Wordpress SEO question

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18
Should I noindex tag/category/author/date pages to avoid "duplicate" content, or Google understands what these are for and does not consider this as duplicate?

Thanks.
#search engine optimization #question #seo #wordpress
  • Hi,

    I researched and read this article and the experiment had this results...

    "That NoIndexing taxonomies and optimizing pagination will give a massive boost in organic traffic within a few weeks of implementation. Google and Bing recently placed duplicate content in their crosshairs with recent algorithm updates. It is important for webmasters to avoid duplicate content, and to ensure taxonomies are not causing a lack of growth."

    You can view the complete experiment here:

    No Indexing WordPress Taxonomies: Do or Don

    I've noindexed tag/category/author/date through my Wordpress All-In-One SEO plugin and its very simple. Had no problems!
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
    • [2] replies
    • Good post, thanks for referring me to it.
    • Banned
      Lumping category pages in with redundant pages is wasting traffic in the SERPs.

      The category page is the mother of all pages nested under that specific webpage. Google has mentioned this before on their blog (Google it) & also mentioned looking upstream & downstream on internal URLs for relevant pages in one of their patents.

      Example downstream category page below (.../ford/...) strengthens the mustang page/URL, otherwise the keyword mustang could just as easily be referencing horses. I know about on-page LSI, talking site structure here.
      • domain.com//fast-mustang

      A category page has lots of internal links pointing at the one page/URL so your again wasting internal link opportunities. Your literally trying to rank a category page (100% relevant internal links) while you've noindexed the same category page.

      I could go on all day about this subject but the bottom line is always keep a parent page nested above your money pages. Index that same parent page. Using the Home page as a parent page is a bad idea because dedicated parent pages (category page) can be created as often as needed & laser focused on the subject instead of spreading the Home page thin for hundreds of keywords/subjects.

      Look at the BIG picture (group relevant pages). That's what Google is doing.
      • [ 1 ] Thanks
      • [1] reply
  • Hi,

    Go into All-In-One SEO...Scroll Down to..."NoIndex Settings"

    Here is what I have checked...

    Use noindex for Categories
    Use noindex for Date Archives
    Use noindex for Author Archives
    Use noindex for Tag Archives

    You can customize to what you need however those are my settings.

    Hope that helps!
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
    • [1] reply
  • Using noindex and nofollow for your Categories,Archives,Author archives,Tag archives,Paginated pages/posts and paginated pages/posts will certainly boost your search ranking.
    • Banned
      [DELETED]
  • I like to keep tags live and follow on my redundant websites. They get plenty of traffic that way. Top tip for all you penguinized people.

    Qualifier: Those who know a bad site and have moved on and can't be arsed to deal with the old dross that got penguinized.
  • yukon, so to make it clear - does that mean that having a meta description lowers your chances of being found for other possible related searches? (since Google will take a snippet from the page with the keyword the user searched for, which isn't necessarily the one we are targeting in our own meta description)
    • [1] reply
    • Banned
      The SERP description is all about increasing SERP CTRs, it's not ranking a page. After traffic does a Google search they're scanning the search results page for the keywords they used.

      The cool part about allowing Google to fill in the SERP description is Google is literally showing which text they are focused on (per each keyword variation). So... you can do a Google Incognito search & see where Google is focused while their bot is looking at your webpage. That allows you to make informed on-page tweaks If necessary.

      Again, that SERP description can change based on each individual search query that returns the same webpage. You can't do that with a static meta description tag on your ranked webpage. Google will sometimes ignore a static meta description but it's rare.
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