Would duplicate content from tags create a sitewide penalty?

[mike1019]

One of my sites got hit hard from the Oct panda update. I didn't realize until this past week my tags were indexed and my category pages were showing full content.

Since then, I've noindexed/follow my tags and category pages.

Would this create a sitewide penalty? I feel foolish for not seeing this the first time around.

Do I sit tight now and wait for a panda refresh?

Thanks in advance.

[tedster]

Depending on how your tag pages are set up (especially how many different tags you use) they can definitely cause troubles if you allow them to be indexed. I'm pretty sure Matt Cutts commented about this possibility sometime last year.

Definitely beware of just letting any "standard" CMS features do their thing without thinking it through to the end result.

[mike1019]

Thanks Tedster for your reply. All of my category and tag pages where showing full content of the original post. I was using on average 5-8 tags per post. Everything was indexed including the home page/1 /2/ /3/ etc..

I must have overlooked this problem when switching seo plugins to wordpress seo ..

On June 12 during the panda refresh, I noticed a majority of pre panda rankings returning. However, it went back within 24-48hrs..

I'm wondering if the big G didn't catch all of my changes 10
Days prior to the refresh. I'm hoping the next refresh brings me back.

Any ideas?