What is Duplicate Content?
When your content is the same as on multiple pages or when you copy content from other domains and upload it on your website then it is referred to as duplicate content. The pages which have little to no content on their webpage are also classified as duplicate content. Sometimes, the reason for having duplicate content may be due to technical reasons. But there is nothing to worry about as the duplicate content issue can be easily prevented.
Generally, duplicate content is categorized into two types.
Internal Duplicate Content
When the content on your web pages is similar to other pages on the website.
External Duplicate Content
When the content on your website matches that of other domains or websites.
Duplicate content harms your SEO performance because there are multiple URL’s for the same content which leaves search engines in confusion. And more importantly, it holds no value for visitors.
Possible reasons for having duplicate content are either technical issues or exact copy-pasting from someone’s webpage. In this blog, we will discuss everything you need to know about the content and how you can feel anything.
How Does Duplicate Content Impact SEO?
Having duplicate content on your website ultimately affects your search engine optimization. Because the web pages having duplicate content do not appear in the search engine results as the Google filter the pages with same content and only show the one which seems to be the true version. And if Google doesn’t show your pages in search engine results, then you will not be able to generate organic traffic for your page leading to a loss in revenue.
Duplicate Content Penalty?
As long as you are being honest to Google’s policies you don’t have to worry about a penalty. Google states that if the reason for duplicate content is due to technical mishaps or accidentally then you will not have to face a penalty. However, if the content duplication is done intentionally to manipulate Google rankings then appropriate actions will be taken and that website will be penalized. Either Google will completely remove the website or will no longer show it in search engine results.
Following websites are more likely to be penalized:
– Creating multiple pages with tons of duplicate content.
– Uploading scraped content on the website
– Copying content from Amazon or other such websites
It is not always necessary that your website will face a penalty, but whatever the case is of duplicate content it will have a negative impact on the SEO of your website. If you want to keep your business away from such inconveniences, then Bthrust SEO company in Singapore is here to assist you on how you can avoid duplicate content.
What is the Cause of Unintentional Duplicate content?
When your website link is not accurately set up then it leads to technical issues which will ultimately affect your search engine rankings. Here we will discuss some of the common mistakes which become the cause of duplicate content.
Print-friendly URL’s or Pages
Print-friendly pages are created by a content management system and linked to article pages so, they contain the same content. The only difference is in the URL
URL of article page: Article.com/page
Print-friendly URL: Article.com/print/page
Session IDs
If you want to keep the information for your viewers, then you need to provide them with thes ‘session’. As it gives you brief information about what the user visited on your website or what they added to their shopping cart. In other words, how the user moved from one page to another on your website To do so, you need a unique identifier to maintain the session which is called a session ID.
Every internal link on the website gets its unique session ID which creates a new URL and leads to duplicate content. To avoid this problem, you need to canonicalize your URL.
Parameters for Filtering
Parameters are used in URLs for filtering. A URL that may seem fine to visitors may have many backend issues for search engines. Filtering usually generates various combinations.
For example
https://www.toys.com/toys/barbie?colour=pink&girls
https://www.toys.com/toys/barbie?Girls&colour=pink
Both URL shows the same content.
Inconsistent Internal Linking
Another common mistake that leads to duplicate content is file-creating internal links. Make sure to link the pages correctly so they are not being duplicated. Sometimes the tool we are using for internal linking may lead to such mistakes.
For example:
The page you want to link is
https://example.com/toys
But instead, it gets linked to duplicates like
https://example.com/TOYS
Trailing Slashes Versus non-trailing Slashes
Generally, if your website can open with or without trailing slashes then it will lead to duplicate content issues. To check if it is an issue you should try to load a page with or without a reading slash. According to Google, in ideal cases, your page will load in one version but not in other. Because it reduces the chances of duplicate content.
How to Avoid this Problem?
To avoid this problem, try to stick with a single version and redirect the undesirable version.
These two are examples of trailing slash and non-trailing slash
Www.example.com/home
Www.example.com/home/
HTTPS vs. HTTP, WWW vs. non-WWW
If the redirects are not confined then it needs to be a problem where your website can be accessed through both HTTPS vs. HTTP, www vs. Non-www. If you don’t fix this be sure then it will appear as duplicate content as the same content is reachable through both versions. So, make sure that your website is accessible through a single version.
How to Fix the Duplicate Content Problem?
if you want to improve your search engine rankings then you must start by fixing duplicate content problems. Here we will discuss some ways by which you can fix duplicate content.
301 Redirection
No matter which system you are using for creating URLs there is always a chance of error. To avoid such errors, you must ensure to redirect all the old and duplicate links.
Rel=”canonical” Canonical Tag
Another solution to this old duplicate content problem is by preventing the indexing of non-canonical URLs and utilizing canonical tags. For this purpose, simply add a particular category for each product and give a specific canonical URL to it and this URL will show in search results. The canonical tag strategy works in most cases but not always
Because canonical tags are ignored by Google if you make even the slightest mistake in them; so, keep in mind that this strategy is not always reliable but you can use it until you come up with a better and reliable solution. For much better strategies on how to prevent duplicate content, you should hire Bthrust digital marketing agency Singapore.
Meta Robots non-index tag
Meta robots non-index tag is much reliable than canonical tag. These tags are more precise and do exactly as you instructed. Something to keep in mind is that you should never use non-index and canonical tags on the same page because it will leave Google in a blurr. In the case where you use both tags on the same page, Google will ultimately prefer canonical tags.
How Digital Marketing Agency Singapore will help?
Don’t get too worked up about duplicate content as long as you are keeping up with the policies of Google and not copying content from other websites. Because then the possible reason of duplicate content is due to technical reasons which can be fixed. Even if you are struggling with web correcting your duplicate content, then we are here to help you through every step. Being the best SEO company in Singapore we come up with the unmatched strategies to get your website ranked.
Contact us now to get help from our strategist, we are looking forward to optimizing your website.