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How to Avoid Duplicating Content on Your Website

Google looks at your website and automatically scans it for duplicates. While many don’t know this, duplicate content can hurt your rankings in search results. If you’re serious about SEO, you need to identify and resolve duplicate content issues on your website. 

In this article, we’ll go over how you can avoid duplicate content on your website and how you can fix it if some does appear.

What is duplicate content?

Duplicate content refers to the situation in which content can be found on more than one URL. Since Google doesn’t want to show users the same content over and over, it will identify the “original” version and only show that on search engine results pages.

This could affect you in several ways.

First, duplicate content may be on two separate URLs on one website. This often happens when products in eCommerce websites are placed under two separate categories. The Content Management System (CMS) the store is using may end up automatically creating two separate pages for each category, resulting in two product pages with the same copy.

If this is the case, you may end up spending plenty of time and resources to optimise one product page even if Google has deemed the second page the “original” version. When this happens, you need to declare which version is the original by using canonical tags (lines of code that need to be added to your website).

Next, duplicate content may appear on two different websites. For example, you previously submitted a guest post to a popular blog in your niche. Later, you decided to publish the same post on your blog. This will result in duplicate content, and the version of the blog post on your website may fail to get indexed.

Write your product descriptions.

Product descriptions are the most important part of your listing. They influence whether potential customers will decide if your product is for them or not. 

Most eCommerce stores often use the copy provided by manufacturers on their product pages. However, you most likely won’t be the only eCommerce store selling a specific product online. 

If you use the same product description that can already be found on several other online stores, you’ll find it more difficult to improve your keyword rankings. Google doesn’t want to show repetitive content to users, so it will most likely only show the “original” version on search engine results pages.

To improve your chances of getting higher keyword rankings, you can start by writing your product descriptions.

An effective product description needs to explain the features and benefits concisely and include a specific call-to-action. It needs to resonate with people and convince them that your product or service could have a positive impact on their lives or resolve an issue they’ve been struggling with.

Create unique content.

Creating unique content for better search engine rankings cannot be underestimated. However, it takes a lot of strategic planning and patience to create awesome resources that increase your chances of ranking well on search engine results pages.

With thousands of blog posts being published daily, creating unique content is harder than ever. What else can you possibly say that hasn’t been said before? How can you even begin to make content that’s unique and better than what’s already ranking on search engine results pages?

You can start by identifying the competition. Select a keyword you’d like to target through a blog post and examine the top five search results. How long are their blog posts? Did they fail to discuss any important topics?

Armed with competitive data, you can begin drafting your blog posts. If you can, add specific examples from your own experience or include quotes from experts in your field. The difficulty level of the entire content creation process may depend on how competitive your niche is.

Use tools to find duplicate content.

Regularly checking your website for duplicate content can be a time-consuming process. To make the entire process more efficient, we highly recommend using tools that can automatically detect duplicate content.

Google itself can be your first tool. Copy a section from your content and paste it into the search engine. If you notice that your blog post is too similar to content that has already been indexed, you may want to consider rewriting it.

Copyscape is also a popular tool for checking duplicate content. All you have to do is, enter the URL of your blog post. It will then search for similar content and highlight similar sections.

Grammarly has a plagiarism checker that finds similar content online. However, you will need to pay a fee before you can use it.

Try out these tools, and see which one fits your needs.

Conclusion

Duplicate content can affect your keyword rankings on search engine results pages. Lower rankings could then have a significant impact on your overall traffic and conversion rate. Use the tips we discussed in this post to identify and resolve duplicate content issues.

If you would like more information about resolving duplicate content issues – give us a call on 02 82110668, email us on info@cornerstone-digital.com.au or complete our online enquiry form.

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Darlyn Herradura

A self-professed book and digital marketing nerd, Darlyn Herradura focuses on building trust between customers and businesses with the written word. She understands that creating valuable content is the best way to get found online and happily spends her time doing that.