Okay, we all understand that Google and other SE's don't like duplicate content... Well does this count for internal duplicates? For example: /blog/category/1 and /blog/categrory2/5 being the same thing? Because I realised that with Wordpress and similar blogging software you can post blog entries under multiple categories, which essentially means it's going to be making duplicate content (post is listed under each different category, AND each different category permalink...) So if I'm posting blog entries under several categories (which is necessary), will I be penalised by google for duplicate content? Or does it only apply for duplicate content from external sources? Thanks a lot Chuckun
You could also try the robots-meta plugin where you can nofollow/noindex certain pages/posts if you feel that may help.
Thanks a lot mrhrk I did consider that.. The only remaining concern is when viewing archives, there will still be a couple of duplicate results here and there (as in, one entry may be listed in several category archives... ) Anyone got any info on whether this matters? Is it fine because the rest of the content on the archive pages will change from category to category? Thanks again Chuckun
http://yoast.com/wordpress/canonical/ check this plug in which add the new attribute which tell google which page is important (rel="canonical").
The thing that Google actually hates is duplicate content within the same site. So if you've got a post on your blog, then a category page showing that post, and and archive page showing that post, it would be classified as duplicate content. It's possible that Google would penalize your site for it, not necessarily dropping PR or anything, but you may get unlisted from the search engine listings pertaining to that post.
Thanks a lot HQ, I'll give you some rep for that.. Wordpress does pick just one permalink per entry, dispite how many categories it falls into.. so it may choose the "PHP" category to be included in the URL, instead of the other categories it's posted under... And this remains consistent throughout archives for each of those categories, so it's not about posts being under different URLs individually.. It's just about when viewing the categories, the post will obviously be on the archive list page for several archives.. I'm not too bothered really, it's only a personal blog really, I'm just intrigued as to whether it's a problem.. Cheers
Yes I did, it's similar (or maybe the same) to one I found in a plugin search earlier on Sorry, I did mean to reply with my thanks for your input Nice one mate
I thought you didn't saw it. However i find it more helpfull for your problem. why do you say it don't solve you problem ? Maybe you should install All in one seo pack, and there is an option to put noindex to Category, Archieve or Tags, but my suggestion is to use canonical plugin because you will have more indexed pages, but google will know which is important and which not.
This is the reason why I only use one category (and even tags) for every post. I don't know the answer to your problem, but I don't think using several categories is really necessary like you are claiming.
Under the Google webmaster guidelines this is a big no-no. If a visitor comes to your site and views duplicate content on your site they'll leave with a negative experience, not only of your site, but Google as well. In the long run if weren't so strict on quality they'd lose visitors, advertisers and revenue. Just look at what happened to the big 8 searchengines of the nineties.
I use multiple categories too. The "view more" cutoff link will cut down on duplicate content from those pages a lot (unless you get enough comments that they count as content). You can also have the non-individual posts display the post excerpt instead of the beginning of the actual post with quick theme edits to most blogging platforms like wordpress. Many of the more popular blogs do this. I also added special text & theme conditionals to each category so that even if the posts are the same, the header text & some of the other parts of the posts will be slightly different.
I don't think Google will consider your categories. They will look at the content first. After all, there are millions of sites using the same categories, tags and stuff.
Yes there are millions of sites using duplicate content, but I think what Google refers to is duplicate content on your website not other websites. All of article directories have duplicate content, but they still get a high pagerank.