If to many pages on your own site are similiar

Will Google Penalize for this?

[Helpmebe1]

Greetings all... I have a question that has really been bugging me... for the last year or so Google has loved my site, I have held constant good rankings on google until this whole recent update Dominic. My site is squeeky clean, currently a PR4 which for my industry has been working fine... Lately I have noticed Google is not showing my deeper pages in results (and it always did). Instead it is showing the main sections but not the pages inside their. Now the one and only thing I can think of that google has not liked is that pages are similiar.

Let me give you an example.. lets say I am selling Mens 501 Levi Jeans for example. Well I will have one page with all the text that says "Mens Blue Denim Washed 501" ... now for the black pair I will leave all the text the same and the only text I will change is "Mens Black 501" jeans... so alot of the pages are similiar but that seems unavoidable... Would Google penalize for this? It is the only thing I can think of that is causing trouble for this site on google all of a sudden is if they recently applied some sort of penalty for this...

Thanks,

Chris

[manilla]

I can see you've posted in Esmerelda - have you checked the backlinks post Dominic?

[Helpmebe1]

Manilla,
On -fi? Yeah.. checked them on fi, www2 and www3.. its shows 15 more backlinks then I had but some of them are PR0 backlinks using the link:www.domain.com? I also dont see the Yahoo directory and dmoz links in their which typically I belive showed? Does this mean trouble?

Thanks
Chris

[steve128]

First off google does not realise "squeaky clean"
from err...not clean? (slightly dirty)

If your levis are not completely washed denim, google will see a whole...hole
and penalise accordingly.

Patches, are not usually successful, a new wrangler may be needed ;-

[Helpmebe1]

Steve,
Thanks.. if that is true than this is a new penalty google just came out with.. havent had any problems in a year... I just wonder if it really is so, so that I can avoid this again...

[deejay]

I find it hard to believe that Google would penalise for this. If so, take heart that you'll be in the same boat as about 95% of ecommerce sites out there.

Even if these pages are used as a spam technique, rather than to display multiple similar-but-different products, it still makes no sense for Google penalise as long as it is all on one domain.

Penalising for duplicate content between different domains is perfectly reasonable, as it stops Joe Bloggs from getting positions 1-10 on the serp for 'blue fuzzy widgets just by putting up 10 duplicate sites on ten different domains.

Penalising within a domain makes no sense as Joe Bloggs could have a 100 pages with "blue fuzzy widgets" and a couple of words changed in the page, and the best he would get out of it would be his rightful place in the SERP for the best targeted page, and perhaps an indented listing underneath it.

Even as a spam strategy, it really doesn't affect the search result quality in any significant way compared to the damage that a penalty to catch this one guy would do to the 95% of other sites out there.

[Helpmebe1]

Deejay... I am totally with you..and it is in no way spam.. I mean it is the rightful and thorough description for the product... their are just many somewhat similiar products.. and I am putting a thorough description of each .. I can change them on the next site and change the HTML page titles to be drastically different but then I wouldnt be giving the proper or full details of the product... I mean if I have to for google I guess I can but dont think it would look properly ... this is one of those things where its like what the $#(@$. I rank extremly well on ATW, did on google before dominic for the last year and pull in some ok ranks on MSN. Noone has a problem with it, all of a sudden, will google now have a problem with it? If so.. I think that is absolutely insane! I really do because I am trying to do the right thing.. give accurate descriptions and details..and page titles, yes, they are similiar.. but not 100 percent so.. and yes they are only on this one domain.. Arggh! I just dont know why they are showing the main sections and not these inner links, its like this is their penalty for similiar content. Well as I rebuild a new site I think I will leave out some of the details and make very brief descriptions, leaving out descriptions, thus leaving out keywords and see how this works. content is still going to be somewhat similiar even doing it this way though.. I just dont get it. This is the one and only rule I could possibly be breaking..and like you said I think their are a TON of other sites who have created in this same fashion...

[deejay]

rightful and thorough description for the product

Exactly as it should be. In fact I have previously had a site where the problem would have been greater than you describe.. with only a colour changing in the product name. No problem at that time, but of course the site isn't around now to compare.

There is a risk with sites of any size that your key focus for the page will get lost in the general on page 'clutter', for lack of a better word. Are you sure you have all your ducks lined up and optimised so that it is clear that this product is the FOCUS of the page.... or might it be seen as something else being the focus of the page and this is the few different words that the spam-meister (you) added to 'throw off' the filters?

[Helpmebe1]

this product is the FOCUS of the page.... or might it be seen as something else being the focus of the page and this is the few different words that the spam-meister (you) added to 'throw off' the filters?

Deejay, nah, not at all.. I think its pretty clear this specific product is the center of attention...