Duplicate Content: A Problem for Your Natural Referencing?

What is “duplicate content”?

Duplicate content refers to the same textual content that appears in multiple places on the web. There are two types of duplicate content: internal and external.

• The content internal Duplication occurs when the same content is present on multiple pages of a website. This often happens, for example, on e-commerce sites.
• The content external Duplication occurs when the same content appears on multiple websites. Copies of content are unfortunately common. Another example: a brand that offers the same description of its product on multiple sites.

The different causes of duplicate content

Here are the main sources of duplicate content in SEO:

1. Duplication of internal content

This happens when a website contains multiple pages with the same or very similar content. For example, multiple pages can have different URLs, but with the same content or when multiple versions of the same page are created for different users (mobile, tablet, computer).

2. Multifaceted navigation

Faceted navigation is a filtering feature that allows users to sort and filter search results based on different criteria (e.g. color, size, price, etc.). However, this feature can sometimes create pages with very similar or identical content, as the same content can be accessed via multiple URLs with different filter combinations.

3. Deletion of contents

This happens when content is stolen from a website by a third party and republished on another site. This can be done manually or via automatic scrapping tools. Of course, this is an illegal practice.

How to fix duplicate content issues?

1. Review all content and tags

When improving your website’s SEO, an important task is to ensure that there is no duplicate content on the same domain. This involves reviewing all content on your site, including pages and blog posts, as well as any tags or other metadata. If you find duplicate content, you should remove or canonicalize it so that search engines can easily identify the source.

2. Set up 301 redirects from the “duplicate” page to the original content page

A 301 redirect is an HTTP status code that tells a search engine that a page has been permanently moved to a new location. The action is invisible to the visitor. Let’s say you have a page on your website that is very similar to another page. In this case, you can set up a 301 redirect so that visitors are automatically redirected to the original page. The most common method for performing 301 redirects is to edit your site’s .htaccess file or use dedicated plugins on WordPress or other CMS.

3. Use the “noindex” meta tag.

When you use this type of tag, you ask the search engine not to index the page in its results, but it remains accessible to your site visitors. This is for example the case of the general conditions of sale pages, the cart page, confirmations, etc.

To easily add no index meta tag, you can use plugins like Yoast SEO, Seopress, Rankmath, etc.

4. Take action against plagiarism

If you find your content on another site without permission, you can contact the site in question and ask them to remove it or request that a canonical link be added to the original page on your site. If you do not receive a response, you may file a takedown request under the DMCA. Sending a request to Google will help you remove some duplicate content.

5. Pay attention to other technical errors

Use professional tools like SE Ranking’s Website Audit tool to automatically detect other technical errors that could lead to duplicate content. One of the most common mistakes is using different URLs for the same page. This can occur if a website has both www and non-www versions, or if the HTTP and HTTPS versions are not redirecting correctly. Another mistake is using different settings that can lead to duplication, such as website mirrors.

A website mirror is a complete copy of a website hosted on another server. This can cause problems if not configured correctly. Use the rel=”canonical” tag to specify the source of the content, which will help search engines index and classify your pages correctly.

How does duplicate content affect SEO?

Duplicate content is a common problem on the Internet and can have a significant impact on your site’s SEO.

Terrible rankings

When it comes to SEO, quality is always better than quantity. This is especially true when it comes to writing a blog post. Duplicate content is considered low quality by search engines and will not rank at the same level as original, well-written content. Google, Bing and others want to provide users with the best results possible.

Less organic traffic

Let’s say you have multiple pages with the same content, search engines may have difficulty determining which page is more relevant and ultimately punish both. Content without traffic is of little use!

Penalty or complete de-indexing of a website

In most cases, duplicate content is not penalized because it is considered unintentional. On the other hand, proven plagiarism can lead to a fine or even complete de-indexing by Google.

Read also: The pillars of SEO writing

8 tools to spot duplicate content

1. Copyscape: This is a popular online tool for searching the web for duplicate content. It can be used to check whether content on a website has been duplicated elsewhere on the web.
2. Site coating: It is a free online tool that scans websites for duplicate pages, broken links, pages with missing titles, etc. It also provides detailed reports to help improve the quality of your content.
3. Screaming Frog: It is a website analysis tool that can be used to detect duplicate pages. It can analyze websites of up to 500 pages for free.
4. Google Search Console: This is a free tool provided by Google that can check whether content on a website has been duplicated on other websites. It also provides recommendations for improving natural referencing.
5. SEMrush: It is a paid analytics tool that helps detect duplicate pages, perform site audits, track keyword rankings, and more.
6. plagiarism It is a free online tool that allows you to search for duplicate content on the web. It also allows you to download text files and check them for plagiarism.
7. Grammar: It is an online grammar checker and plagiarism detection tool. It helps detect duplicate content and suggest changes to make it unique.
8. Duplicate Check: It is a free online tool that helps check text documents for plagiarism.