Why Duplicate Content Happens and How to Remove It

Duplicate content on a website

is a problem for both search engines and you because it is going to make your SEO worse. The fact is that search engines do not know which source to give preference to. Often, you don't even know that your content is duplicated, so you need to carry out checks to identify duplicate content.

The Drudesk website maintenance company has provided some useful information on finding and getting rid of duplicate content on your website.

What does duplicate content mean?

Duplicate content is either wholly identical or very similar content that exists on different websites with different URLs.

Since the content is very similar, the search engines do not know which of the pages is the primary source. You can lose your SEO position: 

• because someone deliberately copied and stole your content
• because you accidentally posted the same content on different pages of your site.

Why does duplicate content matter?

Duplicated content is like being lost in a strange city. You can’t find your way to the hotel, and it’s getting dark. You ask one passer-by for directions, and he tells you to turn right. Another passer-by tells you to turn left. So where should you go?

Search engines are asking the same question when they find the same content on different sites. In this case, there is a high probability that your site will not be shown on search results — instead, a competitor's site with YOUR content will be selected.

Why is duplicate content bad for SEO?

Google does not have a penalty for publishing content, but it does lower your SEO rankings. Your site may disappear from the SERP altogether. Google strives to provide better options to users. Your SEO gets worse because search engines only show one version of the content, and it may be that your site won't be that version. As a result, your site rarely appears in the search and therefore leads to a decrease in both the number of leads and your income.

How to find duplicate content on your website?

Sometimes the owners themselves do not know that content cannot be copied and they steal texts from other sites.

Usually, site owners do not even know that they have duplicate content on their site or that someone has copied their content and posted it on another site. 

To make sure that there is no duplicated content on the site, use one of these tools:

• Siteliner

Siteliner is the most straightforward, fast, and powerful tool. To start using it, you need to enter your website address and click the "go" button.

It will take a few seconds for your site to crawl, and then you will receive a detailed report including:

1. data on how what percent of the Duplicate Content, Common Content, and Unique Content is on the site
2. data how your site compares with other sites scanned
3. a list of URLs of pages that probably contain the duplicate сontent

• Duplichecker

Duplichecker is another good option for checking and identifying duplicate content on the site that works a little differently than the previous one.

With it, you can check each blog for plagiarism or add the URL of a page to check for uniqueness. After scanning, the

Duplichecker shows you if there is something similar on the Internet.

• Plagium

Plagium has a similar algorithm to the Duplichecker tool. You open it, paste your blog text, and after a few seconds Plagium will show you whether someone else is using your text. 

If someone copied your content, then you will see a link to it. It is simple and straightforward to use.

How to remove duplicate content from your website?

Just identifying the content duplication is not enough, it’s best to get rid of it. 

How do I fix duplicate content?

Option # 1: Contact the owner of the site where your content is published 

If you found your content on another resource, then you can write to the owner of the site where your content was copied to. Tell him/her about the problem. Perhaps you can solve this issue. Alternatively, you can post a link to your company under the blog, and it will look like a guest post.

Option # 2: Add a "canonical" tag to your page code

Add the canonical tag to the HTML code to give it a high priority. Rel = "canonical" lets search engines know that this is not the main page, and users should be redirected to the specified URL. 

Option # 3: Make 301 redirects to your page

301 redirects to your page redirect search engines directly to your page, that is, to the source. Users will not even see the page with the copied content, instead, they will automatically open your site.

Option # 4: Apply Meta Robots Noindex Tag

Meta Robots Noindex Tag is another option to protect your content. You can use it if you have specially copied content on your site. Using Meta Robots Noindex, you can tell search engines:
Crawl this content, but do not index it. After that, such content will not appear twice in search results.

Option # 5: Contact professional web developers

Honestly, the best option is to get professional help in this area. They know how to do it quickly and without mistakes because they do it every day. 

Avoid creating duplicate content!

The problem of duplicate content is faced by every website owner who blogs. To protect yourself from the problems it causes, conduct a professional SEO audit of your site from time to time.

Help Google's search engines identify the main page, the source of the content. By doing that, you increase website traffic, rank higher, and appear more often in the field of view of your potential customers.

If you need help fixing duplicate content on your site, then our web development experts will gladly help you