Duplicate content occurs when the same article, picture, video, or infographic appears on multiple pages or URLs on the internet. Google penalizes websites that have duplicate content, as it makes it difficult for them to know the original and most relevant page. This can cause a lower search engine ranking and decreased traffic to your site.
The aim of search engines is to provide users with the most relevant results possible. When there’s duplicate content, it can be challenging for the search engine to determine which page to rank. Google and other search engines view duplicate content as a tactic to manipulate website ranking. This could result in lower visibility and traffic for your website, affecting your SEO efforts.
What Causes Duplicate Content?
1. Having Multiple URLs for the Same Pages on Your Site
This is a common cause of duplicate content, where the same content is accessible through more than one URL. For instance, your website may have both a www and non-www version, or there may be different URLs for the same page. To avoid this, website owners should redirect any duplicate URLs to the original one using 301 redirects.
301 redirect tells search engines and visitors that the page has permanently moved to a new URL. This means that any links pointing to the old URL will be redirected to the new URL, ensuring that there is only one URL for the page.
2. Web Filtering
Web filtering is an internet firewall technology that blocks access to certain websites or types of content based on predefined parameters. Many organizations have implemented web filtering to control the content their employees or users can access.
Image Credits: Backlinko.com
However, while it can be an effective tool for maintaining productivity and security, web filtering can also lead to content duplication.
Filtering parameters are the rules set by an organization to determine which websites or content should be blocked. These parameters can be based on a range of factors, including keywords, URLs, IP addresses, and content categories. However, the filtering parameters can be too broad or too narrow, causing content duplication.
For example, if filtering URL parameters block all websites that contain the keyword “game,” it would block websites that offer online games and many other types of websites that use the word “game” in their content. Web filtering causes duplication of pages with the same content, as users may need to search for the same information on multiple websites.
Filtering parameters can create duplicate content when search engines index them as separate pages. For instance, if you have an e-commerce website with multiple filters for different products, each filter may have its own URL.
To prevent this, use a canonical tag to indicate the original page and prevent search engines from indexing the filtered pages.
3. Complex Taxonomies
Taxonomy is organizing and classifying information. In the context of a website, taxonomy involves creating a hierarchy of categories, tags, and other metadata that helps users find the content they’re looking for.
Image Credits: Unsplash.com
If your own website has a complex taxonomy, it may lead to duplicate content issues. This occurs when the same content is placed in multiple categories, creating redundant pages.
When you have multiple category pages and tags that overlap with each other, it’s easy for the same content to appear on multiple pages on the same site. This can confuse users and harm your credibility with search engines.
To avoid this, create a clear hierarchy for your content and use canonical tags to point to the original page.
4. Localization
Localization is adapting a product or service to meet a particular country or region’s language, culture, and other specific needs. It can involve everything from translating content to adjusting images and videos.
But while localization can be an effective SEO strategy and a great way to connect with new audiences, it can also lead to duplicate content issues. When a website has multiple versions for different languages or regions, it can be challenging for search engines to pick out the most relevant version. This can lead to a decrease in online search rankings and ultimately harm a business’s online visibility.
Use hreflang tags to fix duplicate content problems caused by localization. The tags tell search engines which version of a page should be shown to users based on their language or location. By using hreflang tags, businesses can ensure that their content is properly indexed and displayed to the right audiences.
5. Content Distribution
Using canonical tags to indicate the original page is important if you distribute your content on different platforms, such as social media or guest blogging on other websites. This will prevent the content from being flagged as duplicate pages.
Image Credits: Unsplash.com
6. Generic Product Pages
An e-commerce site with more than one page for a product with similar descriptions can cause internal duplicate content issues. To avoid this, create unique product descriptions for e-commerce sites and use canonical tags to indicate the original page.
7. Landing Page A/B Testing
If you’re conducting A/B testing on landing pages, using canonical tags to indicate the original page is important. This will prevent the test pages from being indexed by search engines and flagged as technically duplicate content.
How to Detect Duplicate Content in Multiple Pages
Image Credits: Unsplash.com
One way to detect how much duplicate content is on a page is to use plagiarism checkers such as Copyscape or Grammarly. These duplicate content checker tools can help identify identical content on different pages or domains. You can also use Google Search Console or conduct a SERP analysis to identify duplicate content.
How to Avoid Duplicate Content
1. Canonicalization
Canonicalization is a technique that helps search engines identify the primary URL for a particular piece of content. It’s crucial to ensure that all URLs leading to the same existing content point to the primary URL.
That way, search engines won’t consider multiple URLs as duplicate content. To implement canonicalization, you need to add a canonical tag to the primary URL, which tells search engines that this is the primary URL. These tags indicate to search engines like Google the original page that should be indexed.
This technique can also involve adding a link to the primary URL in the duplicate page’s header section. That way, search engines will know that the content on one page is just a copy of the primary URL’s content. Canonization helps you avoid a duplicate content penalty and ensure that the right version of your content is displayed on search results.
2. 301 Redirects
Redirecting duplicate content to the canonical URL is another effective technique to avoid duplicate content. It involves redirecting all URLs that lead to the same content to the primary URL using a 301 redirect. This technique tells search engines that all URLs lead to the same content, and the primary URL is the most relevant one.
3. Adding an HTML Link
You can also avoid duplicate content by adding an HTML link that is gotten from the duplicate page to the canonical page. This technique involves adding inbound links in the duplicate page’s body section that leads to the primary URL.
As a result, search engines will know that the content on the duplicate page is just a copy of the primary URL’s content.
Additionally, ensure that all internal and external links on your own site are working correctly.
Image Credits: Unsplash.com
5. Create Unique Content
Another obvious way to avoid duplicate content is by creating original content. This means writing original articles, blog posts, and other types of valuable content that aren’t found elsewhere on the internet. By producing unique, high-quality content, you can avoid penalization for duplicate content.
Also, avoid having the same meta description on multiple pages. Site owners should come up with unique meta descriptions for all the web pages to improve the website’s visibility on search result pages.
6. Monitor Content Syndication
Content syndication is one of the most productive off-page SEO marketing strategies that entail republishing your content on other sites or platforms. It can be great to have your content reach a wider audience.
Image Credits: Unsplash.com
However, it’s important to monitor where your content is being syndicated to ensure that it’s not posted on sites with the same content. By monitoring content syndication, you can avoid duplicate content issues and maintain control over where your content appears online.
Webmasters can also use robots.txt to block search engines from indexing pages with duplicate content. This will prevent search engines from seeing duplicate versions and impact the website’s SEO rankings.
In a Nutshell
Duplicate content can be a major obstacle for online businesses and content creators. But with these tips in mind, you can avoid penalties for duplicate content, improve your search engine rankings and maintain a strong online presence. The cues in this write-up will ensure that your content is driving traffic and engagement without running afoul of search engines.
Jacky Chou is an electrical engineer turned marketer. He is the founder of Indexsy, Far & Away, Laurel & Wolf, a couple FBA businesses , and about 40 affiliate sites. He is a proud native of Vancouver, BC, who has been featured on Entrepreneur.com, Forbes, Oberlo and GoDaddy.
