Possible duplicate content issue with my Blog and archive pages . Any help greatly appreciated

[PeteC12]

Dear Mozzers,

I have been looking at my news section on my eCommerce site and I think I may have a duplicate content issue and wanted some advice on whether I do and if so , how best I handle this.

http://www.website.co.uk/news
http://www.website.co.uk/news/page:1
http://www.website.co.uk/news/page:2
http://www.website.co.uk/news/page:3
http://www.website.co.uk/news/limit:9999 (This is show all)

I also have the ability of showing articles by month :

http://www.website.co.uk/news/archive/2015/04 (April)
http://www.website.co.uk/news/archive/2015/03 (March)
http://www.website.co.uk/news/archive/2015/02 (Feb)
http://www.website.co.uk/news/archive/2015/01 (Jan)

I am wondering if there's a duplicate issue here or not given that I also articles by month as well and if so how best I handle this.? I already do pagination on my news pages (page 1 , page 2) by using rel=next and rel=Prev but I don't have an canconical or anything as yet.

I enclose a couple of links if this would help and would appreciate if someone could take a browse.

I have a View All link on my homepage for for all news items - http://goo.gl/JPPIvQ

I which have a different urls - March 2015 Articles - http://goo.gl/0O1wYD and April 2015 articles - http://goo.gl/GdW2oK

On another note, These articles are also linked to from the relevant category landing pages on my website to help with SEO. I have not used H tags on the article links in my landing pages , just displaying the weblink back to the news article.I've done this to try and improve the PR and rankings of my landing pages. Just wondered if anyone has any comments as to whether thats a good or bad idea and whether I could improve it in any way - An example is here (scroll down the page to the pressure washing guides) - http://goo.gl/nnRE49

Thanks

Pete

[DirkC]

Hi Pete,

These pages are not really duplicates, but they do not add a lot of value either. For these kind of pages I would use "noindex, follow" attribute. If I look at them, I really have difficulties to imagine for which kind of query these pages could provide a suitable answer.

Each of the articles mentioned in these list seems to contain useful content- but grouping them by date of apparition is not really adding value. If I were you - I would rather try to regroup them in logical themes (Taking care of your lawn / Painting / Maintenance / ...)

Put yourself in the mind of your target audience - they need to solve a certain problem & they probably need one of the products you have for hire. How would they search? What is the info they need? How can you help them? Many of the articles I see on your site are a bit too generic ('How to take care of your lawn in spring'). To be honest - that's a question I would never enter in Google. People are searching for things like "how to get rid of moss in lawn" - your site doesn't really seem to have a specific answer on this topic. It would however be an excellent opportunity to promote your lawn scarifier.

On first sight, it looks that your site has a lot of interesting content, but it's not really organised around themes, doesn't always answer the right question & links in a bit arbitrary way to the e-commerce part.

Try to do some keyword research (nice article here: https://moz.com/blog/keyword-research-in-90-minutes - a lot more resources here: https://moz.com/ugc/category/keyword-research) - to find out how your target audience is searching & optimise your content according to this;

Try to create smart internal linking using topical hubs  (I love this WBF of Gianluca : https://moz.com/blog/topical-hubs-whiteboard-friday)

Hope this helps,

Dirk

[PeteC12]

Hi Dirk,

Thank you very much for taking the time to answer this. A very informative answer and you have raised some useful points. I totally agree with regrouping my news items into logical themes otherwise like you say ,it's not adding any value if the user cannot find easily what they are looking for.

Some great articles links here to , especially the Keyword research in 90 mins  I Learn't alot from that. Will look at the others to.

Just quickly , on my second query with regards to my article links on my landing pages , should I be using H tags for the links back to the relevant news items or leave it as it is ?..  Just struggling to get my PR up on my landing pages so trying to everything really to see what works.

Once again , many thanks.

thanks

Pete

[DirkC]

Hi Pete,

I assume that with h tags you mean H1, H2, .. tags? There is not really a need to add these to the links. Adding theme based crosslinks will probably a better strategy.

You could also consider syndicating content - I've seen quite a lot of examples where DIY stores or fertiliser companies created content, both text and video (how to paint the ceiling / how to keep your lawn in top condition / ...) that was distributed on 3rd party sites (with the same topics). Even if the links on these pages are sometimes nofollow - it still creates brand awareness/trust and probably leads/sales as well.

If I take the sample product page - I would however put some intro text at the top of the page. I guess most people who want to hire a tool like a pressure washer have a certain task in their head, but wouldn't directly know which type to choose. I would add a kind of guide at the top of the page (which type of pressure washer do I need) - you have an article about it, but the title is only about the pressure you need ("Pressure washing guide - Which psi do I need?"). Same applies to "Power cleaning techniques using a pressure washer" - people look for "how to use a pressure washer". Videos on how to use these tools are also great (it always seems so easy to use them until you try yourself...).

Apart from the keyword research already mentioned, ask the sales persons in the stores what the typical questions are that people have when they come to the shop - these questions are excellent titles for your articles.

rgds,

Dirk

Also be careful with the hidden text at the bottom (Read more about our Pressure washing services) - in 2013 Matt Cutts indicated that this was ok for SEO (http://searchengineland.com/googles-matt-cutts-on-hidden-text-using-expandable-sections-youll-be-in-good-shape-167753) - however end of 2014 John Muller indicated that it's not the best strategy (https://www.seroundtable.com/google-hidden-tab-content-seo-19489.html).

[PeteC12]

Hello Dirk,

Many thanks for your advice , you've been very helpful.  Some good points. Yes, I read the article regarding the Click to expand" for content. In fact, I've removed this from one of my categories a week ago to see if it did anything to my rankings as a test. I also use tabs on my product pages which I am thinking of combining the product details/descriptions and pricing into the same tab and have that set to be the one default display.

I like the idea about putting some intro text on the top of the page as like you say , customers wouldn't necessarily know what type of pressure washer to choose. This is all very useful so thank you for raising that very valid point. Currently all my content is at the bottom of my pages although the way, the developer has written the site, this content is loaded first as opposed to last as I know that content on top is deemed more important.

I don't have the ability to do my own videos as we are an "affiliate" but I could have embedded links to useful youtube videos done by others on "how to etc  "or even manufacturer videos on my product pages /landing pages if that would help with seo although it's not my video ?. It would therefore be outbound links so I guess I would need to noindex follow ? if you think that is correct.

Many thanks Dirk for you assistance. I've learn't some useful things here.

Pete

[DirkC]

Hi Pete

Even if you don't make the videos yourself, it still ads value for your visitors if you use videos from Youtube and/or add additional info from suppliers. Engagement & time on site should increase - so indirectly it will have a positive impact on SEO.

It's not really necessary to make the external links nofollow - normally Google advises only to put nofollow on commercial links / links to low quality. Of course, if you are linking to competitors, it's better to put a nofollow (you don't want to reinforce their position).

rgds,

Dirk

[PeteC12]

Hi Dirk,

Many thanks for your help. I will look at adding some useful videos to help improve pages , user engagement and time on the site.

Many thanks

Pete