different text descriptions for the same product. Which one the visitor see's is dependent on some random factor.

I realise this is close to cloaking - but just my 2p's worth.

FYI, we have a number of duplicate pages out there for multiple domains and to be honest I don't think it makes much difference to rankings in general - compared to all the other factors that make a difference...

[Longhaired Genius]

You can legitimately and easily distinguish your pages by using:

• page title
  
• meta description
  
• meta keywords
  
• img alt
  
• img title
  
• link title
  

As well as the on-the-page stuff.

They don't have to be very different for Google to happily list them all.

[jpavery]

issues are complex... lets look at the other side of duplicate pages... say you are a low-life webmaster - so you download your competitors website and publish it "as is" under a different domain... hey why not 10 different domain names. would google refuse to list the new ones, list them all, or refuse to list the new ones and penalise your competitor of being spammy.

point - it is hard to be an SE now-a-days!

[amanda21]

latimer

Why dont you add a 'featured product' or something to the pages, on a side bar or the footer maybe. Put a good paragraph of description in it and make it different for each page. Should be enough to differentiate the pages.