Should I add canonical tag on these pages?

[ilovebodykits]

Hi folks

I have some pages that used to rank pretty well..but I believe it is affected due to the content similarities.

Here is one the sub category pages

http://www.ilovebodykits.com/category/98/2/Full-Body-Kits_Duraflex.html

the main category page

http://www.ilovebodykits.com/category/98/Exterior_Body-Styling_Full-Body-Kits.html

These 2 links have very similar contents. The content are dynamic generated by template and I don't think I am able to change content for each individual pages since there are over 2000-3000 of them or more. Should I use canonical tag on the Duraflex.html page to give the main category page all the link juices and credits? There are about 20 other pages like this under this main category. Is it right to canonical all of them?

Please let me know if anyone has any suggestion.. thanks

[seowoody]

Hey,

I think you have a bigger problem here.

The text at the bottom of every page is generated by template system dynamically replacing one variable only, thus resulting in very thin/dupe content. It's very probable that you've been hit with recent Google Panda updates.

Lexus body kits are add-ons and replacements that can be used to revise and revitalize a Lexus car’s outward appearance. After years of wear and tear, the Lexus exterior paneling on many Lexus cars begins to look old and, frankly, ugly. Any damage to a Lexus car’s paint job or to the Lexus exterior parts themselves can lower a Lexus vehicle’s resale value, making the use of Lexus bodykits just that much more important. ALexus bodykit can make a Lexus car appear newer, without ever changing any of the true mechanics of the vehicle.

Most aftermarket Lexus body kit upgrades come with replacements for several highly affected Lexus parts, Lexus bumpers and Lexus side skirts. These are the areas of a Lexus vehicle that are most typically damaged from regular driving, but they alone aren’t the only pieces that can be easily fixed. Other aftermarket Lexus body paneling can be used to customize a Lexus vehicle’s look, so Lexus body kits can sometimes be tailored to a driver’s specific needs. For an improved appearance that takes off the poor looks resulting from years of driving, a simple Lexus body kit can serve you well.

Lexus Cheap Body Kits Urethane Lexus Body Kits

etc

As a quick fix, you could try adding canonical tag from these sub cats into your main cat page but as long as you have this dynamic dupe content you're going to have a real problem. Open to hear others thoughts on this though.

I would certainly test this on one sub/main category before implementing across the whole site.

I would try to build out useful unique content around each body kit type (Urethane Body Kits, Cheap body kits, etc). This will give you less main categories to find useful content for, then mention the car makes and models within the content, such as suitable for: Lexus, Saab, etc.

Hope this helps

Woody

[TomRayner]

Hi there

You've identified a duplicate content issue there and have come up with one way of dealing with it, so nice job.

If you gave this page: http://www.ilovebodykits.com/category/98/2/Full-Body-Kits_Duraflex.html this canonical tag: rel="canonical" href="http://www.ilovebodykits.com/category/98/Exterior_Body-Styling_Full-Body-Kits.html" /> then yes, you are telling Google to ignore the duplicate, don't index it or pass on any juice, and treat the URL in the canonical tag as the original and the one to rank.

You would have to do this again for the other pages as well, as you rightly pointed out.

An alternative would be to add the following code in the duplicate pages' header:

This basically tells Google not to index or give any credit to the page and to not index it. If it isn't indexed, it will not be flagged as duplicate.

The third option, and the one I recommend you looking at, is redirecting the duplicate URLs with a 301 code.

On this page http://www.ilovebodykits.com/category/98/2/Full-Body-Kits_Duraflex.html you've got a lot of external links and a great page authority.  If you're confident that these links are good quality and safe, if you 301 redirect the URL, those links and their strength will pass to the designated URL, as well as making sure only 1 non-duplicated URL is indexed.  This way, you get the both worlds - you remove any duplicate pages, but keep the strength of the links pointing to those pages and send them to 1 URL.  Here's a how to blog post on redirection.

Some more info can be found on in these useful blog posts:

http://www.seomoz.org/learn-seo/duplicate-content

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/duplicate-content-block-redirect-or-canonical

Hope this helps make your decision!

[seowoody]

Hi Tom,

Great clarification/explanation of the use of canonical tags, but I think the problem is more related to these pages:

http://www.ilovebodykits.com/category/98/Jeep/Exterior_Body-Styling_Full-Body-Kits.html

http://www.ilovebodykits.com/category/98/Mercedes/Exterior_Body-Styling_Full-Body-Kits.html

http://www.ilovebodykits.com/category/98/Subaru/Exterior_Body-Styling_Full-Body-Kits.html

In fact, all the content linked from the left nav here - http://www.ilovebodykits.com/category/98/Exterior_Body-Styling_Full-Body-Kits.html

These couldn't be 301'd as they are valid pages in their own right, they just contain dupe content created by the template system.

Perhaps a side issue, unrelated to your sub-cat/main cat canonical fix, but a Panda issue all the same.

Thoughts?

Woody

[KeriMorgret]

I just have to say I'm real thankful this is about car body kits. I saw the URL and was afraid I was going to need to add a NSFW disclaimer, until I saw the comments.

[TomRayner]

Honestly Keri, do you think the community would be capable of posting such things?

whistles

[ilovebodykits]

Thanks guys..

If I add canonical tag on the pages with duplicate content pages, can I remove the tag after I get the content issue fixed?  Will that have any negative effects to those pages that had the tag implemented?

My other question is , in order to make the page content different on every sub category pages do you guys think I can randomize my product displays along with the text content.  Does the product display counted as part of the text content?

Keri-- if you ever need a car body kits- you now have a new connection established.

[seowoody]

If I add canonical tag on the pages with duplicate content pages, can I remove the tag after I get the content issue fixed?  Will that have any negative effects to those pages that had the tag implemented?

No. I would advise doing this.

My other question is , in order to make the page content different on every sub category pages do you guys think I can randomize my product displays along with the text content.  Does the product display counted as part of the text content?

When you say randomize, what do you actually mean?

Displaying the same products in a random order would not count as unique content.

Yes the product display does count as part of the pages content.

I'm also not sure what you mean by randomizing text content, but it sounds like a bad idea as the whole idea is to create useful unique content to the product the page is related to, which is why I suggested targeting things like "urethane body kits" rather than Lexus urethane body kits as its more likely you can produce higher quality content on the former.

hope that helps,

Woody

[ilovebodykits]

Hi Woody

Thanks for your reply,   - On my current category and sub category url- i have 8 to 20 products display in FEATURE PRODUCTS and search result- I can randomly pick 8-20 products out of 200+products  from these category groups so it will show different products each time when customer enter these category pages.

In most categories. There are over 200+ products contain in these categories so there can be a lot of combinations. Not sure if this is good enough to get away from duplicate content check.

[seowoody]

I guess it would help to randomise the featured products and the customer reviews, but I honestly think your biggest problem is this repeated block of text under the featured products where you're dynamically swapping out one or two words with your keyword, for example:

2011 Duraflex Audi A7 body kits are custom exterior accessories that can be installed to upgrade and revitalize a car’s {exterior look. After years of usage, the exterior parts on many automobiles starts to look outdated. Any damage to a car’s paint job or to the exterior components themselves can depreciate a automobile's value, making the use of body kit is just that important. A aerodynamic kits can transform a car look better, without ever changing any of the true mechanics of the vehicle.

Get rid of this and see if you're pages regain their previous positions in the SERPs.

Hope that helps,

Woody

[Christy-Correll]

Hi Cary - You've received some fantastic support from the Moz Community! Has your issue been resolved?