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SEO Site Structure & Duplicate Content (Please Help!)

by SeanyG
13 replies
  • SEO
    • |
Hey,

I just came across this awesome thread on how to set up your site with a Vertical "pyramid" site structure that the search engines and visitors LOVE: [Site Structure Thread On WebmasterWorld.com ]

I am planning on tweaking my blog (startupfreedom.com) so that it is structured in themes as instructed in that great post.

Here is an image of the ideal site structure:



However, I have a question about duplicate content.

I understand how 4 or 5 levels can work on a forum:

Level 1: Index page
Level 2: Categories
Level 3: Sub categories
Level 4: sub - sub categories
Level 5: content pages

There is no duplicate content on a message forum because on the index, category, sub-category and sub-sub category pages there is no similar content. Most of the pages contain links to lower levels.

However, on a blog you can have the same post on the home page, the category page, the sub category page and the post page which is raging duplicate content.

I currently have no sub categories and have 'no follows' on the category and tag pages so that the posts only get indexed on the home page and the post pages, which now seems flawed after reading Brett's replies to the above post.

So how do you avoid raging duplicate content on a Wordpress blog in a vertical "themed" site structure as suggested in the post above?

Thanks for your advice and for your time!

~Sean
#content #duplicate #seo #site #structure
  • Profile picture of the author dvduval
    I think you are already making a mistake to place "no follows" on internal pages. You are just bleeding pagerank. Forum software tends to produce a lot of extra stuff that is duplicate. This is something I've been working on recently too, and even was prompted to write an article on pagerank sculpting and no follows after reading a different webmaster world article!
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    • Profile picture of the author Crew Chief
      Originally Posted by SeanyG View Post

      Hey,

      I just came across this awesome thread on how to set up your site with a Vertical "pyramid" site structure that the search engines and visitors LOVE:

      Thanks for your advice and for your time!
      Seany, go back and read that thread again; it was from back in 2001 and they were engaging in a theoretical discussion about what is now called siloing.

      The bottom line; don't waste your time restructuring your site to that model, it's 10 years removed. If you want to increase traffic, CTR and conversions, you need good On Page SEO and great Off Page SEO!

      Giles, the Crew Chief
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      • Profile picture of the author SeanyG
        Whoa!

        Great observation! I didn't realized that it was so old!

        Doesn't arranging content this way create a better user experience and more relevant content regardless?



        Originally Posted by Crew Chief View Post

        Seany, go back and read that thread again; it was from back in 2001 and they were engaging in a theoretical discussion about what is now called siloing.

        The bottom line; don't waste your time restructuring your site to that model, it's 10 years removed. If you want to increase traffic, CTR and conversions, you need good On Page SEO and great Off Page SEO!

        Giles, the Crew Chief
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        • Profile picture of the author Crew Chief
          Originally Posted by SeanyG View Post

          Whoa!

          Great observation! I didn't realized that it was so old!

          Doesn't arranging content this way create a better user experience and more relevant content regardless?
          As far as the layout in the PIC - no! That pretty much boils down to TSEO Theoretical Search Engine Optimization.

          The best user experience is having a user friendly navigation system, a functional site search box, SEO based On Page Interlinking and a clean uncluttered layout.

          Giles, the Crew Chief
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          • Profile picture of the author SeanyG
            Originally Posted by Crew Chief View Post

            As far as the layout in the PIC - no! That pretty much boils down to TSEO Theoretical Search Engine Optimization.

            The best user experience is having a user friendly navigation system, a functional site search box, SEO based On Page Interlinking and a clean uncluttered layout.

            Giles, the Crew Chief
            Thanks Giles the crew cheif!
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          • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
            Originally Posted by Crew Chief View Post

            As far as the layout in the PIC - no! That pretty much boils down to TSEO Theoretical Search Engine Optimization.

            The best user experience is having a user friendly navigation system, a functional site search box, SEO based On Page Interlinking and a clean uncluttered layout.

            Giles, the Crew Chief
            Well said, Chief...

            Adding onto that, Seany, the diagram you saw in the article is for a site with likely 100,000+ pages. Unless you plan to create one just as big, you don't need anything near that deep.

            I've done sites with several hundred pages and never needed to go more than three levels deep. (Home, Categories, Posts, to put it into blogging terms)

            In between reading that monster going on the main forum, I've been doing some of my own research. I'm now convinced that proper internal linking, including in-context text links within posts/articles, is critical.
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            • Profile picture of the author SeanyG
              Originally Posted by JohnMcCabe View Post

              Well said, Chief...

              Adding onto that, Seany, the diagram you saw in the article is for a site with likely 100,000+ pages. Unless you plan to create one just as big, you don't need anything near that deep.

