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SEO for websites: why is duplicate content something you should avoid?

7 minutes of reading
SEO for websites: why is duplicate content something you should avoid?
Category SEO

Duplicate content, whether it’s on purpose or accidental, can have a negative impact on your website’s SEO. Find out what it is and how to avoid it. The need to make this content unique shows up again and again in the search engine optimization conversation, but why? What’s so bad about duplicate content? And what should you do if you find that your site has some duplicate content that you didn’t put there on purpose?

Contents:

The importance of originality

In a world where online content is proliferated, it’s more important than ever to have unique, original content on your website. Not only does originality make your site more interesting to readers, but it also helps your site rank higher in search engine results pages. That’s because search engines like Google penalize sites with duplicate content, seeing them as less relevant and trustworthy. So if you’re looking to improve your website’s SEO, make sure you’re creating original content!

Content marketing and SEO strategy

Any good SEO strategy will take into account content marketing. That’s because the two disciplines are interconnected: Content marketing can help improve your website’s SEO, and a strong SEO strategy can help you get more eyes on your content. Here are some important tips to consider when it comes to content marketing and SEO.

Focus on creating original, quality content that is relevant to your target audience. Look at how other websites in your industry write about certain topics – see what keywords they use so that you know what words to target. Make sure that every page has its own keyword or set of keywords, depending on the page’s function.

What is duplicate content?

Duplicate content is when two or more pieces of content on the internet are exactly the same. This can happen when two websites copy each other, or when a single website has multiple pages with the same information. Duplicate content can hurt your website’s SEO because Google doesn’t know which version of the content to show in its search results. This can lead to lower rankings and less traffic to your site.

Content duplicated within the same site

Search engines index websites based on their unique content. When the same content appears on multiple pages within a website, it can be difficult for search engines to determine which page is most relevant. This can result in lower rankings for the site overall. Additionally, when people search for the duplicated content, they may be less likely to click through to the website if they see multiple results with the same information.

Content duplicated across multiple domains

Search engines have a difficult time determining which version of the content is most relevant to a given search query. As a result, your site may be penalized in the search engine results pages. In addition, duplicate content can dilute your inbound link authority, making it harder for your site to rank well. Finally, having multiple versions of the same content can make it more difficult for users to find the information they’re looking for, which can lead to a poor user experience.

Search engines like Google compare sites side-by-side and determine which ones are providing the most value to users. If they see that two sites are essentially saying the same thing, they’re likely to penalize the site with less original content.

Why should you be wary of duplicate content? A few words about Google algorithms

Google determines which version of the content is most relevant. This can lead to lower rankings for the site as a whole. Additionally, if you have too much duplicate content on your site, it can give the impression that you’re trying to game the system by artificially inflating your page count.

Google has a number of guidelines about duplication within its algorithms. The first guideline recommends duplicating content in order to distribute load across different domains and locations. The second guideline advises avoiding thin pages with only one or two sentences worth of text and nothing else. Content should be original and substantial. There are other guidelines for quality standards for content, such as not using scraped or syndicated content from other sites. If you find any violations to these rules, report them to Google through their webmaster tools feature.

To avoid having any issues at all, use unique content (not just headlines) and always link back to your source. Google penalizes websites who have been found guilty of violating their policies. However, they also penalize websites who do not follow policy correctly.

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How do I know if I have duplicate content issues?

One way to check for duplicate content is to use a plagiarism checker like Copyscape. This will help you see if there’s any identical content on the web. If you do have some duplicates, don’t panic! There are a few ways to fix the issue.

Internal duplicate content

To check for internal duplicate content issues, you can use a tool like Screaming Frog to crawl your site and look for pages with similar or identical content. You should also manually scan through your page titles and meta descriptions as this will help you identify any other possible duplicates that might not be picked up by the crawler. Once you have identified the duplicates on your site, you need to decide which ones are most important to keep on the website (such as in-depth product reviews) and which ones are less important (such as old blog posts). You can then either consolidate these pages into one place or redirect the less important pages to their more important counterparts.

External duplicate content

You can use a variety of tools to check for external duplicate content, including Copyscape and Siteliner. If you find that other websites are copying your content without permission, you can contact the site owner and request that they remove the copied content. You can also file a DMCA complaint with Google.

How to avoid duplicate content?

There are a few things you can do to avoid having duplicate content on your website. The first is to make sure that all of your pages have unique and original titles. If you have multiple pages with the same title, search engines will likely view them as duplicates and penalize your site accordingly. You can also use canonical tags to tell search engines which version of a page is the original, or use 301 redirects to redirect traffic from one page to another. These tools are particularly useful if you want to change an outdated page without losing any ranking it has in search engine results.

Is there a positive cannibalization?

Although there are some benefits to having multiple pieces of content on the same topic, ultimately it’s better to have one authoritative piece of content that ranks well in search engines. This is because when multiple pieces of content compete for the same keyword, they can actually hurt each other’s ranking. So if you want your website to rank well, make sure you’re not duplicating any of your content.

In conclusion

Duplicate content can negatively impact your website’s SEO in a number of ways. It can cause search engines to index fewer of your pages, which can lead to lower traffic levels. Additionally, if Google perceives that you are intentionally trying to game the system by creating duplicate content, they may penalize your site. This could result in a drastic drop in your search engine rankings. So, it’s important to be aware of the potential risks associated with duplicate content and take steps to avoid it.

Aleksandra Pietrzak
Copywriter
Curator at the National Museum in Poznań, graduate of Art History at the Jagiellonian University and Contemporary Art at the Pedagogical University of Krakow, curator of exhibitions and author of scientific and popular texts. A lover of contemporary art, literature and travel.
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