Is there a way to rel = canonical only part of a page?

[DavidCiti]

Hi guys:

I'm doing SEO for a boat accessories store, and for instance they have marine AC systems, many of them, and while the part number, number of BTUs, voltage, and accessories change on some models, the description stays exactly the same across the board on many of them...people often search on Google by model number, and I worry that if I put rel = canonical, then the result for that specific model they're looking for won't come up, just the one that everything is being redirected to. (and people do this much more than entering a site nowadays and searching by product model, it's easier).

Excuse my ignorance on this stuff, I'm good with link building and content creation, but the behind-the-scenes aspects... not so much:

1. Can I "rel=canonical" only part of the page of the repeat models (the long description)? so people can still search by model number, and reach the model they are looking for?

2. Am I misunderstanding something here about rel=canonical

(Interesting thing, I rank very high for these pages with tons of repeat descriptions, number one in many places... but wonder if google attributes a sort of "across the site" penalty for the repeated content... but wouldn't ranking number 1 for these pages mean nothing's wrong?. Thanks)

[DirkC]

A canonical url always applies to a "full page" = content accessible under a specific url so it's not possible to apply the canonical url to only a part of the page.

Duplication of content is not always a reason for "punishment" by Google - check https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/66359?hl=en : "unless it appears that the intent of the duplicate content is to be deceptive and manipulate search engine results" that you will get an action from Google. In most cases - "we (=Google) do a good job of choosing a version of the content to show in our search results".

You could consider to make one main page for each type of product and then list the specifics for each model number on the same page but it could lead to lower traffic.

You could also try to make for each detailed page a piece of "original" content, but in cases like yours I guess this would be virtually impossible.

Don't think everyone would agree on this advice - but given that your pages are currently ranking quite well and they are answering a certain customer need I wouldn't do touch them. The risk you run seems limited.

Dirk

[DavidCiti]

Awesome, Dirk, thanks!! Best advice I could have heard

[Stippin]

Is this still the best advice for this situation? My situation is different but this reply is stale by about three years.