Ecommerce Site with Unique Location Pages - Issue with unique content and thin content?

[PeteC12]

Hello All,

I have an Ecommerce Site specializing in Hire and we have individual location pages on each of our categories for each of our depots. All these pages show the NAP of the specific branch

Given the size of our website (10K approx pages) , it's physically impossible for us to write unique content for each location against each category so what we are doing is writing unique content for our top 10 locations in a category for example , and the remaining 20 odd locations against the same category has the same content but it will bring in the location name and the individual NAP of that branch so in effect I think this thin content.

My question is , I am quite sure I we are getting some form of algorithmic penalty with regards the thin/duplicate content.  Using the example above , should we 301 redirect the 20 odd locations with the thin content , or should be say only 301 redirect 10 of them , so we in effect end up with a more 50/50 split on a category with regards to unique content on pages verses thin content for the same category. Alternatively, should we can 301 all the thin content pages so we only have 10 locations against the category and therefore 100% unique content.

I am trying to work out which would help most with regards to local rankings for my location pages.

Also , does anyone know if a thin/duplicate content penalty is site wide or can it just affect specific parts of a website.

Any advice greatly appreciated

thanks

Pete

[LauraSultan]

I'm not sure I fully understand your question, but I'll give it a shot based on what I think you mean.

Just swapping out the NAP will not create unique content for those category pages, so you'll want to add a canonical tag with a link to a single category page that is not location specific.

Panda is site-wide.

[PeteC12]

I am basically wondering , If these duplicate content pages are affecting my local rankings for pages that I do have unique content for or not ?

Yes , I understand that changing the NAP won't create a unique content page.

What I was getting at , is say for example. I have 30 location specific pages for a given category each with their own specific location friendly url.

10 location pages will have totally unique content on them with minimum 500 words of goodcontent.

20 Remaining location pages, will have the same content apart from the NAP and the main keyword phrases bought in. I know this doesn't make the content unique.

I therefore have 33% unique content, 66% duplicate content against this category for the 30 locations.  Given that I am probably getting some form of duplicate penalty , would it be better for me to 301 my pages with duplicate content back to the main category page , therefore the category will only show 10 locations ALL with unique content ?.. or can I get away with say only doing 301's on say 10 location pages, so I end up with 10 locations of unique content , 10 locations of duplicate (but with unique nap) and the last 10 locations 301 to main cateory page , therefore the ratio is 50% unique content for the category.

I am wondering if I should be getting rid of all of the pages with duplicate content in there or whether I can get away with a small percentage..And whether this is affecting my rankings on my pages which I do have unique content written for?

thanks

Peter

[LauraSultan]

The duplicates will likely affect affect organic rankings for the entire site. Local pack results are somewhat affected by organic signals, so that could be affected, too.

As for whether or not to 301 redirect the duplicate category pages, do you want users to see them? If not, why do you have them? The 301 redirect will prevent users from seeing those pages.

If you want users to see them, use a noindex tag at the page level, or use the robots.txt to exclude them from search engines.

[PeteC12]

Many thanks for your help Laura.

That's what I was thinking so will do as you suggest.

thanks

Peter