Is this duplicate content?

[Guidepost]

Hello,

One of my main product ranges is OS maps, and I have each map on a single page, so, for example, there are 370 Explorer maps and each page has mostly the same information - publisher, scale, format etc, with the actual area covered, publication date and ISBN varying. This means that I have a lot of pages which are very similar - is this seen as duplicate content by Google?

This question has been prompted by the fact that these pages do not seem to be seen by Google (although they have done well in the past). I have unticked the "include in site map" box for these pages, as the site map was too unweildy with them in - is this possibly the cause of the problem?

Thanks,

Rosalyn

[Duncan Rounding]

...I have unticked the "include in site map" box for these pages, as the site map was too unweildy with them in - is this possibly the cause of the problem?...

Very likely yes. Try including thme again and check back with Google after a while.

Single product per page is not always the besty way to represent very similar products like this.

[Mike Hughes]

Like Duncan says, keep them in the site map as it gives the search engines a better route to the page.

I'd also try and keep the page title, description, keywords, etc as unique as possible. So rather than the page title being:

'Ordnance Survey Map Explorer 162'

which would be very similar to the other 369 pages, I'd use something like:

'Greenwich & Gravesend -Ordnance Survey Map Explorer 162'

You can decide which keywords are the most important, but make sure they're significantly different for each page.

I'd also question your internal links. The link to the Explorer Maps has anchor text of '1:25,000 SCALE'. Is this the best descriptor of the maps or is it something like 'OS Explorer Maps'?

Mike

[Guidepost]

Hi,

thanks very much for your replies.

I will add the pages back in to the site map - is it possible / a good idea to send Google a site map containing all of the pages, and keep the pared-down version on the site?

Re your other points - SPP - I thought I was doing the right thing! Just goes to show that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing! As it happens, it suits me to have the maps on separate pages for other reasons, so I won't change this - I am going to put the books I sell on SPP, but presumably, since they are all different, they are more suited to the format.

Thank you for the suggestion re page title - I will amend that, and try to make the keywords different.

re the 1:25,000 scale anchor text - I appreciate your point, and will look at changing this. I presume if I changed this I could permanantly redirect the current URL - I don't want to lose incoming links, especially from affiliates.

Thanks again,

Rosalyn

[Mike Hughes]

I will add the pages back in to the site map - is it possible / a good idea to send Google a site map containing all of the pages, and keep the pared-down version on the site?

It is possible but not a good idea. Search engines use the links on the website to rank the pages. Keep it simple and provide the links for them. If you try and play around there's a huge risk of getting it wrong.

SPP - I thought I was doing the right thing

I would say you are doing the right thing. Just make sure each page has unique inforation about the map in question. People are likely to search for things like 'aberdeen explorer map' so it's good to have a page for them to find.

re the 1:25,000 scale anchor text - I appreciate your point, and will look at changing this. I presume if I changed this I could permanantly redirect the current URL - I don't want to lose incoming links, especially from affiliates.

You could keep the URL and just change the anchor text if you want. I'm not sure how well affiliate links cope when re-directed. All you'll have to do is edit the page name in Actinic. It should keep the URL it had before.

Mike

[Guidepost]

Hi,

Thanks for your reply, and help.

I had tried changing some page titles before, and it changed the URL - I can now see why - my older pages have automatically generated page names, so the "page name" tab was blank - if I fill this in (with the generated name), I can then amend the page title. I wish I had know this before!

Thanks again,

Rosalyn