How can I have pages with media that changes and avoid duplicate content when the text stays the same?

[WebsightDesign]

I want to have a page that describes a specific property and/or product. The top part of the page has media options such as video and photos while the bottom includes the description.

I know I can set up the media in tabs and have it separated by javascript, but everything resides on one page so there are no duplicate content issues.

Example: http://www.worldclassproperties.com/properties/Woodside

BUT what if I need to the photos and the videos to have separate URLs so I can link to them individually? For example, for a real estate site blog, I may want to send visitors to the page of the home tour. I don't want to link them to the version of the page with the photos because I want them to arrive on the video portion.

Example: http://www.worldclassproperties.com/properties/Woodside?video=1

Is there any way to get around the problem that would result from the duplicate content of the product/property description? I do not have the resources in the budget to make two unique descriptions for every page.

[SimonCullum]

Hi there,

A good question.

I'd suggest making use of the Canonical tag within your website, which would be a quick, easy & effective solution.

For example, on a page with duplicate content such as  http://www.worldclassproperties.com/properties/Woodside?video=1  place a Canonical tag pointing to the primary/original page which is  http://www.worldclassproperties.com/properties/Woodside

This would avoid those duplicate content penalties as you'd be in effect redirecting the search engines from your duplicate pages back to the main page.

The link above on Canonical tag is well worth a visit, a great explanation of Canonicals by Rand Fishkin.

Hope that helps,

Regards

Simon

[mjtaylor]

I know there are SEOs who will disagree with me, but I don't think duplicate content is quite the issue some people think it is. Yes, there is, perhaps, some dilution of internal link juice, but there is not a negative filter in Google's algorithm that counts against you if you have duplicate pages.

That said, would it work for you to use anchors on one page with a named anchor for the video for one URL and another for the photos?

[WebsightDesign]

Thank you.

So if I use the canonical tag to point the video page to the photos page, does that mean the video won't have much value for optimization since I'm telling the search engines to ignore the page it's on?

[SimonCullum]

You're welcome.

Yes, that's right.  When it comes to catering for duplicate content issues, there will usually be a page (such as the one with the Canonical tag) that won't be best placed for search. Inbound links, for example, will be best pointed to the main page, such as your main Woodside page. This will be the page to focus the SEO on for that particular location.

Regards

Simon