Will similar article titles hurt the SEO of the site?

Banned 9 years ago

Articles have nothing to do with page titles (<title>). You don't need an article to have an HTML <title>, so that part of your question is irrelevant.

Your OP example will end up with multiple pages buried in Supplemental SERPs where they'll never be found by search traffic.

A better idea would be something like:

The Best Sports Cars of 2014 - domain.com
- 5 Blue Sports Cars - domain.com
- Fastest Green Sports Cars - domain.com
- Insure your Yellow Sports Car - domain.com

Use internal links to connect all the relevant pages. That's how double/triple SERPs work for the same keyword on the same domain.

Do some research on how to build SEO silos.

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Rooks N Kings

9 years ago

Originally Posted by yukon

Articles have nothing to do with page titles (<title>). You don't need an article to have an HTML <title>, so that part of your question is irrelevant.

Your OP example will end up with multiple pages buried in Supplemental SERPs where they'll never be found by search traffic.

A better idea would be something like:

The Best Sports Cars of 2014 - domain.com
- 5 Blue Sports Cars - domain.com
- Fastest Green Sports Cars - domain.com
- Insure your Yellow Sports Car - domain.com

Use internal links to connect all the relevant pages. That's how double/triple SERPs work for the same keyword on the same domain.

Do some research on how to build SEO silos.

I should have not used the word article. What I mean is for each of the 6 pages on my site I am using those titles. Each 'blog post'. So each blog post is a page. And each page is a detailed overview of the sports car example. I just don't like having to make new titles for each one when each one is in fact a detailed overview.

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yukon

Banned 9 years ago

Originally Posted by Rooks N Kings

I should have not used the word article. What I mean is for each of the 6 pages on my site I am using those titles. Each 'blog post'. So each blog post is a page. And each page is a detailed overview of the sports car example. I just don't like having to make new titles for each one when each one is in fact a detailed overview.

It takes all of 3 seconds to make a unique page title.

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Rooks N Kings

9 years ago

Originally Posted by yukon

It takes all of 3 seconds to make a unique page title.

It's not a question of whether or not I can create a unique title. Ofcourse I can.

Let me rephrase this as best I can as apparently it's not being understood..

I have 6 pages on this site. Rather I have more but I am making this post in regards to 6 pages. Each page is on the same subject. A detailed overview of why each sports car is best. Each page presents the content in the exact same way going over the same exact details. Each post is exactly that: A Detailed Overview. The pages are as follows:

The Best Red Sports Car - A Detailed Overview
The Best Blue Sports Car - A Detailed Overview
The Best Green Sports Car - A Detailed Overview
The Best Yellow Sports Car - A Detailed Overview

The title states exactly what the article is about. Of course I can come up with unique titles for each page but why would I want to change the article title? If I change the title to anything other than exactly what I have typed above than the title is not an accurate description of what the article is about. Again, Each article is a detailed overview of each color sports car. Thus I have the titles:

The Best Red Sports Car - A Detailed Overview
so on and so forth...

What I want to now is if Google will penalize me for have similar titles even though the titles are the most accurate way of describing the content within.

EDIT: Each article is VERY unique and full of quality content. It is not duplicate content. It's jsut each artcile is on the same topic, presented in the exact same way, but for different TYPES of cars.

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SEO-Dave

9 years ago

Originally Posted by Rooks N Kings

It's not a question of whether or not I can create a unique title. Ofcourse I can.

Let me rephrase this as best I can as apparently it's not being understood..

I have 6 pages on this site. Rather I have more but I am making this post in regards to 6 pages. Each page is on the same subject. A detailed overview of why each sports car is best. Each page presents the content in the exact same way going over the same exact details. Each post is exactly that: A Detailed Overview. The pages are as follows:

The Best Red Sports Car - A Detailed Overview
The Best Blue Sports Car - A Detailed Overview
The Best Green Sports Car - A Detailed Overview
The Best Yellow Sports Car - A Detailed Overview

The title states exactly what the article is about. Of course I can come up with unique titles for each page but why would I want to change the article title? If I change the title to anything other than exactly what I have typed above than the title is not an accurate description of what the article is about. Again, Each article is a detailed overview of each color sports car. Thus I have the titles:

The Best Red Sports Car - A Detailed Overview
so on and so forth...

What I want to now is if Google will penalize me for have similar titles even though the titles are the most accurate way of describing the content within.

EDIT: Each article is VERY unique and full of quality content. It is not duplicate content. It's jsut each artcile is on the same topic, presented in the exact same way, but for different TYPES of cars.

As long as the article content are unique there's nothing inherently wrong with that setup.

It's not necessarily the best setup as discussed earlier.

David

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SEO-Dave

9 years ago

No it won't harm your sites SEO as long as the articles are unique.

If it's one article with the keywords red, blue etc... spun to make multiple webpages and that's it (not unique), that's treading on thin ice. Low quality content.

No SEO harm in having dozens of webpages with similar title tags like your examples. Not necessarily the best way, but it's not harmful per se.

David

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RafaelPratt

9 years ago

Originally Posted by SEO-Dave

No it won't harm your sites SEO as long as the articles are unique.

