Why Is Having Duplicate Content An Issue For Your SEO

Have you ever asked yourself, ‘Why is having duplicate content an issue for SEO?’ Well, not many people are aware of the consequences when it comes to duplicate content. With search engines constantly updating, it’s best to stay on top of the current trends to ensure your website ranks high on search engines. This article explores what is duplicate content, the reasons why it affects SEO, and how to avoid it from happening. 

What is duplicate content? 

In terms of SEO, duplicate content stands for content that is copied or can be found on various websites and pages. Sometimes duplicate content happens automatically, such as forgetting to redirect properly and so on. However, it’s highly recommended to ensure you understand how duplicate content could negatively impact your website’s SEO. 

But what is considered as duplicated content? Here are some of the signs that the content is duplicated: 

• There is no extra value that’s added into the content in comparison with the page with similar content
• The information is not original 
• The content structure, wording and format is similar to the other page

Why is having duplicate content an issue for SEO? 

If you’re unclear about why duplicated content is a major issue for your website’s SEO, here are the main reasons why it’s not recommended and should be avoided: 

1. Poor user experience 

It’s important to ensure a user’s experience while browsing through a website is smooth and easy. One of the reasons why having duplicate content is an issue for SEO is that users will not be satisfied when seeing the same content. This turns them away from the website, thus, reducing the click-through rate and increasing the bounce rate. 

2. Ranking issues for your website

Google will always prioritize websites with unique content. If you have duplicate content, Google may simply choose which website page to rank and disregard the others. Thus, it may not be the website pages that you wish to rank for. 

3. Problems with indexing 

Google may not index a website that has tons of duplicated content. It may get them confused as to which content to index, hence why they might just not index the website pages at all. Although Google may just index one of the duplicated content, it’s still a risk that they may not rank it high on search engines. 

4. Risk of penalties from Google 

Google has mentioned time and time again how duplicated content could signal to Google that your website is not original and thus could either de-index that website or offer a penalty. However, this is quite rare as there are millions of websites indexed on Google. Still, it’s not a risk that any website owner should take and it’s better to be on the safe side. 

5. Reduce organic traffic 

Naturally, if your content is duplicated from other websites, Google will only index the website that was posted earlier. So if you copied content from that website, Google will ignore your content instead and prioritize the website that was indexed first. 

How to detect duplicate content 

To find out whether your website has duplicate content, you can check via Google Search Console. 

Click on the ‘Pages’ tab and proceed to the ‘Indexing’ section of the menu. Then, it will display both not indexed and indexed pages. After that, look out for ‘Duplicate, Google choose different canonical than user’ if you do have duplicated content. This shows the content that’s duplicated. 

Once you’ve fixed the duplicated content following the right steps, you can click ‘Validate Fix’ button for Google to re-check your website. 

Best practices to prevent duplicate content 

Now that you’ve understood why having duplicated content is an issue for your SEO, here are useful tips on how to avoid it from happening and ensure a boost of SEO performance: 

1. Make use of canonical tags 

You can consider using canonical tags, which is an HTML code that lets search engines know where the original content comes from. This helps to signal to search engines that the content is duplicated and should only index the original website page. 

2. Focus on creating unique content 

If possible, try to write unique content for each website page. Though there is some content that has to be duplicated, we recommend adding some form of unique content within the same page as well. Don’t forget to also include the relevant keywords within the content. 

3. Keep an eye on your indexed pages 

We all have our own preferred website pages that we wish to index. Google doesn’t pick up every single website page and index them right away. Hence, it’s best to check whether you have the important website pages indexed by regularly checking them. You can use tools such as Google Search Console to perform the checks. 

4. Ensure proper redirection 

If you have website pages with similar content, don’t forget to use proper redirection such as 301 redirects to ensure the users will be directed to the right website page. Besides that, if your website has many HTTP versions, it’s best to redirect them all to only one HTTP version. 

5. Check your content regularly 

Performing a content audit on your website frequently helps to avoid the chance of duplicated content. This is because we won’t be able to remember the kind of content we’ve posted in the past. Checking and monitoring the content being written and uploaded on your website is crucial to ensure the content is unique. 

Conclusion

So if you ever have asked the question ‘Why is having duplicate content an issue for your SEO?’, at least now you’ve understood the main reasons. We highly recommend avoiding duplicate content to ensure maximum SEO performance for your website. It’s the only way your website can stand out among your competitors in within the industry. Considering learning more about other ways on how to rank your website so that you can improve the overall SEO performance and rank higher on search engines.