Why do I get duplicate content errors just for tags I place on blog entries?

[GerryWeitz]

I the SEO MOZ crawl diagnostics for my site, www.heartspm.com, I am getting over 100 duplicate content errors on links built from tags on blog entries.  I do have the original base blog entry in my site map not referencing the tags.

Similarly, I am getting almost 200 duplicate meta description errors in Google Webmaster Tools associated with links automatically generated from tags on my blog.  I have more understanding that I could get these errors from my forum, since the forum entries are not in the sitemap, but the blog entries are there in the site map.

I thought the tags were only there to help people search by category.  I don't understand why every tag becomes its' own link.  I can see how this falsely creates the impression of a lot of duplicate data.

As seen in GWT:

Pages with duplicate meta descriptions	Pages
[Customer concerns about the use of home water by pest control companies.](javascript:dropInfo('zip_0div', 'none', document.getElementById('zip_0zipimg'), 'none', null);)/ca​teg​ory​/jo​b-s​ite​-re​qui​rem​ent​s/ta​g/c​ost​-of​-wa​ter/ta​g/i​rri​gat​ion​-us​age/ta​g/s​ave​-wa​ter/ta​g/s​tan​dar​d-i​ndu​str​y-p​rac​tic​e/ta​g/w​ate​r-u​se	6
[Pest control operator draws analogy between Children's Day and the state of the pest control industr](javascript:dropInfo('zip_1div', 'none', document.getElementById('zip_1zipimg'), 'none', null);)/ta​g/c​hil​dre​n-i​n-m​ode​rn-​wor​ld/ta​g/c​hil​dre​n/ta​g/c​hil​dre​ns-​day/ta​g/c​ons​erv​ati​on-​med​ici​ne/ta​g/e​cow​ise​-ce​rti​fie​d/ta​g/e​sto​nia/ta​g/e​xte​rmi​nat​ion​-se​rvi​ce/ta​g/e​xte​rmi​nat​or/ta​g/g​ree​n-t​hum​b/ta​g/h​ear​ts-​pes​t-m​ana​gem​ent/ta​g/h​igh​er-​cer​tif​ica​tio​n/ta​g/h​igh​er-​edu​cat​ion/ta​g/t​art​u/ta​g/u​nit​ed-​sta​tes

[DougRoberts]

As you mention,  you use tags to give visitors the ability to browse articles with that cover the same subject matter. Normal practice would be to give the visitor a list of articles that have been tagged with this term.

A list of articles shouldn't flag up as a duplicate of any of the other article pages.

However, I notice that on a couple of the tag pages I took a look at that I just get one article being displayed, and being displayed in full. This is obviously going to be a duplicate of the original article.

I suspect that this is because for a number of the tags there is only one article to be returned.

I would look at how you are presenting articles when listed in the "tag archive" view and perhaps only display the introduction to the page with a link to the full article.

You may also want to think about the tags you are using so that you have fewer tags with only one article.

Hope this helps!

[GerryWeitz]

Doug, thank you so much for responding quickly.  I will have to explore the archive.  I really haven't ever explored this section.  You've given me a new place to research and I appreciate that.

As far as reducing the number of tags, that I don't understand as being an issue.  Because if I am doing something wrong, i.e. presenting the whole article via tags rather than references to it, that is the problem, whether I have 2 tags or 20 tags.  I want to find a solution that will solve the core issue regardless of the number of tags created.

Is that a different reason that you suggest reducing the number of tags?  I have heard around town that it is good not to have so many tags, but shouldn't I create them if a post covers a wide range of topics.  For example, if I wrote one post about a trip to Europe, chosing not to divide it into 15 posts for 15 countries, wouldn't I want to create a tag for each of the countries I mention in the post?

Doug, thanks again.

Gerry Weitz

[DougRoberts]

Nice if you can get your tags to reflect the broad range of topics covered by your site, but I think sometimes it can give a visitor the perception that your content is a little thin when you only have one article against each topic.

Say you're reading an article, you see that it's tagged with the topic you're interested in, click on that tag and only get the one article that you've just read.

When deciding on tags to use, try and think of how your visitors may wish to explore your content. Remember to try and maintain an external perspective and use tags that are meaningful to your visitors.

If you've got the time and enough traffic to give you the info, you could use your analytics data to see how people are using tags vs. site search for example.

Of course, as you point out, this doesn't have anything to do with the duplicate content problem.