Duplicate Content In eCommerce

Advanced SEO Tactics to Fix

@KunleTCampbell

Triggers of Duplicate Content

site:mywebsite.com

@KunleTCampbell

Triggers of Duplicate Content

site:mywebsite.com/&

140,000 Omitted  pages: Google supplemental index

@KunleTCampbell

Triggers of Duplicate Content

Category Page Sorting More or less the same content but sorted results generate multiple URL parameters

http://www.astleyclarke.com/uk/earrings/pearl-earrings http://www.astleyclarke.com/uk/earrings/pearl-earrings?dir=asc&order=price http://www.astleyclarke.com/uk/earrings/pearl-earrings?dir=desc&order=price http://www.astleyclarke.com/uk/earrings/pearl-earrings?dir=desc&order=news_from_date http://www.astleyclarke.com/uk/earrings/pearl-earrings?dir=asc&order=bestsellers

Price Low: Price High: New In: Best Sellers:

@KunleTCampbell

Triggers of Duplicate Content

Filtered Category Pages Could potentially generate multiple URLs: pretty much dumping Google with combinations and permutations of URLs

@KunleTCampbell

Triggers of Duplicate Content

Pagination Going through series of pages within a single category or brand page

http://www.worldofcamping.co.uk/furniture/camping-chairs-r82-83 http://www.worldofcamping.co.uk/furniture/camping-chairs-r82-83?p=2 http://www.worldofcamping.co.uk/furniture/camping-chairs-r82-83?p=3 http://www.worldofcamping.co.uk/furniture/camping-chairs-r82-83?p=4 http://www.worldofcamping.co.uk/furniture/camping-chairs-r82-83?p=5

Page 2: Page 3: Page 4: Page 5:

@KunleTCampbell

Triggers of Duplicate Content

Multiple Versions of a Product Page Colour, size or style variations of product pages could result in multiple URLs

http://www.johnlewis.com/john-lewis-cashmere-mix-block-socks/p1391613 http://www.johnlewis.com/john-lewis-cashmere-mix-block-socks/p1391613?colour=Black http://www.johnlewis.com/john-lewis-cashmere-mix-block-socks/p1391613?colour=Purple http://www.johnlewis.com/john-lewis-cashmere-mix-block-socks/p1391613?colour=Red http://www.johnlewis.com/john-lewis-cashmere-mix-block-socks/p1391613?colour=Grey

Page 2: Page 3: Page 4: Page 5:

@KunleTCampbell

Triggers of Duplicate Content

Session ID URLs Tracking variables tend to be appended to URLs that either link to your site or link internally

mywebstore.example.com/books/?trackingId=cat123 mywebstore.example.com/cds/?trackingId=cat124 mywebstore.example.com/cards/?trackingId=cat125

@KunleTCampbell

Tools we have in our arsenal to tackle duplicate content in eCommerce

@KunleTCampbell

1. The Canonical Tag

URL creates multiple versions of a single page The canonical tag ensures a singular reference version of a specific URL

<link rel=”canonical” href=”http://example.com/category-page” />

@KunleTCampbell

2. Webmaster Tools URL Parameters

1. Parameters that don’t affect page content Typically `track pages like Session IDs – SID, Affiliate IDs – affiliateID and Tracking IDs – tracking-ID

2. Parameters that change, reorder or narrow page content sort=price_ascending, rankBy=bestSelling, order=highest-rated, sort=newest

@KunleTCampbell

2. Webmaster Tools URL Parameters

1. Parameters that don’t affect page content Typically `track pages like Session IDs – SID, Affiliate IDs – affiliateID and Tracking IDs – tracking-ID

2. Parameters that change, reorder or narrow page content sort=price_ascending, rankBy=bestSelling, order=highest-rated, sort=newest

@KunleTCampbell

3. Robots.txt - DISALLOW

1. Folder Level Control You do not want to index URLs folders such as /sales, /specials or /offers;

2. Site Architecture is Key For filter options, sub categoriwe

@KunleTCampbell

3. Robots.txt - DISALLOW

@KunleTCampbell

4. Page Level Mark-Up [Meta Robots]

“robots” Replace “robots” with a user agent of your choice: “bingbot“ “googlebot“, “baiduspider“, “yandexbot”

“<value>” Allows multiple values to be declared, comma separated: NOINDEX – prevents the page from being included in the index. NOFOLLOW – prevents bots from following any links on the page. NOARCHIVE – prevents a cached copy of this page from being available in the search results. NOSNIPPET – prevents a description from appearing below the page in the search results, as well as prevents caching of the page. NOODP – blocks the Open Directory Project description of the page from being used in the description that appears below the page in the search results. NONE – equivalent to “NOINDEX, NOFOLLOW”

<meta name="robots" content=" <value> ">

@KunleTCampbell

4. Page Level Mark-Up [Meta Robots]

X-Robots-Tag HTTP header The X-Robots-Tag has identical functions to the Meta Robots tag but the only difference is that it can be used as an element of the HTTP header response for a given URL

@KunleTCampbell

Contact Me to chat more…about eCommerce Marketing

email: kc@2xmedia.co twitter: @KunleTCampbell web: www.2xmedia.co