Ok, I have 2 questions on my mind about duplicate content. The first regards navigation. I have quite a hefty navigation that is identical on each page (the user only sees certain sections, controlled by javascript -- they're expand/contract sections). I suspect that Google won't see some of the sections as "hidden" when they're contracted and will see all of the navigation on all of the pages. Will this present a problem with duplicate content? (There is also quite a bit of unique content on each page) Secondly, what is Google's stance on networks? I have a handful of specialized niches that are related to each other (eg PSP, XBox, PS3, Gamecube, Wii). Will Google penalize me if I use the same layout with different content to brand them all the same? And linking them together.. would that create a problem?
you can read http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2006/12/deftly-dealing-with-duplicate-content.html about dup. content on google blog
I've read that. What I'm worried about is this Not sure if it applies to navigation though? Links rather than text..
If it did, forums would have problems. When you look up the top of DP, you have the "Forum Jump", "User CP" etc links. These also have a drop down like your site, but on a big board they are present on thousands of pages, millions if the board has that many threads. I've seen these pages with good PR like memberlist, and the users profile URL showing as backlinks from the memberlist. Browse you site with the Lynx browser and you will get an excellent idea of how Google views your page. If you have the opposite problem of Google "not" seeing some of these sub-links, you can either use a site map.. or plain text links on the bottom of your page to major sub-pages like what is good practice to do with flash navigation etc. It's good for non-flash enabled browsers, and good for G.
I don't see an issue... U would have to satisfy oter factors for the 'boiler plate' problem to be an issue.... Duplicate Content issues SNIPPET Matt Cutts site reviews SNIPPET -
Ok, thanks for the help guys I guess I don't have to worry as much as I thought. And everything looks good in Lynx