SEO Help - Duplicate Content???

[sumodaz]

Hi

Please could someone with SEO experience answer my question. I have been working on my site www.cheshiremarqueehire.com, and have found that by creating separate pages for each town i cover that im starting to rank well on google for each town i add. e.g. http://www.cheshiremarqueehire.com/macclesfield.html I do plan on eventually providing more information on each towns page, about local venues etc. but until then i just want to get the pages up there. As you may be able to see on my site (down the right hand site) ive cover 11 towns so far. I've tried to make each page unique but my question is: Is google going to see this as 'duplicate content' on my site, as its getting hard to keep writing unique text? How many similar pages will i be able to get away with before google stops indexing these pages? Thank you for your help.

Darren

 

[fisicx]

It's not the actual town page that is ranking.

I've just searched for 'Alderley Edge Marquee Hire' and your homepage comes up. The 'Alderley Edge' page isn't even showing. If I tehn look at all results for your site it's pretty obviuous that google is ignoring all the 'town' pages. So to answer your question, yes, google does regard this as duplicate content.

Why not make it simple. Just list the locations you cover to every page. The number of people searching for 'Alderley Edge Marquee Hire' is almost zero anyway so it's not worth the effort.

 

[sumodaz]

Hi

The alderley edge page seems to show up on mine as well as the home page, a good example is http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=&...vclient-ff&rlz=1B3GGLL_en-GB___GB383&ie=UTF-8

i get 1 or 2 people a week visiting my site by typing congleton marquee hire and my index page is no where to be seen.

Do you know if google will sandbox the whole site if it detects duplicate content or just not index the pages it thinks is?

thanks

 

[RedEvo]

For the search mentioned above your dedicated page shows up with your homepage showing as an indent below it. So long as the content is unique this technique should work well for you as it makes sense for users.

d

 

[zomex]

Hello,

As long as your content is completely unique Google will have no reason to penalize you.

Regards,
Jack

 

[crossdaz]

Google have always said that you should build your site for users and not for google.
Your site is a typical built for google site and that's your problem. If, for instance, you covered some of the events you've catered for in an interesting way then you'd score well on location specific search terms as a consequence - over time.

The days of magic bullets and neat tricks that will propel you up the rankings are long gone.

 

[sumodaz]

i have to disagree that the site is 'not built for users but for google'. I have built a flash marquee planner for users benefit, i'm in the process of putting together a venue guide which will go on each of town pages and have taken alot of time to make sure each page looks good.

thank you for everyones help.

 

[nitro23456]

i have to disagree that the site is 'not built for users but for google'.

I agree with you.... its a nice looking site thats easy to navigate AND has the basics to do well in searches.

 

[mit74]

Yeah I think your site is quite good and scores highly for local searches for things like marquee hire maccesfield. What page does it take me to?

http://www.cheshiremarqueehire.com/macclesfield.html

So yes it's working. I've experimented with pages like this and it definately works as long as the pages aren't exactly the same. A website I've just taken on even has invisible text (white on white background) on its home page for 'marquee hire manchester' ' marquee hire maccesfield' etc along with about 30 other towns. When I saw it I was very critical but I couldn't argue when shown that it is actually working and google rates it no1 for area specific searches.