Wordpress Categories and Archives - Duplicate Content?

fourfivetwofour · #1 (**permalink**) 03-02-2007, 01:04 AM

I just know this has been covered here before but I couldn't seem to find it, so I apologize.

When using a WordPress based site, what consideration needs to go into "Categories" and "Archives"?

For instance: the front page currently displays several posts, along with links to dated "archive" pages, as well as "category" links - all that at any given time could contain much of the same content...

Should I be weary of "duplicate content" problems, or spamming, or are most 'engines smart enough to pick up on what's happening?

Any pointers to past discussion or articles are welcome... as I said, I couldn't seem to find them.

Thanks!

TechEvangelist · #2 (**permalink**) 03-02-2007, 08:23 AM

I just started using WordPress a few months ago and had the same concerns. I found the using the 'more' tag to create excerpts eliminated most of the problem. The home page and category pages just display excerpts when you use this tag.

caromero1965 · #3 (**permalink**) 03-02-2007, 09:56 PM

Hi, Evangelist...

Are you saying that this "duplication" actually did cause you problems until you did the "--more--" thing? or merely that you were concerned that it might cause you problems?

I'm looking at running several Wordpress-based sites and will be concerned with this issue.

fourfivetwofour · #4 (**permalink**) 03-02-2007, 11:03 PM

Just so everyone's aware, here's a couple of interesting things to note:

I do use the latest "sitemap.xml" standard, and ping Google every time it updates.

The site is now ranking in the #1 position for it's name (on Google), which consists of two words. Not an extremely common phrase, but to be #1 is surprising enough.

The Google Webmaster Tools are showing very good placement for several terms, some unexpected.

Google appears to have no problem with my pages, despite a lot of inter-linked internal content.

One thing in particular catches my attention: Webmaster Tools gives me options to view query result information for Blog, Image, Mobile, and Web Searches, and in the following countries: Brazil (blog), Denmark (web) , Japan (mobile), France (web), UK (web) and US (web).

The servers are based in Texas (US), as well as their DNS, so I'm not sure why the other countries are picking up on this: especially since the site is relatively new and has practically zero inbound links.

Other than that, the site seems to be doing just fine.

JohneeMac · #5 (**permalink**) 03-03-2007, 05:46 AM

Google seems to pick out the specific blog pages, rather than the category pages. I have a few blog pages ranking highly.

Remember that there isnt so much a penalty - big G just uses what its thinks is the most useful page, and discards the other. Since you will probably have more int/ ex links with specific anchor / alt text pointing at the individual pages G will therefore rank the pages and not the categories.

TechEvangelist · #6 (**permalink**) 03-05-2007, 08:00 AM

Hi caromero1965

Exact duplicate content on multiple pages will cause search engines problems. Using the more tag to create excerpts should circumvent that.

I recognized the potential for problems as soon as I set up my blog and found that using the more tag is the workaround. My entire blog (with 100% unique content) was tossed into Supplemental Results as soon as it was indexed. It came out about a month after implementing the more tag.

The only pages currently in Supplemental for my blog are the RSS pages. I just eliminated those links and blocked the RSS pages in the robots.txt.