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View Full Version : Multiple Languages, Duplicate SERP listings

calebw
11-09-2005, 08:47 PM
I have run into a suspicious situation that I'd like to get the SEO community's feedback on.

I am working on optimizing a site that previously held page-1 rankings but lost them due to a poorly handled site redesign. In correcting issues, I checked for duplicate content via searching for a long, unique phrase of text from their site. What I've found is disturbing.

In Google and MSN if you search for a long, unique phrase of text from the site, you'll get two results, one from the official site, and one from a distributor's site that has a mirror of the corporate site. Normally, this would be a BIG problem, but at first it didn’t concern me because the second site is in 99% Japanese, hosted on a .jp domain, and uses the <html lang="ja"> tag. The content on the page indeed appears in Japanese characters.

Here's the problem: we have corrected all the problems from the aforementioned redesign and rankings have climbed back to acceptable positions in Yahoo. However, Google and MSN are still listing the site far below where it was before and "should" (subjective, I know) be given the content, links, and brand standing of the company. What is suspicious here is that Google and MSN return the duplicate pages, but not Yahoo. Yahoo ranks well and doesn’t have the dup content; MSN and Google are applying penalties and do have the dup content.

Am I just grasping at thin-air here, or could this be an issue? Give me your thoughts.

For your reference:

-Official site: www.ballardtech.com
-Duplicate (JP) site: http://www.n-digital.co.jp/Ballard_hp/
-Replicate results: browse to a product page on ballardtech.com, pick a long phrase of text, and search in Google or MSN with the long phrase in "quotes"

Lastly, while you're looking at code, give me your opinion on the code-bloat of this site. You can browse the site fine in lynx, but the code is still really bloated IMO.

Thanks!
Kal
11-10-2005, 06:54 PM
Yahoo ranks well and doesn’t have the dup content; MSN and Google are applying penalties and do have the dup content.
Hil Caleb - how can you be sure penalties are being applied for this reason?

When doing a b/w link check on Google, it does list the JP site but I don't think this would cause an issue because the content can hardly be considered duplicate if it is in Japanese. Your toolbar PR is ok and GG has indexed over 200 pages from your domain.

I think what you'll find is that the site no longer ranks well because it has been sandboxed for competitive terms following your site redesign. Do a search in here and you'll find more info on the sandboxing issue.
calebw
11-10-2005, 06:58 PM
Hil Caleb - how can you be sure penalties are being applied for this reason?

I'm not sure they applied for this reason - there is just the common thread between MSN and Google's ranking of the site and the presence of the japanese content in the english index - it is a hypothesis :) .

I think what you'll find is that the site no longer ranks well because it has been sandboxed for competitive terms following your site redesign...

Thanks for the tip - I'll look into it!
amabaie
11-11-2005, 09:00 AM
I think what you'll find is that the site no longer ranks well because it has been sandboxed for competitive terms following your site redesign.

Agreed that this could be the issue, depending on the nature of the redesign (new file names, total change of text, etc.)

One way to be sure is to build more highly relevant links and see if that makes a difference, since both Google and MSN look for relevance in links. If that does not make a difference over the course of a month, sandboxing sounds like the most likely answer.
calebw
11-11-2005, 03:18 PM
Agreed that this could be the issue, depending on the nature of the redesign (new file names, total change of text, etc.)


The redesign caused traumatic changes to URL's and site structure, but the content remained largely the same. In 6 months the site has gone from use of "productpage.asp?product=ID123" pattern URL's to paths like "/products.aspc/2/Some Category Name/Some Prodict-name & ID Number" (spaces included, the /2/ also resulted in /1/ paths which duplicated all the site's content until I came onboard). Now URL's are a lott more sane, but still very long.

I've done a little reading up on sandboxing. I saw it stated that "sandboxing" occurs on domains registered after some point in 2004. Is this the case? The domain in question on this has been registered since 1996, so would that rule out sandboxing?
calebw
11-11-2005, 04:57 PM
I appreciate the feedback on this post. I've looked into the Sandbox issue and hold the opinion that this is not the cause. I'd like know what others think about my reasoning here:


The site is FAR older thatn March 2004 - It has beena round since 1996 and used to hold excelent rankings.
Entering a primary keyword followed by multiple occurences of "-asdf" and other characters does not influence the ranking of the site.
The site DOES rank well for more obscure terms, like "mil-std-1553 copilot software"
The site does NOT rank well when performing an allinanchor: search. In fact, it ranks just about the same as for a normal search for "mil-std-1553"


So, I'm back to base 1.
Kal
11-20-2005, 06:44 AM
I've done a little reading up on sandboxing. I saw it stated that "sandboxing" occurs on domains registered after some point in 2004. Is this the case? The domain in question on this has been registered since 1996, so would that rule out sandboxing?Nope. Sandboxing can happen to any site, regardless of age, if a redesign of any kind triggers the filter to kick in. Sandboxing seems to kick-in particularly after large-scale page optimization and/or link building campaigns.