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Look at the bright side, at least it's an easy fix.

Hi all, Thanks for the responses & feedback. Alan, in this example, the fresh content would be relevant. Of course there are search queries that don't need freshness or updates, but I would argue most do need updates / freshness (even the ones we think we know the answer to over time). Once again, the conversation is not about RANKING for that page but about HELPING the domain achieve "freshness & relevance" around a topic with that duplicate content. Would love to see others chime in. Thanks, Cole

This is a very interesting topic and as always we have no proof of the consequences from Google. I was always under the impression that should a page be seen as a replica of another page then the older page would rank higher in the SERPS. I was also under the impression that should duplicate content be discovered by Google that page would be flagged and penalized? I'm subject to correction because, as I said, there is no definitive proof relating to this at all.

Hi Cole, Unfortunately, yes - the set of pages being surfaced by Patrick would pretty much fit Google's definition of doorway pages, in my opinion. The content has been duplicated across multiple pages, simply switching out the city names. I recommend a couple of things here: Read the thread I started about the doorway pages update when it rolled out: http://moz.com/community/q/how-google-s-doorway-pages-update-affects-local-seo If you are currently developing these thin/duplicate content pages for yourself and your clients, this is definitely a great moment for you to rethink your strategy. It's my personal belief that content should only be published if it is unique and helpful. If you don't have unique content to publish on these types of city landing pages, then you don't have a reason to publish them. Each local business that wants to cover cities in which they lack physical locations faces this same interesting challenge - identifying the legitimate connections between the business and the focus communities. These real-world connections need to be showcased on the landing pages. If they don't yet exist, the business needs to discover if the relationships can be developed and then showcased. If there are no opportunities for relationships, then these types of page don't really belong on the website in question. Fortunately, a website design company has the opportunity to build direct relationships with its clients in the various cities it is serving. For example, if Alexandria is a city in which you have clients, your Alexandria page can be the place you write up these projects, including project descriptions, customer testimonials , video content, etc. When you've achieved showcasing, perhaps, five great clients on the Alexandria page, see what else you can do to make it unique. For example, does you company host or participate in industry events in this city? Sponsor a little league team there? Have a unique take on rising industries in the city? Anything you can think of that will demonstrate the strong relationship you've built on the business scene in a town will prove to new potential customers that you are very involved in serving businesses in their city. There are no shortcuts here. Developing the writing for these pages calls for your greatest creativity and a decision to allot time and funding to creating city-related pages that are the gold standard in your industry and geographies. This mindset has always been appropriate, but now, with Google's doorway update, it has become a must. Recommend you also read: http://moz.com/blog/local-landing-pages-guide http://www.localvisibilitysystem.com/2013/04/30/16-ways-to-create-unique-local-content-for-cities-where-you-want-to-rank/

I'm working on a site that had a very poor disavow file in place from a previous agency.  I went through the link profile with a fine tooth comb and added a bunch more domains to the file.  Organic traffic has gone up over 80%. That is not our only problem and there are other factors to work on but the cleansing is reassuring even though we know the profile is pretty thin.  But again that just goes to show quality always wins over quantity. I would say there may be a whole host of issues hampering ranking but a dirty profile is a must fix, no matter the immediate outcome.  I explain to clients that I anticipate a short term fall and why to set their expectations, then anything positive is a great bonus.

Thanks all!

Alex, you sir are a man among boys. Thanks!!

Hi Cole! It takes our partners about 8 weeks to process the data. We don't have control over this but if the updates are not reflected past 8 weeks, definitely let us know at help@moz.com so we can check with them for status.

My company gets a ton more traffic from Bing than Google. I have found (could be a coincidence) that I get far more conversions and technical support questions from Bing as well. I have lost some rankings in Bing because of the changes I have made to my site to keep up with best practice for Google. However strange it might sound, I haven't suffered any traffic or conversions from the loss of rankings in Bing. Do you ever use your Bing Webmaster Tools? They are a little less insightful than GWT, but BWT does offer some insight to help your rankings. I would start there first. Good Luck!

I think Google updated the 14 days processing. You add a manager -> One day waiting -> Make owner. Thanks so much for your help!!!

Max, Let me try to clear up this "deep linking" question for you. First, I do not use the term deep linking and am not sure the entire goal of it. If you are going out trying to set up links in some way and direct them to specific pages, IMO you are going to a lot more trouble than it is likely worth today. Your content should be able to get you links. If your "deep" pages have good content they will get links, Period. Here is an example and it is one that for us was really irrelevant content.  One of our people did a post and included something on 3-D printing. We do not own a 3-D printer, I would not know how to use one, etc. Yet, we got people linking to that. Another was about 18 months ago or so, we did it a post on responsive design. The post was done just to talk about responsive design. We did not send it out to people to get links, we did not submit it to article directories, etc. Yet, it is one of our most linked-to pages on our site. The reason seems to be due to the image and people wanting to use it. BUT, we did not set out to get links. I would worry a lot more about ensuring you are creating content regularly and that it is not just content for content's sake. Make it readable, interesting, engaging. If you are "deeplinking" whatever that practice is, you are trying to create links to specific pages and I just think that is a waste of time 99% of the time. Best

It appears the disavow tool dropped me out of the rankings. And I deleted in and appeared to be right back in the rankings. Thanks,

If both your Yext and Moz listings match, it won't matter, as the citation information will be correct no matter who they prioritize.

Thanks all.

Just asking.

No problem. Though tonight I'm devoting most of my attention to getting sloshed. Our friends of the alternate en variety are getting knackered. I would do that at a bar, but they would do it at a pub.

Awesome responses guys. Anyone else have any other insight?

There's also an article about it right here on the Moz blog, which includes a title tag preview tool: New Title Tag Guidelines & Preview Tool http://moz.com/blog/new-title-tag-guidelines-preview-tool

Hi Cole, Unfortunately there is a solution for this for international duplication but not national. If we were talking about international locations, the solution is the hreflang tag. I'll link to it here just in case it's of use in the future: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/189077?hl=en Nationally, canonicalisation will remove the non-canonical versions from the index and of course from rankings, as Chris has said. I've looked at medical queries in the past, and Google is very adept at taking IP into account when returning results, the fact that it thinks my IP is located an hour's drive south of here notwithstanding I would say that re-written content is your best bet if you can't use one page listing multiple locations (highly unlikely) and truly need separate sites for all 13. There can be a little cross-over / duplication without causing too much worry, but I would be concerned that Google is not good enough at a national level to differentiate between duplicates in the same way it can do this for internationalisation.