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    4. How would you handle these pages? Should they be indexed?

    How would you handle these pages? Should they be indexed?

    Intermediate & Advanced SEO
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    • FPD_NYC
      FPD_NYC last edited by

      If a site has about 100 pages offering specific discounts for employees at various companies, for example...

      mysite.com/discounts/target

      mysite.com/discounts/kohls

      mysite.com/discounts/jcpenney

      and all these pages are nearly 100% duplicates, how would you handle them?

      My recommendation to my client was to use noindex, follow. These pages tend to receive backlinks from the actual companies receiving the discounts, so obviously they are valuable from a linking standpoint. But say the content is nearly identical between each page; should they be indexed? Is there any value for someone at Kohl's, for example, to be able to find this landing page in the search results?

      Here is a live example of what I am talking about:

      https://www.google.com/search?num=100&safe=active&rlz=1C1WPZB_enUS735US735&q=site%3Ahttps%3A%2F%2Fpoi8.petinsurance.com%2Fbenefits%2F&oq=site%3Ahttps%3A%2F%2Fpoi8.petinsurance.com%2Fbenefits%2F&gs_l=serp.3...7812.8453.0.8643.6.6.0.0.0.0.174.646.3j3.6.0....0...1c.1.64.serp..0.5.586...0j35i39k1j0i131k1j0i67k1j0i131i67k1j0i131i46k1j46i131k1j0i20k1j0i10i3k1.RyIhsU0Yz4E

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • Alick300
        Alick300 last edited by

        Hi,

        Think from user point of view. If it doesn't serve any purpose then I would like to go with your assumption, no need to index.

        Thanks

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • benesmartin
          benesmartin last edited by

          I'd also choose the best page (i.e. with highest traffic) and canonicalize the other pages to show Google you know about the duplicate content. Then use noindex, follow but not for all pages - you want to get found in search somehow. Though, employees probably know about the discounts and have some other channel how to get to the page.

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
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