What is Duplicate Content And How to Fix It?

Gone are the days of simply churning out content to climb the SEO mountain. Today, search engines like Google crave unique and valuable content that caters to a searcher’s intent. Enter the silent enemy of SEO: duplicate content.

This article equips you with the knowledge and strategies to combat duplicate content, ensuring your website scales the SEO rankings and reaches the summit of search visibility.

What is duplicate content?

Duplicate content refers to identical or substantially similar content appearing in multiple locations online. It can exist on your own website (internal duplicate content) or across different websites (external duplicate content). 

For example, if you post a blog entry on your own site and then share the same article as a guest post on a different site, this creates duplicate content.

Common culprits include:

• Product descriptions duplicated across multiple pages
• Blog posts republished on various platforms
• Thin content with minimal value, appearing on multiple URLs

>>Read more: The Important of Good Content in SEO

Does duplicate content affect SEO?

The answer is YES. Duplicate content can be detrimental to your SEO efforts. Search engines like Google aim to provide the best user experience by showing diverse results. When they encounter multiple pages with the same content, they struggle to decide which one is the most relevant. This can lead to several issues:

• Wrong page in the spotlight: When identical content appears under different URLs, Google might rank a version you didn’t want to prioritise. Google selects the version it deems best for users, which may not align with your preferences. Properly managing duplicate content, as detailed later in this article, can prevent this issue.
• Crawling confusion and delays: Search engines have a limited budget for crawling websites, meaning they can only visit a certain number of pages within a timeframe. Duplicate content wastes this valuable budget. Instead of efficiently discovering and indexing your fresh content, search engines get stuck revisiting duplicate versions. This can delay the appearance of your new content in search results.
• Waste of crawl budget: For large websites or sites with frequently updated content, the same content wastes the crawl budget. Instead of indexing new and updated pages, search engines will crawl and re-crawl the duplicate versions. Consequently, your new content may take longer to appear in search engine results.
• Search engine penalties: Although not common, severe cases of similar content can lead to penalties from search engines.

Common Causes of Duplicate Content

1. Technical Issues

Exactly the same content often arises from technical issues within your website’s structure:

• URL parameters and session IDs: URLs with different parameters or session IDs can create multiple versions of the same page (e.g., example.com/page?id=1 vs. example.com/page).
• HTTP and HTTPS versions: Both HTTP and HTTPS versions of a site being accessible without redirection can cause duplication.
• www and non-www versions: Having both www.example.com and example.com accessible without proper redirection.

>>Read more: Technical SEO Checklist: Key Steps to Boost Your Website’s Visibility

2. Content Management Issues

Certain practices in content management can lead to duplicate content:

• Printer-friendly pages: Creating separate printer-friendly versions of pages.
• Product descriptions: Using manufacturer descriptions for multiple products across different pages.
• Mobile versions of websites: Separate mobile and desktop versions of a site without proper canonical tags.

3. Content Theft

Another common source of similar content is when your content is copied and republished on other websites without proper attribution.

How do you find duplicate content?

The first step to tackling the same content is identifying it. Here are some detective tools at your disposal:

• Manual review: For smaller websites, a thorough manual review might suffice. Scrutinise your website content for redundancy.
• Site search operators: Leverage Google’s site search operators. For instance, the site:yourwebsite.com + “keyword” command reveals all pages containing that specific keyword, potentially highlighting duplicate content.
• Google search console: Provides insights into coverage issues, including similar content.
• Site audit tools: Tools like Screaming Frog can crawl your site and identify the same content.
• Duplicate content checkers: Services like Copyscape can find instances of your content on other sites.

How to fix duplicate content issues?

Once you’ve identified duplicate content, it’s time to take action. Here’s your arsenal of strategies:

1. Canonicalization

Canonical tags (<link rel=”canonical” href=”URL”>) signal to search engines which version of a page is the preferred one. This helps consolidate duplicate pages and ensures the correct version is indexed.

2. 301 Redirects

A permanent redirect that instructs search engines that a page has permanently moved to a new location. Use 301 redirects to point duplicate pages to the canonical version, the preferred version you want search engines to index.

3. Rel=canonical Tag

This HTML tag acts as a signal to search engines, specifying the original or preferred version of a page if you have multiple pages with similar content.

4. Meta Robots Noindex

This tag instructs search engines not to index a particular page. Use it for duplicate pages you don’t want to appear in search results, like printer-friendly versions.

5. Content Consolidation

If you have multiple pages with slightly different takes on a topic, consider consolidating them into a single, comprehensive page.

6. Content Removal

If you discover scraped content on another website, reach out to the website owner and request its removal.

Best Practices for Avoiding Duplicate Content

The best defence against similar content is a robust content strategy. Here’s how to create content that shines:

• Target Audience Focus: Who are you writing for? Understanding your audience’s needs and interests is paramount.
• Keyword Research: Uncover the keywords your target audience uses to search for information. Integrate these keywords naturally throughout your content.
• High-Quality, Informative Content: Prioritise creating valuable content that educates and engages your audience.
• Content Optimisation: Optimise your content for search engines by using relevant keywords in titles, meta descriptions, and throughout the content (but avoid keyword stuffing!).

The Rewards of Content Uniqueness

Managing duplicate content is a crucial aspect of maintaining a healthy SEO strategy. By understanding its causes, identifying instances of duplication, and implementing best practices to avoid and fix issues, you can ensure your site remains optimised for search engines. Always strive to create unique, valuable content and use the right tools to manage any duplicate content that may arise.

If you’re looking to further improve your SEO practices, Saigon Digital offers expert SEO services that can help you manage duplicate content effectively. Our team provides comprehensive solutions tailored to your needs, ensuring your website ranks well and meets user intent. Contact us today!