In Part 1, we highlighted some of the key takeaways from the Enge-Cutts SEO Interview as it related to Crawling, Indexing & PageRank. In this Part 2, we will visit some of the primary SEO answers from Google regarding duplicate content, 301/302 Redirects, use of the rel=canonical tag, faceted navigation, Session IDs. As you will quickly see, or may have already realized, SEOtool not only identifies these types of problematic, site-wide SEO issues but also provides actionable metrics for SEO execution! Sit back, enjoy the summary and feel free to leave a comment and participate in the discussion!
Part 2: Duplicate Content, Redirects, Site Navigation & SEOtool’s Application to Automated SEO Analysis
Topic: How to Best Handle Duplicate Content
My overall advice is that it helps enormously if you can fix the architecture upfront…….If you are not able to do a 301 Redirect, then you can fall back on rel=canonical……..But if (webmasters) are able to fix in the site architecture, that’s preferable to patching it up afterwards with a 301 or a rel=canonical…….to call (rel=canonical) a poor man’s 301 is not a bad way to think about it.
It goes without saying that for separate websites, duplicate content can be a significant deterrent in organic rankings. More specifically, for internal site duplicate content, the number one way to avoid ranking problems is to structure your site architecture in a way that forces your pages to serve preferred URLs. Thereafter, a 301 then use of rel=canonical is the next level of defense. SEOtool not only identifies site-wide and page-specific duplicate content (titles, descriptions, H1s, etc) but it also objectively evaluates the use of internal redirects (301/302) to ensure proper directives are given to search engines for maximum SEO benefit.
Topic: Sites that use Session IDs
Don’t use them. Not just from a search engine point of view, but from a usability point of view as well. Users are more likely to click on links that look prettier, and they are more likely to remember URLs that look prettier………if you can get by without Session IDs, that’s typically best………multiple versions of pages would get indexed with different Session IDs. It’s always best to care of it on your site so you don’t have to worry about how the search engines take care of it.
Again, duplicate content and usability become a major factor with Session IDs. It is critical that site owners fix the problem at an architectural level and serve to both search engines and users, unique relevant content that doesn’t cause confusion or duplicate versions of the same page living under different URLs. SEOtool is designed to unearth such conditions, while our hands-on, expert SEO consulting provides relevant solutions for both short & long-term benefit to organic rankings.
Topic: Faceted Navigation, URL parameters and Site Hierarchy
Faceted Navigation in general can be tricky…..you want each page of content to have a single URL if you can help it…….you can make it so that the hierarchy of how your think things should be categorized is enforced in the URL parameters in terms of position……this can help some search engines discover the content a little better. It is also weird on the search engine side if we have to click through seven or eight layers of intermediate faceted navigation …… each of those clicks is an opportunity for a small percentage of the PageRank to dissipate.
Faceted navigation can almost look like a bit of a maze to search engines……..that can be tricky in terms of the algorithm determining the value add of individual pages….limit the number of lenses or facets by which you can view the data…..that can be helpful and reduce confusion…..if there are a large number of pages that we consider low value, then we might not crawl quite as many pages from that site……reduce the amount of multiplied paths and pull it back towards a more logical path structure.
Bottom line, if your website is overly complex and provides too many options to both the user and search engine, odds are you are going to have a difficult time being competitive, including organic search. It’s critical that websites allow search engines to get directly to unique, relevant content and avoid layers upon layers of navigation or sorting filters (category, price, size, color, quantity, etc). While these are important options, enforcing architecture rules that serve only one URL for the type of content found is ideal. SEOtool is able to aid website owners in identifying problems with such multiplicative pages, or duplicate content — leading to specific strategies to fix such problems through our consulting.
Every now and then, the search industry gets some very useful and definitive answers from the leading search engines — the Cutts-Enge interview is one of those times. There is no question that link building and social media are competitive trump cards for online advertisers in very competitive search markets —- but this extensive interview confirms that website architecture and site-wide content practices continue to strongly influence rank order and a search engine’s ability to not only crawl and index pages, but also algorithmically rank content.
If your business seems to have hit a glass ceiling in natural search or has seen its organic traffic on the decline — contact us today to learn more about the significant benefits SEOtool can yield and the actionable metrics it can provide to your business through ongoing, automated SEO analysis.
