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Hi Pravin,

Is there any content on these pages that makes them unique? Is there a greater portion of unique content compared to this duplicated content?

Owen

If you want to increase the chance of each unique combination being found via organic search, unique titles would be the way to go. Duplicate titles might increase the chances of Google filtering one ore more of your pages out of the search results in favor of a similar result from your site.

Another solution would be to choose the most relevant item in the set and use a canonical tag to the different color combinations. That way someone searching can find your page and decide from there if they want a different color but you wont face the duplicate content issue.

Rand reiterated in a recent whiteboard that yes, only the first instance of the link would provide value.

"Now, we all know as SEOs that the first anchor text link counts and only one on the page is going to pass that value. Linking repeatedly to the same page with the same anchor is not helpful for SEO, and it makes our sites look really spammy and manipulative and questionable to someone who's browsing it."

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/6-changes-every-seo-should-make-before-the-over-optimization-penalty-hits-whiteboard-friday

Think about the user 1st, do they need another avenue to find that page, or is the naviation well structured enough to get them there.

Do your duplicate pages exist on the same website, or are they across multiple domains?

Michael, do you have any further questions or concerns we can help with?

There are a few other tools out there that can simulate the cache view... such as <cite>www.seo-browser.com/.</cite>

I'd suggest using Google Webmaster Tools, and run the "fetch as googlebot" report. This will give you an idea of what Google may be seeing of your content.

I've seen the text only version absent for pages which are too new, or page that Google has had trouble crawling.

Exact phrase matches (using quotes around a query) is another way to get an idea of what text Google is finding from a page.

Yes, you can disregard my guest blogging comment. That will teach me to slow down when I read. As I mentioned later, seeking reviews is good, especially if you are using some criteria as you outlined. What I would try to do is gain links in other ways as well to help diversify the type of links you get.

No it should not.

As long as each page has unique and differentiated content you should see them perform just fine independent of each other.

Solid!

It's fine, I misread your original post on that part actually. Fine to the extent that I don't think that should be your only focus in building links. A diverse link profile may serve you better than strictly links coming from review posts.

I don't see a problem with this. I imagine when Google reviews a social media page they are understanding in that the messaging might be a bit more stock. They are likely more concerned with engagement. Your website URL is a consistent message that will help connect your brand and website with your social media. Most of the ranking value on these profiles comes from the fact that they live on their specific domains.

Consistency would be good for your users, as they follow your from profile to profile.

Hi Christoper,

1. I tend to think about gaining links from sites that present a clear value to visitors, are active on social media (and have positive and engaged fans), and in general seem to know what they are doing. While I am not that familiar with this site, they seem like a directory and also are quite focused on links. Does that mean steer clear? Not necessarily, but I'd be cautious. If it were my choice I would avoid this type of site typically.

2. Guest blogging is ok, as long as its not excessive. A few here and there perhaps. Try not to be consistent in using that as your primary way of gaining links.

In both cases I'd stress that you think about creating content that people get excited about... giveaways, original concepts, viral media, are all common ways to boost your links over time and perhaps keep a more evenly distributed link profile.

I can get way up in the clouds on this one.

Fluctuation is a natural part of the SERP. I would say this increases with the less domain authority you have relative to a search query. If your domain is not as strong as those ranking in the top results, Google may have less trust in your site, and thus move it around a lot more to see how it performs. The fact that you are jumping around on pages deeper than the 1st 2 leads me to believe that your domain authority is not competitive enough for the keywords you are monitoring.

We know that Google and Bing both measure CTR. It could be one indication to how relative a site's content is to a search query. Google may drop a site in a new spot, measure the CTR, and see if that site is more relevant than most sites that fall into that position.

Ultimately try to pay more attention to ranking averages - focusing on the jumps my drive you mad.

Good luck.

I like this answer.

I do try to avoid putting a % on KW Density though and instead use more of a visual scan to catch over doing a specific phrase.

I'd suggest starting out a bit more modestly. Follow SEO best practices as outlined via the SEOmoz tools and Google SEO 101. Present the keywords in a natural way which lets the user know what the page is about. If you find you aren't gaining traction in terms of visibility for those terms, and your competitive analysis tells you, you should, then perhaps increase the optimization.

Exact match domain value is something Google is looking with a sharper eye on now so don't overdo that just to rank for a city phrase out of the gate.

Yes, if you have gone to the length of creating worthwhile posts, you should give users an avenue into finding them. Google is likely very familiar with this type of sub navigation and unlikely to ding you for something like this. I might suggest thinking about what content within your site you'd like your users to find and whether or not these links satisfy that.

Otherwise, yes archive links are pretty standard for blogs. As long as you are providing a decent amount of content in your posts you should be fine.

Ah yes, I know the "Choose Tall Women" deck is out there for free, but I can't remember if he had that tidbit in the actual deck content.

What you are saying sounds logical - would love to see it in practice and know if it works!

JP Rand mentioned this trick in a presentation I saw recently. I got the impression it was best suited for new pages - not necessarily to update pages that have been indexed in the past. Any insight on that?