Hey all, I did raise this problem a while back here, but didnt really get a definitive answer, it's a bit of a tricky one, so I am producing a site for a client, which they will allow resellers to create their own version of in the CMS with some locally configurable content. The clients version will be treated in the same way as the resellers: www.Clientsite.com/clientversion www.Clientsite.com/reseller1version www.Clientsite.com/reseller2version So their will be multiple pages of very similar content - duplicate content nightmare! My strategy is for the client version to get the benefit of the search traffic, and force the resellers to generate their own and push traffic to their reseller version. First question Is this the best approach? I could write in the ability for the resellers to create theior own content and meta and go for their own search traffic, but with the pages being so similar, this wont offer Google much value. And in my experience these resellers are unlikely to configure their own section, and go with the default meta and content. Second question Whats the best way to achieve this? rel="canonical" doesn't look like it was designed for this purpose, but could work as far as I can see. I could also hide the reseller pages from Google - but I;m hoing this won't prevent analytics ofthe on page activity. Any tips, experience or links warmly welcomed
Tuesday morning Bump I suppose this issue is more related to Co-branded sites rather than White label, any experience out there?
1. Not quite really sure if it is the best approach but there are ways to go around this. 2. Well you have 2 options, either implement a canonical tag OR (what do you mean by hiding them from Google? Blocked by Robots?) if you're planning on blocking these pages in Google anyway so the best way to go to is just block them.
Hey Grimm, Thanks for your input The CMS has an option to 'hide pages from Google'. I'll have to look at exactly how it does this, (I have a feeling it just doesn't write the page to the XML sitemap, so probably not suitable). So there's another vote for canonical, but blocking them all together hmmm....if I use no index - do you know if this will block Google Analytics as well as bots? I know the resellers will be keen on stats from the traffic they send. Thanks again
Well if it says' 'hide pages from Google' then that would obviously mean that the pages aren't meant for Google's eyes. XD As far as I know, if you use no index on 'em all, you'll be basically blocking Google and it's bots but not direct traffic (not entirely sure but I think it makes sense). In the analytics, (again, AFAIK) you'll still be able to see direct traffic but not organic nor paid searches (if you ever have any). Although I don't really see the point of having analytics on it if you intend to have the pages blocked anyway, so if you're still planning on acquiring traffic data then the best option would be implementing a canonical tag just to avoid the duplicate mayhem.
Again thanks for your input and insights Grimm, much appreciated. It's a challenging problem, and I want to get the strategy right from the outset. 1. Yes - thats the plan. Essentially forcing the resellers to generate their own traffic and push it to the co-branded site. The more campaign traffic they send the better, and it protects the client site from inter-competition, duplicate penalties, and not getting their page indexed in favour of the reseller page 2. Well the resellers will want to see the performance of the traffic they send, and how many end up on the "thank you for ordering page" for example by setting up goals. You are right, they won't see any organic search stats, as there won't be any..... As Google advises that they use canonical URLs as a guide, they are not definitive in Google choosing which version to index - I'm leaning towards both, no index and cononical URLs.
You really don't need the canonical tag if you don't want them indexed anyway, although I would lean more on the canonical tag IF the traffic stats and data plays a big part on this project of yours. Then again, the only way to know how it would really go is to do an experiment first before deciding on what to do and go for.