Glossary index and individual pages create duplicate content. How much might this hurt me?

[LeadSEOlogist]

I've got a glossary on my site with an index page for each letter of the alphabet that has a definition. So the M section lists every definition (the whole definition).

But each definition also has its own individual page (and we link to those pages internally so the user doesn't have to hunt down the entire M page).

So I definitely have duplicate content ... 112 instances (112 terms). Maybe it's not so bad because each definition is just a short paragraph(?)

How much does this hurt my potential ranking for each definition? How much does it hurt my site overall?

Am I better off making the individual pages no-index? or canonicalizing them?

[DirkC]

Hi,

As far as I understand it's not really a question of duplicate content in the SEO meaning. Although all the definitions starting with M are on the M-index page this page is quite different to the pages that contain the individual definitions of the terms that start with M.

A problem on many sites is that the pages that only contain the explanation of one term are very light in terms of content, and that the page with is listing all these terms is generally not very interesting from a user (and search perspective). I don't know your site, so difficult to assess if this is the case

You could make the index page noindex/follow - and just list the terms, linking to the explanation pages. For the explanation pages which are probably the most interesting for users & search engines: try to enrich them by adding more content, like links to articles on your site that use the term, or have more information on the term

Hope this helps,

Dirk

[LeadSEOlogist]

Just having a bit of a dilemma. Trying to make it easier for people who come to the glossary and then go to ... say ... the M page. Don't have to keep clicking away to see the definitions. Result: More user-friendly

But we also want to have a very specific definition page so that when we link from an article to the definition, the user doesn't have to see all of the M definitions. Result: More user-friendly.

Definitely not concerned that both the M index page and the M* definition** page show up in the search results. That would actually be swell. Just more concerned that our overall site ranking or domain authority will somehow suffer.

If you're saying that the M index page and the M* page** are dramatically different (because the M index page is much, much longer) and so I shouldn't worry, that's great. (Hope that's what you're saying.)

Thanks!

[DirkC]

That's exactly what I am saying - your index page with all the definitions is from Google perspective completely different from the detailed definition page (the first one being much richer in content than the 2nd one). If getting these pages ranked is the least of concerns - you can keep it as it is. If you want to play on the safe side, you can put a noindex on the index page.

rgds,

Dirk

[LeadSEOlogist]

Oops. Sorry. Poor wording there. Meant to say ...

Definitely not concerned that the M index page and the M* definition** page BOTH show up in the search results.

We definitely do want at least one of the pages to not only show up in the rankings, but to rank highly. I'm guessing the M index page would actually have a chance of ranking high because it will have so many long tails related to our short-tail.

But it would seem weird to put a no-index on the M* definition** page ... since we have multiple internal links to those pages.

Thanks again for your patience. Really appreciate the feedback.

Steve

[DirkC]

It's a bit difficult to assess which of the pages is more important without knowing the site. Having a lot of content is good - but if the only link between the content is that they all start with the same letter it could be pretty weak or pretty strong depending on the situation:

I'll give 2 examples :

Suppose that the index is on First names starting with S - in this case this page is a valuable one because a lot of people are searching for it - and the search volume is potentially bigger than the number of people that are looking for first name steve (= one specific item)

Suppose the index is about Illnesses starting with S - in this case the index page has very little value for a searcher, because people are searching illnesses based the symptoms -the fact that illnesses start with S doesn't link them together.

It could be helpful if you send me the actual url's via PM if you don't want to disclose them here.

rgds

Dirk

[LeadSEOlogist]

PM? Does Moz offer that function?

[RyanPurkey]

From here: http://moz.com/messages/write to Dirk's username: DC1611. There used to be a button in profiles, but it looks like it got shuffled in the redesign.

[LeadSEOlogist]

Thanks, Ryan!