How to create unique content (and improve rankings) with Springest API data

Since the Panda 4.0 update the terms “automated content” and “duplicate content” are raising red flags when heard by SEO marketers, since Panda is designed to remove low-quality content from Google’s search results. 

But duplicate content doesn’t necessarily mean low-quality content and the following examples show that Google doesn’t penalise content which has it’s original source elsewhere. 

A search for a specific hotel shows that the original site ranks best, followed by various hotel booking and review sites. If all pages containing duplicate content were punished, these booking and review-sites wouldn’t be ranking.

The Hotel Industry:

We’re using the hotel industry as a benchmark. It is more established than the education sector, therefore more examples to pull from when discussing the effects of duplicate content and Panda. 2014_08_13_14_42_24_6n2t4.jpg

There’s duplicate content in all the pages:

How do they still all rank?

  • Different template
  • extra content surrounding the duplicate content

The key here is context, added user value and pages which are unique in its total form.   

For example, the first image is the original Holiday Express site, whilst the second image is from ebookers (a site similar to booking.com). They both have the same duplicate content, the red box, but they’ve surrounded it with their own content and template. Meaning that as a whole they are both valuable unique pages.

Holiday Express still outranks Ebookers due to being the original site and has a stronger domain.

The Education Industry (NL Example)

These rules don’t just apply to the hotel and various other e-commerce sites, but also for the educational sector. As you can see, on the search term “Leadership Course” (a very competitive keyword) the first 4 positions are for educational providers and Springest ranks 5th. Ranking 8th is Loonwijzer.nl , which is a Springest media partner and this page is based on Springest Data.  

So why is the media-partner ranking with “duplicate content”? It’s the sum of all parts, that makes these pages unique.

Bellow you will find a comparison between Springest subject-page and 3 media partners' subject-pages and you will see what makes these pages unique, even though the basis of these pages is the same data.

“Leadership Course” subject page Springest “Leadership Course” subject page Media Partner 1

“Leadership Course” subject page Media Partner 2“Leadership Course” subject page Media Partner 3

If you want to view all our UK partners and how they implement our API, please see the below list.

Please take note that we can’t share CV LIbrary’s implementation because it hasn’t been finished yet.

We currently work with:

General Guidelines:

  • Focus your SEO effort on Subject-pages (containing the various courses)
    • redesign
    • add content - search widget, reviews, related courses, etc.
  • Create “subject page templates”, showing your other content & interlink pages
    • optimise side bars - helptext, widgets, filters, etc.
  • Create a unique “help text” for each subject you want to rank with.
  • Create unique “course snippets”, by filtering which data fields you want to display from our API
  • Create a “Course home/category page” which you link to from your main navigation and other related pages (e.g. jobs, career tips, etc.)
  • Use your other domains as a Springboard - homepage, related pages. 

An Industry Example:

1. Redesign the Subject overview page:

At the moment you have a Subject page with around 40 Subjects. These subjects are very broad and target the main dominating subjects. This means that there is a lot of competition and thus very hard to rank in. I recommend you to create a page where you link to specific key subjects. This allows you to focus on the Long Tail. This is advisable as it’s better to target very specific subjects as there’s less competition on google and thus will be easier for you to rank. For example it is easier to rank on Computerised Bookkeeping rather than Finance.

With our API, you can pick and choose what categories, subjects, providers you want or want to block out.

In addition, add your search box here too. Make it easier for your course seekers to find what they need.

2. Training Page Template:

2014_08_13_16_21_34_3bt6o.jpg

You currently have a unique helptext, course search, and you link to the jobs section - so that’s great.

But you could also:

  • Create a related courses box - interlinking
  • Extend your filters: learning type, level, location etc.  

Our API has been created to give you control over what you show. This means that we help you be unique by allowing you to create customised snippets.

3. Optimise Jobs Site linkage with the Courses Site

Link from the Job Listing Page and the individual Job Page to the Courses page. To do this you can use our SpringSense API and Widget, which recommends related courses by matching the job title to specific courses.

Jobs Home Page:

Include the Quick Course Widget in the Career Tools section of the Jobs Home Page.  You can use your own Quick Course Search Widget (or our own if it’s easier to implement) to link directly to the Course Page.

Individual Job Page:

Have recommended courses on the sidebar via the SpringSense widget.

Job Listing Page:

Have recommended courses on the 3rd/4th position (for higher CTR) and in sidebar redirecting traffic to the courses page via the SpringSense widget.

  1. Home Page

Link from main page to the courses section just like you do with Jobs. Use the domain's as a Springboard.