SEO - Massive duplication of same page, but different link.

[jennisprints]

Hi!
I'm dealing with a big client who's site has a big (approx. 39 000) duplication of the "same" page (same content) but each page has a different URL.

The duplicated page is a "become a member"-page.
I've checked the backlinks in Google Search Console and there are no sites linking to any of the duplicated pages.
The developers have no clue where or how the pages came to be duplicated, but my guess is that every time a new customer sets up an account the page becomes duplicated.

The customer want us to just remove the pages and sort out the duplication, but removing the pages might cause a big drop in back links/traffic and what not. I would much rather redirect the duplicated pages to the original page, but given that there are 39 000 pages it might mess with the site speed.

Looking for ideas and suggestions of what the next step should be, remove or redirect.
Thanks so much!

[Keszi]

Hi there,

From what you are describing the first thought that came to me is a wrongly implemented relative URL.

What I would do in this case: run a full crawl for the website with screaming frog (you will need a paid version) and make a bulk export for 404 inlinks via: Bulk Export -> Response Codes -> Client error (4xx) Inlinks. I would use that list to find a pattern in the anchor texts used to generate these kind of URLs.

When you have found a pattern you can go digg into the source code of the pages where the links come from.

If you don't have a Screaming frog license, send me a PM with the website and I will make a quick crawl for you.

Istvan