Dumb SEO Questions

(Entry was posted by Unique Websites on this post in the Dumb SEO Questions community on Facebook, 12/12/2013).

A question about yearly urls and duplicate content.

We are taking over the maintenance of an existing travel tours site (which has tours to annual sporting events) and have a question about yearly urls and duplicate content.

They currently have yearly page urls = eg city1-2013.html, city1-2014.html, city2-2013.html, city2-2014.html etc; much of this tour info will be similar/the same from year to year with the dates changed; sometimes there may be changes to the details.

As I can see that it is sensible to have 2 years` info up at once (eg as you get to a certain part of a year, you want to show that year`s tours
and the next years tours) should we keep this yearly page structure - +or is it likely to cause duplicate content problems+? (The tours pages are the bulk of their site.)

Obviously, we could delete previous years` pages.

Alternatively, we could do some recoding and have 2 years` info on a single page although this would look a bit "bulky" with the current design.

Thought I`d check whether having 2 pages indexed at any one time  for the same city is likely to cause them problems? As said, these pages are the bulk of their site.?
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YOUR ANSWERS

Selected answers from the Dumb SEO Questions Facebook & G+ community.

  • Unique Websites: We are taking over the maintenance of an existing travel tours site (which has tours to annual sporting events) and have a question about yearly urls and duplicate content.

    They currently have yearly page urls = eg city1-2013.html, city1-2014.html, city2-2013.html, city2-2014.html etc; much of this tour info will be similar/the same from year to year with the dates changed; sometimes there may be changes to the details.

    As I can see that it is sensible to have 2 years' info up at once (eg as you get to a certain part of a year, you want to show that year's tours
    and the next years tours) should we keep this yearly page structure - +or is it likely to cause duplicate content problems+? (The tours pages are the bulk of their site.)

    Obviously, we could delete previous years' pages.

    Alternatively, we could do some recoding ;and have ;2 years' info on a single page although this would look a bit "bulky" with the current design.

    Thought I'd check whether having 2 pages indexed at any one time ; for the same city is likely to cause them problems? As said, these pages are the bulk of their site.
  • Patrick Rabanser: Go with the rel=canonical Tag!
    That should solve any problems!
  • Unique Websites: Many thanks +Patrick Rabanser ;- have to admit, I've always used that for the home page variations before now but that could be good.
  • Edwin Jonk: From the expert panel in this weeks SEO Questions hangout on air on 00:39:29 into the YouTube video: https://dumbseoquestions.com/q/a_question_about_yearly_urls_and_duplicate_content
  • Unique Websites: Many thanks to the panel for the helpful discussion! I think the yearly page urls will have to go but will discuss the other 2 options with the customer.

View original question in the Dumb SEO Questions community on Facebook, 12/12/2013).

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