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What is duplicate content? You may have heard the term before, but what does it actually mean? And more importantly, what are the consequences of having duplicate content on your website? How can you avoid any penalties that might come from Google?
Read on to find out everything you need to know about duplicate content and SEO. In this post, we’ll define exactly what duplicate content is, explore the consequences of having it on your site, and teach you how to avoid any potential penalties.
What is duplicate content?
Duplicate content refers to material on the internet that appears in more than one place. This could be an identical or near-identical piece of content, or it could be two different pieces of content that cover the same topic.
One common example of duplicate content is when a website has multiple pages with very similar or identical content. This might happen if there’s more than one way to reach a certain page on the site (e.g. through different URLs), or if the same content is accessible on both the mobile and desktop versions of a site.
Another example is when someone plagiarizes another person’s work and publishes it as their own. This could be done deliberately, but it can also happen accidentally if you’re not careful when sourcing content for your website.
What are the consequences of duplicate content?
Having duplicate content on your website can have a negative impact on your SEO. That’s because Google’s algorithms are designed to identify and penalize sites with duplicated content. This is done in order to keep the results pages relevant and useful for users, and to prevent people from gaming the system by publishing low-quality or copied content.
If you have duplicate content on your site, it’s likely that your pages will rank lower in search results than they otherwise would. This can make it harder for people to find your site, and it can lead to less traffic and fewer conversions. In severe cases, Google may even completely remove your site from its index.
How can you avoid duplicate content penalties?
The best way to avoid any penalties associated with duplicate content is to make sure that all of the content on your site is unique. If you’re sourcing content from other sources, be sure to check it for plagiarism before publishing it on your own site.
If you have multiple pages with similar content, you can use a tool like Google’s Search Console to identify them and then make changes to ensure that each page has unique, relevant content. You can also add canonical tags to tell Google which version of a page should be considered the “master” copy.
Conclusion
Duplicate content can have a negative impact on your SEO, but you can avoid any penalties by taking steps to ensure that all of the content on your site is unique. By following the tips in this post, you can keep your site ranking high in search results and avoid any potential problems down the line. Thanks for reading!
Jamie Fallon is an SEO expert who lives life to the maximum, redlining every day on a rollercoaster straight to the grave.
In an SEO career of almost ten years, he’s seen it all, he’s done it all, and he’s not impressed: from white text on a white background to today, when you can have robots paint or write for you like some kind of sick science fiction come true.
No matter what life throws at him, Jamie always manages to come out on top. He’s an expert at seeing the silver lining in every cloud and making the best of every situation. His positive attitude and unshakable faith in himself have seen him through tough times. For some people, success goes to their heads; but Jamie never forgets what got him to wherever he thinks he is.
When he’s not busy gaming the system, you can find him writing angry thinkpieces on how Google is ruining everything good about the internet, or hanging out with his wife (pictured).
