The idea that someone has created a website with identical content is a nightmare for hard-working website owners. However, duplicate content issues go much deeper and can include honest mistakes and duplications on our own sites. Because these issues have such a negative impact on SEO, it is crucial to stay on top of potential problems. So, what is duplicate content, how can we prevent it, and what should you do to fix existing problems?
What Is Duplicate Content?
Duplicate content is when the exact same content appears on two different pages. This could happen in a few ways.
1) There may be two identical versions of the same webpage either deliberately or by accident.
2) There may be a copy-paste job moving content onto an alternative version of a company website.
3) There may be plagiarized content on someone else’s site.
It is easy for web developers to end up with multiple copies of their own work. For example, let’s say you have a business providing a service in different districts or cities. Each city may have a page on the website where clients can learn more and contact you for bookings. The easy option is to copy the same service information each time to make sure each city has the right information. However, this is duplicate content and bad for SEO.
Another issue comes when other website owners decide to scrape other sites for content instead of creating their own. This is a lazy practice that isn’t uncommon as people try to build informational sites and blogs as fast as possible. An example could be a start-up company selling homemade soap. They want to add some meat and authority to their site with guides and blog content on related subjects. So, they find another company’s guide on the benefits of essential oils or self-care, copy it, and add it to their site.
Why Is A Duplicate Content Penalty And How Does Duplication Affect SEO?
One reason website owners get scared about duplicate content is the idea of the “duplicate content penalty”. You may have seen this phrase online and assumed that there is some sort of fine or ban involved here. The good news is that isn’t the case. Google isn’t going to strike you from their SERPs because you had two identical pages on different websites. The bad news is that there are still negative implications when it comes to duplicate content and SEO.
Essentially, by having multiple pages with the same content, you confuse the Google algorithm so it doesn’t know which to rank. You may have copied a page of important service information onto a new website in the hopes of boosting traffic. However, Google doesn’t know which page to value the most. This could lead to two negative situations.
1) It ranks the original page and ignores the new one, so you are no further forward.
2) It splits its time between both and neither gets the push it needs.
In the case of those copycats scraping content, they might end up outranking you despite their theft. If you don’t take action to address these issues, there is the risk that you will end up with a significant drop in traffic. As you know, this can have a damaging impact on your conversions and sales
So how can you determine whether or not you have duplicate content or there is a copycat out there? Well, the first thing to consider is webpage performance. One reg flag to watch out for here is a decrease or fluctuation in key metrics, such as rank positions and traffic. This drop could mean that your quality content is now somewhere else and scrapers are benefiting from copying you.
Away from analytics, you may be able to find scraped content simply by searching for it. Anyone that’s browsed for informational content will have found identical content in search results with ease. This can even lead to duplicate pages right next to each other on the SERP. The same may be happening right now with your pages. If you are unsure where to start, you can also bring in an expert team to go over your situation, find the problems, and help you set up some fixes and preventative action.
How To Prevent Duplicate Content Issues
Prevention is always better than the cure. If you can find a way to prevent people from copying your content you can avoid the hassle of fixing things at a later date. You also lower the chance of dropping in the rankings. There are lots of little steps you can take to fine-tune your pages and add layers of protection. Some are essential when recreating your own content for new posts. Others will help protect against the scrapers.
There are two sides to effective prevention. You need to do all you can to protect your content and also ensure there is no room for confusion when posting new pages.
1. Taxonomy
It also helps to think about the taxonomy of your website. This means looking at the way pages are mapped out and making sure they look unique to avoid duplication.
2. Pay Attention To Pagination
It helps to run checks for pagination. Pagination means the separation of print or digital content into discrete pages. This is actually a helpful tool for large datasets where it is more beneficial to break it down and decrease the load. However, content pagination can lead to issues of duplication when some features get separated and reused across a website. It’s always important to make a SEO-friendly pagination.
3. Check The Subtleties Of Website
Sometimes it is the little details that go a long way in preventing duplication and it pays to have someone check for errors to avoid issues down the line. For example, a common problem is the trailing slash. Sometimes it is possible to reach a webpage with or without a trailing slash. These count as two separate URLs and are therefore duplicate content.
Avoiding duplicate content when reposting your own content is another area to consider. Let’s go back to that hypothetical service provider with different pages for each area. It is worth taking the time to write original content for each area or at least find a way to reword key aspects or rearrange the structure.
This is also where local SEO tools like keywords make a big difference. Use terms like “the best Brooklyn dog walkers”, “finding dog walkers in Manhattan”, or “professional Queens dog walking team” to make them more unique. If you don’t have time to rewrite content for originality or aren’t sure how to do so without it sounding unnatural, it helps to outsource to a content writer. They can come at the problem with fresh eyes and give the new page a little more flair.
How To Deal With Duplicate Content On Your Website
Preventative measures are ideal here to ensure that you don’t suffer from those issues and that scrapers don’t get away with their intentions. However, hindsight is 20/20 and you may already have duplicate content issues you were unaware of. So, what can you do in this situation?
There are plenty of helpful tools out there that can make a difference. The more you take the time to add to your site, the better the chance of avoiding negative duplication.
1. 301 redirects
One option is redirecting from duplicate pages to the page you want to rank. There is a tool called the 301 redirects that can help a lot. This redirects Google bots away from the newer versions of a page back to the indexed and better-performing original version. This means the pages are no longer in competition with each other, which should improve rankings and traffic.
2. Canonical attributes
An alternative option is to add a canonical attribute to the page. This tells Google that the page is a copy of the original and that every related metric should apply to the original instead. This basically brings everything together as one recognized piece of content, removing the issues of duplication. An added benefit of working with these canonical links is that you can use this as another preventative tool. This may redirect Google back to your content after scrapers take it and add it to their own site.
3. Focus on new unique content
If you made the mistake of reusing content for service descriptions or product listings in the past, don’t make the same mistake twice. Put in the time to make every new page fresh and unique, even if it means hiring writers to create multiple unique copies. It will pay off when you avoid further duplicate content issues and maintain your traffic and conversions.
Stay On Top Of Duplicate Content To Stay On Top Of SERPs
While there isn’t any harsh duplicate warning penalty to worry about, duplication is still a big deal when building and maintaining your website. Where possible it is important to take as many preventative steps as possible with your tags and listings to avoid Google ranking the wrong page. Work on unique pages with redirects and tags that make duplication problems much more unlikely. This regular effort will pay off.
