Have you heard the word “duplicate content” before?
If you have your website and write content online, you may have heard about the horror story of duplicate content. How is it punished by Google or any other search engine?
Oh God! Things can be really bad; I know you do not want that to happen! If you have seen people spreading rumors about it, it is the worst SEO mistake you can make! In this blog, I will help you understand what duplicate content and how it affects search ranking.
What is Duplicate Content?
Duplicate content is exact and similar copies of content on different websites or pages on the same website. When determining which similar pages should appear in the top results, duplicate material might make Google and other search engines confused.
There is a good likelihood that the original page won’t be given credit and won’t appear in the top search results, regardless of who created the information.
I have researched more about duplicate content because I do not want my content to face any problems. So, in Google’s terms, duplicate content is a block of content within or across the domain that matches either completely with other content, in the same language or is considerably similar.
The content can be anything from product description to the whole page.
Why You Should Avoid Duplicate Content?
If you use duplicate content, then that will not rank your SEO rankings. That is why one should always limit duplicate content.
But why? Why should we avoid it? Google and other search engines are still determining which URL to display first in the search results. They will attempt to identify which result is most pertinent to the specific search query, but there is a possibility that they will error. You should also avoid using duplicate content in any off-page SEO technique.
Is it bad for Search Engine Optimization?
Now, you must be wondering whether duplicate content is good or bad for SEO, then I should tell you it is not! It can never be good. There is no official penalty for Google’s duplicate content on websites. It does, however, filter duplicate content, and have a similar impact like it is a penalty: your websites lose rankings.
Due to the confusion caused by duplicate content, Google must choose which pages to display as the top SEO results. No matter who created the content, there can be a good chance that the main page won’t appear in the top results.
It is merely one of many factors that duplicating content harms SEO. Look further for clear arguments against duplication material.
Issues of Internal Duplicate Content
1. On-page Elements
If you want to avoid the issue of duplicate content, you need to ensure that your website has-
- Meta description and page title in HTML code should be unique.
- Headings should be different from any other pages.
A page’s content mostly comprises the meta description, page title, and headings. It’s safer to steer clear of the murky waters of duplicate material as it is possible. Additionally, it’s a great way to make meta descriptions valuable to search engines.
If you have too many pages and can’t develop a different meta description for every single one, skip it. In most cases, Google uses snippets from the content as the meta description. Providing a unique meta description is still preferable since it is crucial for increasing click-throughs.
2. URL Parameters
The next issue you may face because of duplicate content on these eCommerce sites that comes from the URL parameters.
Many sites create URL variations with the use of URL parameters that will lead to indexed search engines from several other versions of URLs.
3. Product Description
Since it can take extensive time to create original descriptions for all the items on a website, it makes sense that creating distinctive product descriptions takes a lot of work for many eCommerce companies.
If you have other resellers that sell your products or if you sell the products on third-party store websites, make sure to provide each source its description.
4. WWW, HTTP, and the Trailing Slash
The next thing that a person usually overlooks is URLs-
Take a passage of distinctive text from one of your most useful landing pages, enclose it in quotation marks, and perform a quick Google search to check for these problems. Google will also search for the exact text string. You must investigate carefully to understand why over one page appears in the search results by considering the likelihood of the 3 possibilities mentioned above.
If you find that your website uses inconsistent non-www vs. www or non-trailing slashes vs. trailing slashes. The non-preferred version must be 301-redirected from the desired version to the desired one.
Issues of External Duplicate Content
1. Syndicated Content
Syndication content is the process through which a piece of material, which most likely debuted on your blog, is published on any other website. It differs from scraping your content because you permit it to be shared on another website.
I know it may sound so crazy, but there are many benefits to syndicating content, which makes your content even more visible. This is a great way to lead more traffic, which is more important. In other words, you exchange links to your website for content and perhaps search engine rankings.
2. Scraped Content
Scraped content happens when an owner of a website takes information from another website to improve their site’s natural visibility. Sometimes, content scrapers will have software “rewrite” the content that has already been taken.
Sometimes it’s simple to spot content that has been scrapped because the scrapers don’t always care to change all the branded phrases.
Conclusion
Okay, so let’s just say that if you will do cheating and do not produce original content, then that will not take you anywhere. Nobody wants that to happen, even if it will just bring you down. So, it is better to avoid copying the content.
You will raise your ranks and deter scrapers, thieves, and inexperienced beginners if you heed the suggestions provided and take duplicate content management seriously.
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