What is duplicate content?
"Duplicate content" is a term used in search engine optimisation to describe duplicated content — in other words, content that exists on more than one URL on the internet.
Why is duplicate content a problem?
The problem with duplicate content is that search engines view it as spam and an attempt to manipulate rankings.
This is why, from an SEO perspective, having duplicate content on your website is harmful and should be avoided. If it cannot be avoided, there are certain SEO measures you can take to handle it.
In addition to the above, duplicate content means you have no control over which of the URLs containing the duplicated content search engines choose to index. You also risk having inbound links to that content spread across multiple URLs, rather than being consolidated on a single address.
Common forms of duplicate content
The most common forms of duplicate content we encounter include the following:
- Filter and sorting pages on webshops
- Product descriptions that are too similar across products, e.g. in different colours
- Websites accessible both with and without www
- Product descriptions taken directly from the manufacturer and used across multiple webshops
- Both HTTP and HTTPS addresses being accessible
- Printer-friendly pages
- General reuse of text content across multiple URLs
How to handle duplicate content
An individual analysis of the case and issue will always be required in order to provide the best SEO solution for duplicate content on a given website.
Some of the tools available to website owners for handling duplicate content in relation to search engines are:
- Rel="canonical" annotations (will in the vast majority of cases be the best solution)
- Removing duplicate content pages and implementing 301 redirects
- Noindex annotations
- Robots.txt blocks
As mentioned at the beginning of this section, an individual case analysis will always be required to provide the best solution for a given issue.
As a general rule, however, in the vast majority of duplicate content cases, the best SEO solution will be to implement rel="canonical" annotations in the source code pointing to the "master" address of the duplicate content pages in question.
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