If it's one article with the keywords red, blue etc... spun to make multiple webpages and that's it (not unique), that's treading on thin ice. Low quality content.

No SEO harm in having dozens of webpages with similar title tags like your examples. Not necessarily the best way, but it's not harmful per se.

David

I agree. To add up, focus on also creating unique, catchy meta descriptions. Your meta descriptions also has their very own important role in SEO, thus having quality meta descriptions for your article's snippet can also be of great help.

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SEO-Dave

9 years ago

Originally Posted by RafaelPratt

I agree. To add up, focus on also creating unique, catchy meta descriptions. Your meta descriptions also has their very own important role in SEO, thus having quality meta descriptions for your article's snippet can also be of great help.

The meta description tag has no direct Google SEO benefit.

Google might use it as the SERP description, but it doesn't use it as a ranking factor.

See the meta description (if you bother to write them, I don't) as a place for an ad, sell your page so IF Google uses it, it will have a high click through rate.

Since it has no direct SEO value doesn't matter what you add, though it's more likely to be used by Google if it includes the phrase searched for and the phrase will be highlighted in the description making it stand out more. So if you add a meta description include the main keyphrase targeted so it's used and highlighted.

I create meta description tag when a webpage has a high traffic SERP and the automated description is terrible. I follow the traffic, got a good SERP, improve the description for a higher CTR not higher ranking.

David

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yukon Banned 9 years ago

Originally Posted by SEO-Dave

No it won't harm your sites SEO as long as the articles are unique.

He won't be getting traffic (Supplemental SERPs) from most of those OP titles so yes, it does hurt considering the goal is getting traffic.
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- SEO-Dave 9 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by yukon
  
  He won't be getting traffic (Supplemental SERPs) from most of those OP titles so yes, it does hurt considering the goal is getting traffic.
  
  Do you not see the value in targeting highly related SERPs in a silo link structure?
  
  To expand on your earlier titles:
  
  Main SERP "Best Sports Cars".
  
  Main page title tag: Best Sports Cars
  
  Other pages for linking to/linking from
  
  The Best Sports Cars of 2014
  5 Blue Sports Cars
  Fastest Green Sports Cars
  Insure your Yellow Sports Car
  Best Sports Cars 2013
  Best Blue Sports Cars 2014
  Which will be the Best Sports Car in 2015
  etc...
  
  Might be a lot of work, but can support a hard main SERP.
  
  I use comments for this, the theme I develop links from the posts to the comments using keyword rich anchor text and the comments link back to the post. With a highly commented post could have dozens of pages linking to a main post with the sort of anchor text above: a mini silo using comments. Since the comments aren't all written by me, it's using a resource that normally wouldn't help SEO aid a main SERP in a big way.
  
  Example: free-funny-jokes.com/funny-business-jokes.html top 10 for Business Jokes, note the comments and how they link out and how what they link to links back with anchor text Business Jokes.
  
  David
  
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SEO Power

9 years ago

Originally Posted by SEO-Dave

No it won't harm your sites SEO as long as the articles are unique.

If it's one article with the keywords red, blue etc... spun to make multiple webpages and that's it (not unique), that's treading on thin ice. Low quality content.

No SEO harm in having dozens of webpages with similar title tags like your examples. Not necessarily the best way, but it's not harmful per se.

David

Stop giving false information. This will definitely hurt his site SEO-wise because it will lead to keyword cannibalisation.

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SEO-Dave 9 years ago

Originally Posted by SEO Power

Stop giving false information. This will definitely hurt his site SEO-wise because it will lead to keyword cannibalisation.

Here's a nice overview of the issue by Rand Fishkin How to Solve Keyword Cannibalization - SEO Tips - Moz

Where did the OP or I suggest having multiple pages all targeting the exact same SERP?

Are you saying this is keyword canabalisation?

Main SERP "Best Sports Cars".

Main page title tag: Best Sports Cars

Other pages for linking to/linking from

The Best Sports Cars of 2014
5 Blue Sports Cars
Fastest Green Sports Cars
Insure your Yellow Sports Car
Best Sports Cars 2013
Best Blue Sports Cars 2014
Which will be the Best Sports Car in 2015
etc...

If so you must have a one page site when targeting a SERP.

Another good article on the subject: Identifying keyword cannibalisation for better SEO - SEO and organic search news and blog

As long as you target (lots of links) one webpage as the main page, shouldn't be an issue. Like my comments example, the comments don't have lots of internal links, it's obvious to Google which is the main page to rank for Business Jokes.

David
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Rooks N Kings

9 years ago

Awesome, Thank you both. That's exactly what I needed to know. = )

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vdsthor

9 years ago

Duplicate content is an enormous topic in the (SEO) search engine optimization, Head Department Chief of search spam, Matt Cutts.

Matt Cutts, said "wouldn’t stress about it — that is, unless it is spammy duplicate content"

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Roopatg

9 years ago

Just Adding the same title in different articles will not hurt SEO, since many people use to give same title if it is apt to their article. The main concern is the other contents like text, images, videos, infographics etc should be unique and user friendly.

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promo87

Banned 9 years ago

Yes, they do and I pretty much sure they are going to hurt you real bad on this !

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Will similar article titles hurt the SEO of the site?

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