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Table of Contents

What is duplicate content?
What types of duplicate content are there?
What impact does duplicate content have on SEO?
How can I prevent duplicate content?

What is duplicate content?

Duplicate content refers to content that appears multiple times on the internet, either within a single website or across different websites. This can be the case, for example, when an article, blog post, or product description is published on different websites either word for word or in a very similar form.

It is important to note that duplicate content is not necessarily always intentional or malicious. It often results from technical inconsistencies or errors in content management.

What types of duplicate content are there?

  • Internal duplicate contentrefersto content that appears multiple times within a single website or domain. A typical example of this is product pages in online shops, where similar or identical product descriptions appear on several pages. Technical factors, such as the use of HTTP andHTTPSversionsor the existence of "www" and non-"www" versions of a page, can also lead to internal duplicate content. It can also occur when a website is accessible via different URLs without there being a clear,canonicalversion.

  • External duplicate contentoccurswhen identical content appears on different domains or websites. This can be the case, for example, when content is copied without permission or when articles and blog posts are published on multiple platforms in order to achieve greater reach. Syndicating content or using guest posts on multiple websites can also lead to external duplicate content.

What impact does duplicate content have on SEO?

Search engine optimization (SEO)aimsto position websites at the top of search engine results. However, duplicate content can significantly harm these efforts:

  • Search engine evaluation:Search engines, especially Google, try to present users with the most relevant and unique content. Duplicate content may therefore be classified as less valuable by search engines.

  • Competition for rankings:Ifmultiple copies of a piece of content exist, they compete with each other for rankings in search engines. This can result in none of the duplicate content achieving a high ranking.

  • Link equity:Link equityrefers to the value that a link to a website conveys. If multiple versions of a piece of content exist, inbound links can be distributed across different versions instead of concentrating their "power" on a single page. This can reduce SEO efficiency.

How can I prevent duplicate content?

Webmasters can take various measures to prevent duplicate content:

  • Canonical tags:Bysetting a canonical tag, you can tell search engines which version of a piece of content is the preferred or "canonical" one. This helps search engines distinguish the original from duplicates. With ourcanonical tag generator,you cangenerate canonical URLs automatically.

  • Avoid session IDs in URLs:Session IDscan result in the same content being accessible under different URLs. This should be avoided.

  • Careful content management:Ensurethat your content management system (CMS) does not automatically generate duplicate content, and regularly check your website for duplicate content.

  • Robots.txt and Noindex: If you have pages that intentionally contain duplicate content (e.g., print versions of web pages), you can use the robots.txt Use a file or set a "noindex" meta tag to prevent search engines from indexing these pages.