Dumb SEO Questions

(Entry was posted by Rand Wilso on this post in the Dumb SEO Questions community on Facebook, 10/19/2013).

Can the entire article showing on the home page and showing on it`s on page/URL cause an internal duplicate content issue?

Teasers vs. full articles on the home page
Once again i come, hat in hand, humbly asking for the opinions of those that know more than I do
One of my sites was hit pretty hard (about 25%-30% loss) by Panda (? November 17, 2012).  I am looking at/changing/fixing many things, but one I am not sure of is full articles showing on the home page.  Generally we will post a new article, and the entire article will show (along with the link to the page) on the front/home page.  Usually it will remain for a few days until it gets bumped-down by the next new article.
My question is:  Can the entire article showing on the home page and showing on it`s on page/URL cause an internal duplicate content issue? ie; should I only post a teaser on the home page instead of the entire content of the article?
#SEO   #googlepanda
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YOUR ANSWERS

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

  • Rand Wilson: Teasers vs. full articles on the home page
    Once again i come, hat in hand, humbly asking for the opinions of those that know more than I do
    One of my sites was hit pretty hard (about 25%-30% loss) by Panda (? November 17, 2012).  ;I am looking at/changing/fixing many things, but one I am not sure of is full articles showing on the home page.  ;Generally we will post a new article, and the entire article will show (along with the link to the page) on the front/home page.  ;Usually it will remain for a few days until it gets bumped-down by the next new article.
    My question is:  ;Can the entire article showing on the home page and showing on it's on page/URL cause an internal duplicate content issue? ie; should I only post a teaser on the home page instead of the entire content of the article?
    #SEO  ; #googlepanda  ;
  • Chris M Cloutier: I'm just jumping here because I had a similar question and I've asked about the same duplicate issue before.  ;My understanding is that Google understands that WordPress creates additional pages for the same content.  ;

    Category pages, author archives, etc...  ;I know your question is not talking about archives, but I think it would be the same.  ;I've actually started to wonder if showing excerpts on the homepage is bad for SEO.  ;that's kinda why your question got me interested.

    That's just my opinion on what I've heard so please don't take that as gospel.  ;I look forward to hearing what everyone else has to say.
  • Craig Fifield: That can and often will cause duplicate content issues +Rand Wilson ;and while what +Chris M Cloutier ;mentions about Google knowing WP is also correct, you never want to leave it up to Google, they mess up all the time.
  • Rand Wilson: PS: Site is built on Drupal, not WP ;
  • Craig Fifield: Drupal has the same issues. I haven't used Drup in ages but to fix this you should look at setting up canonical urls for each page which will help with the duplication issues, and also consider switching to a more static home page (if possible). ;
  • David Kutcher: No to the duplicate, but i think users respond better to a less cluttered homepage and will click in to the teaser if that's their interest. I don't think this affects seo at all from a negative standpoint.
  • Tony McCreath: I'd also think about the user. Do they want to be able to scan summaries of articles or read them all in their entirety on one page.

    I tend to think summaries are more useful to them.
  • S?awomir Zdunek: Google constantly repeat that duplicate content on the same website is not a big problem. Personally I try to avoid such situations. I think it can be a bit confusing for Google. They can wonder where is the right place for the article. Is it the home page or somewhere else. I know they are smart enough to get it right, but what if they make a mistake? Putting a link on the homepage to the article is more than welcome but putting the whole article could be a bit risky. I think with the  ;excerpt on the homepage you should get away. (I wonder what the others say :)
  • W.E. Jonk: I am not going to burn my hands by saying that putting a full duplicate article of your recent article on your home is responsible for 30% traffic loss. On the other hand it might confuse G. That is, which page should G serve to their users, the home page or the article page?

    To me it is about where you are comfortable. Do you think that posting your entire article on your home page satisfy your users? Or might your users that land on your home page be more interested in what is on your site (the whole site), and that a teaser, or a small summary, or the first paragraph is more  ;appropriate for your users?

    Assuming that a search user was searching for content of a second article and this article is on the home page. How would you feel to scroll down to the next article when landing on your home page or would you pogostick back to the search results?

View original question in the Dumb SEO Questions community on Facebook, 10/19/2013).

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