              I've done sites with several hundred pages and never needed to go more than three levels deep. (Home, Categories, Posts, to put it into blogging terms)

              In between reading that monster going on the main forum, I've been doing some of my own research. I'm now convinced that proper internal linking, including in-context text links within posts/articles, is critical.
              John! Thanks for the great reply.

              I can see what you mean about not having to go that deep! 5 levels seems a little ridiculous. It makes sense that this would work for larger sites!

              How do you define "proper internal linking"? What do you mean by "in context" links? You mean linking to other relevant posts?

              I've been using a plugin called "A-links" to do all of my internal linking automatically.
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    • Profile picture of the author SeanyG
      Originally Posted by dvduval View Post

      I think you are already making a mistake to place "no follows" on internal pages. You are just bleeding pagerank. Forum software tends to produce a lot of extra stuff that is duplicate. This is something I've been working on recently too, and even was prompted to write an article on pagerank sculpting and no follows after reading a different webmaster world article!
      Thanks for the reply. I ready your forum post. It makes sense!

      Even though the post that I read was created in 2001 it still reminded me of how PR is flowing through my site and that I am stopping it by using nofollows.

      That being said, how do you minimize duplicate content when the same post will be on the home page, category page, sub-category page and post page?

      Any advice is appreciated!
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  • Profile picture of the author Groovystar
    That looks like you're basically creating your own internet to promote that site. If I'm reading correctly. That's a LOT of work. Wouldn't it be more efficient to utilise more links just going directly to the page you really want to promote? Or maybe I'm misunderstanding the 5 levels deep thing. But 5 levels deep really "bleeds pagerank" since there's a large pagerank decay factor.
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    • Profile picture of the author SeanyG
      Originally Posted by Groovystar View Post

      That looks like you're basically creating your own internet to promote that site. If I'm reading correctly. That's a LOT of work. Wouldn't it be more efficient to utilise more links just going directly to the page you really want to promote? Or maybe I'm misunderstanding the 5 levels deep thing. But 5 levels deep really "bleeds pagerank" since there's a large pagerank decay factor.
      I'm not saying go 5 levels deep. I just like thinking of the different categories and subcategories in my site as vertical silos.

      But even if it is 3 levels deep:

      Home page, category page, & post page, how do you avoid duplicate content without adding a "nofollow" to the category pages?

      Thanks!

      ~Sean
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      • Profile picture of the author dvduval
        Originally Posted by SeanyG View Post

        I'm not saying go 5 levels deep. I just like thinking of the different categories and subcategories in my site as vertical silos.

        But even if it is 3 levels deep:

        Home page, category page, & post page, how do you avoid duplicate content without adding a "nofollow" to the category pages?

        Thanks!

        ~Sean
        I don't think you should have a relationship in your mind between nofollow and duplicate content. Nofollow should be used for links to other sites only. As far as sculpting, you should have more links to pages you want to rank for and focus your attention there just generally speaking. Getting too caught up in the siloing may be a distraction when your real goal is to get pages ranked.
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      • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
        Originally Posted by SeanyG View Post

        How do you define "proper internal linking"? What do you mean by "in context" links? You mean linking to other relevant posts?

        I've been using a plugin called "A-links" to do all of my internal linking automatically.
        By "proper internal linking" I mean simple things like using the same format for all your links. For example, either use the www. on your links or never use it - spiders see those as two different pages with identical content. If you use a slash on the end of your links (example.com/postname/) do it all the time. Each time you use a different link format to link to a page, you are in essence creating duplicate content (identical pages at different urls).

        "In-context" links means linking to other relevant posts using text links within your content. I guess you could link graphics, too, but I meant text links. I'm not familiar with that plugin, but if that's what it does, you have the right idea.

        Originally Posted by SeanyG View Post

        I'm not saying go 5 levels deep. I just like thinking of the different categories and subcategories in my site as vertical silos.

        But even if it is 3 levels deep:

        Home page, category page, & post page, how do you avoid duplicate content without adding a "nofollow" to the category pages?

        Thanks!

        ~Sean
        One way to avoid the problem is to use unique descriptions as snippets, and then only put the snippets on your category pages. Even if you just grab the first X number of words or characters for your snippet, you will only have that small snippet in common between your category page and your post page.

        Another way, if you really want full posts on your category pages, is to add lines to your robots.txt file disallowing access to your category pages. You should already be doing this for your date-based archive pages anyway.

        All the no-follow tag means anymore is that the spiders don't count the link as a "vote" for the destination page. Google still follows no-follow links, they just don't count towards the destination page's ranking.
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  • Profile picture of the author Find
    Use the more tag within your wordpress WYSIWYG editor this will eliminate excess content from your post on your home page.
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