Ask an SEO: Duplicate Content for Multiple School Websites
Today’s Ask an SEO question comes from Colin in London, UK.
“My question is about duplicate content. I work for a group of schools in the UK. We have 21 schools, each has its own website and domain with a link or banner linking back to our main group website. The schools are very busy, so to save time, we have created blog posts centrally to give to the schools. They change a few things but basically the pages are pretty much the same.
I have experience with SEO, so I put my Google good boy white hat on and said, ‘Google says not to do it, it’s duplicate content. We need them to be different.’
My question is will we be penalized? I understand they will compete with each other (multiples have taken page 1 at the same time), but otherwise, is this doing us harm?
Is Google smart enough to know we are a group with different emails? Should we rewrite them all? Should we just stop? It would be good to get a second opinion – maybe I need to lighten up or take action and remove.
Please help. Thanks, Colin.”
Use Canonicals When Publishing To Secondary Sites
In the situation above, it sounds like there is a main website and multiple variations.
If you’re worried about the variation websites taking from the main website, place canonical links back to the main site from the duplicate posts.
Let’s pretend these are the URLs:
- Official site – colininlondon.com/blog-post-school.
- Duplicate 1 – colininleeds.com/blog-post-school.
- Duplicate 2 – colininglasgow.com/blog-post-school.
The official site will have a self-referencing canonical link because it is the main website and the post that should be ranking.
Duplicates 1 and 2 should have their canonical links point back to the (official) main website. This way, Google knows which site is the official one and which are duplicates.
You can also use schema, addresses, and other localization factors to help define that these are the same company and brand, similar to doing locations if you’re a brick-and-mortar business or using TLDs for country-specific targeting.
Publish To The Most Relevant Audience
When you’re stuck trying to think of which site should be the official one, or your content management system (CMS) allows you to assign a main site for the content, think about who would benefit most from the post and publish there.
Some Content Is Not A Duplicate
In the case of snow days where some schools may be cancelled, others delayed, and some are business as usual, feel free to post these.
The main part of the content will be the same or similar, and that is ok. You can have the same opening and closing of the post; the most important content is the name of the school and the information about when school starts based on the location.
Should Content Be Rewritten For Each Site?
If you have the ability and you can make it relevant to that specific location, then yes, there would be a benefit.
Use Google Business Profile
Something I have not personally done, as I’ve not worked specifically on schools with multiple websites, is using Google Business Profile for your local locations.
Conclusion
If you’re concerned about duplicate content, use canonical links to reference the main version that lives on the group website. Then use self-referencing canonicals for any unique content published on the individual school sites. If you’re really concerned, use canonical links that reference the main version that lives on the group website. Then use self-referencing canonicals for any unique content published on the individual school sites. I hope this helps, and thank you for asking!
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