When running and managing a website, navigating through duplicate content is the most complex battle website owners must fight.
Besides, why not?
The Google search engine heavily penalizes Duplicate or highly similar, resulting in lower SERP rankings. However, it doesn’t always have to be your fault.
Sometimes, other web pages might copy your content, confusing the search engine about the source and resulting in raking issues.
In this article, we look closely at the different aspects of duplicate content in SEO. So continue reading as we learn more about duplicate content in the following sections.
Duplicate Content – What is it About?
Content that appears more than once online and is identical or similar is considered duplicate.
Content must include one of the following elements to be deemed as having duplicate content issues:
- Significant similarity to another item regarding words, organization, and presentation.
- Very little or no unique data.
- Not more beneficial to the reader than a comparable page.
Therefore, if a piece of information is sufficiently similar to another page, even if it isn’t an identical replica of that other page, it may still be deemed a duplicate. On your website, there can be duplicate content on several pages. Or across different websites.
Duplicate content comes in two flavors, and anyone might be problematic:
- Internal Duplicate Content: Onsite or internal is when the same content appears on your website’s two or more unique URLs. Site administrators or web developer teams generally have access to such content.
- External Duplicate Content: External or offsite content duplication is the publication of identical information on two or more websites. It generally happens when you collaborate with third parties or proprietors of low DA websites. Besides, external duplicity is something that cannot be directly controlled.
Why is Having Duplicate Content an Issue for SEO?
The easiest approach to illustrate the negative aspects of duplicate content is to start with the positive aspects of unique content.
The best SEO service professionals suggest that one of the best ways to differentiate your website from others is through original content. You distinguish yourself when the information on your website is original to you (Nobody else has what you have).
However, you let go of the perks of unique content when you use the same content to market your goods or services or when content is replicated on other websites. Alternatively, individual pages lose their uniqueness when there is duplicate content onsite.
Impact of Duplicate Content – How it Can Impact Your Website?
It Can Impact Your Rankings
Google wants to show searchers pages that are unique and informative. Not webpages that copy and paste text from elsewhere (even pages on your website).
For this reason, when rating results, their search ranking systems are set up to give preference to a source. Google will thus attempt to determine which of your SEO duplicate content is the authentic version.
It Can Distribute Backlinks Unnecessarily
Links pointing to your website from other websites are known as backlinks. Every backlink from that other website is equivalent to a vote of confidence. This indicates to Google that your content is accurate and beneficial.
The content in two or more versions may lose link equity, authority, and reputation transferred from one website to another via a backlink. Therefore, thirty of the fifty backlinks between those two pages may point to the first URL, and the other twenty may point to the second.
It Can Affect Site Crawlability
To appear in search results, search engines such as Google must find and store your information through crawling and indexing. Your crawl budget—the time and resources search engine crawlers spend exploring your website before moving on—is wasted on duplicate pages.
Considering that crawlers may wind up examining many copies of the same content. This limits the amount of pages that may be indexed. It may affect how visible your website is in search results.
Ways to Identify Duplicate Content on Your Website
Finding the locations of duplicate content on your website is the first step in fixing it for SEO (if it exists at all).
You may accomplish that in two ways:
- Audit Your Site to Identify Duplicate Content
Duplicate content and SEO are interrelated! Regularly scanning your website for duplicate content enables you to address issues before they become serious. If your website is small enough, you may manually browse through its pages. However, it is ineffective. You may also overlook a few pages.
Therefore, we advise using a site audit tool to evaluate your website. Once there, input your website link and let the tool audit individual pages of your website. Once done, look for URLs leading to the same page to understand the duplicate content better.
- Monitor Indexed Pages in Google Search Console
You may utilize the free Google Search Console (GSC) tool to check if all your pages are indexed. Which ones aren’t, then? You may also learn why pages aren’t indexed via the tool. Duplicate material is one of the causes.
Configure GSC first to get started! Once there, select the “Pages” tab from the menu on the left-hand side under the “Indexing” section. The number of pages that have been indexed and how many pages haven’t are displayed in a chart.
How to Avoid Duplicate Content SEO?
Implement Canonical Tags
HTML code fragments known as “canonical” or rel=”canonical” tags designate the preferred URL for duplicate or extremely identical material.
Search engines may determine which version of your website to index and show in search results using the canonical tag. The tag is located in an HTML webpage’s <head> section.
Content protection against scrapers may also be achieved by self-referential canonical tags, which are tags on a page that point to themselves. This is because it notifies search engines that the page they are now on is the authentic source.
If content scrapers replicate your material without accurately adding this tag, search engines will more likely identify your website as authentic. Whether you use WordPress, Webflow, or another content management system, there are differences in how to add a canonical tag to your page.
Use 301 Redirects (When Needed)
Search engines and visitors are permanently redirected from one URL to another using a 301 redirect. This is the ideal way for duplicates you don’t need to maintain, such as those that occur when you transfer a page to a new URL or convert from HTTP to HTTPS.
Assume that the URL of your about page has been modified from “www.url.com/about-the-company” to “https://url.com/about.”
The old URL should be redirected to your new URL to guarantee that search engines and people land on the appropriate page.
When you alter the URL of a page, certain hosting companies will automatically apply a 301 redirect. However, the precise procedures for putting a 301 redirect in place vary depending on your server and content management system (CMS).
Content Creation and Optimization Tips
Choose the right format: There are many different formats available for content. Within the wide “content category,” one may find anything from web pages to emails to eBooks to product videos.
Once you’ve found the suitable format, align the content to your objective and create a supporting format. Remember, selecting the proper content structure is crucial as it helps simplify the final objective of your content.
Optimize content for SEO: If you want your content to be noticed naturally, you must first optimize it for search engine optimization (SEO).
This might include adding relevant keywords that you want to rank for, organizing your content using bullet points and numbered lists to make it simpler to read, and conducting back-end optimizations such as:
- Metadata
- Alt text for photographs
- Title
Use the right strategy tools: When it comes to content generation and analysis, having the right tools might give you a significant advantage over your competitors. SEO tools allow you to see where your content ranks and how to improve it.
Conclusion
Finding, analyzing, and fixing the original or duplicate content can be a hassle to your everyday operations. Don’t let such problems hold you back; connect with our premier SEO services USA to help you with content plagiarism and the right solutions. All the best!
