Duplicate content is a big no-no in the world of SEO. Beyond it being a form of plagiarism, sharing duplicated content can mar your SEO in more ways than one. Not only does it negatively impact your ranking, but it can also cause problems with your website’s indexing and crawling.
What is Duplicate Content?
Duplicate content is when you have the same or similar content on more than one page of your website. This can happen if you have multiple pages with the same product description, or if you have the same content on your website and another website.
Why is Duplicate Content Problematic?
Duplicated content can be problematic for a few reasons. First, it can make it harder for your website to be found by potential customers. When someone searches for something on Google, the search engine only wants to show one result for each unique piece of content.
So, if you have duplicate content, Google may not know which version of your content to show, and your website may not appear in the search results. Second, duplicated content can also negatively impact your ranking. Google may think that you’re trying to spam the search results by having the same content on multiple pages, and they may penalize your website as a result.
How Does Duplicate Content Happen?
There are a few different ways that duplicated content can crop up on your website. Sometimes it’s the result of a technical issue, while other times, it’s a deliberate decision that you or someone on your team has made. Here are a few of the most common causes of duplicate content:
- Technical issues: If your website is not set up properly, the same content can be accessed via multiple URLs. This is often the case with www and non-www versions of a website, or when a website can be accessed with or without the “www” subdomain.
- Printer-friendly pages: Many websites offer printer-friendly versions of their web pages. While this can be a helpful feature for visitors, it can also lead to duplicated content, as the same content is accessible via multiple URLs.
- Syndicated content: If you syndicate your content on other websites, that content is essentially duplicated. While this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it’s something to be aware of, as it can lead to duplicate content issues.
- Session IDs: If your website uses session IDs (often used for tracking purposes), those IDs can be appended to URLs, resulting in duplicate content.
- Product variations: If you sell products that come in different variations (e.g., different sizes, colors, etc.), you may end up with duplicate content, as the same product is accessible via multiple URLs.
- Tags and categories: If your website uses tags or categories, you may end up with duplicate content, as the same content is accessible via multiple URLs.
- HTTP status codes: If your website returns different HTTP status codes for the same content (e.g., 200, 301, 302, etc.), that can lead to duplicate content issues.
The Bottom Line: Understanding the Impact of Duplicate Content on Your SEO
If you’re concerned about duplicate content on your website, it’s important to understand the impact it can have on your SEO. By taking steps to avoid or fix duplicate content issues, you can help ensure that your site is properly indexed and ranked by search engines.
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