introduction
Have you ever thought that you work hard for hours to write a blog post, and yet Google does not rank it properly. It seems like Google is not listening to you. I remember, when I started my first blog, the same thing happened to me. I had written two different posts on the same topic, and Google thought that I was saying the same thing again and again. At that time I came to know how to fix duplicate content issues and how dangerous it can be for my blog. It was exactly like two friends saying the same thing again and again and Google could not understand whose point to listen to. That day I understood one thing that blogging is not just about writing well, but also about understanding Google’s rules.
Nowadays, everyone is doing online business or blogging. But do you know that this Duplicate Content can become a big obstacle in the way of growth of your business. This is a problem that can spoil all the hard work of your blog. Many of my clients come to me and say that their website is not getting traffic. When I check their website, in most cases Duplicate Content Issues are the main reason. If you also want to know what this is and how to avoid it, then you are at the right place.
In this post, we will understand this difficult problem in very simple language. I will not just tell you bookish things, but will explain with my practical experience and some interesting examples why Duplicate Content occurs and how to fix duplicate content issues. We will learn how you can check your website, how to identify Duplicate Content, and what are the most effective ways to fix it. So if you are a blogger, running an online business, or want to improve the SEO of your website, then this article is for you. Get ready, because this is not just information, but is going to be the solution to a big problem of your website.
Table of Contents
what is duplicate content
We talked a little about Duplicate Content in the previous article. But now a big question arises that what is duplicate content. I remember, when I first learned SEO, this term seemed very difficult to me. I used to think that it means that I have copied someone else’s content, but it is not just that. In my years of experience, I have seen that many people unknowingly create Duplicate Content on their website. I will tell you with this knowledge of mine what it is, why it happens and why it should be avoided.
So, if you want to know what is duplicate content, then let’s understand it in very simple language. Imagine, you have a book in which the same story is written on two different pages. For Google, your website is also one such book. If it finds the same information on two different pages of your website, then it considers it Duplicate Content. It does not only involve copying the entire text, but if 80-90% of the text is the same, then Google can consider it as Duplicate Content.
Now you will think that this is not a big deal. But this is a big problem for Google. It is very smart and wants that when someone searches for something, he gets the best and most different information. If the same thing is written on two pages, then Google does not understand which one should be shown first. This happens that it pushes both the pages to the back or does not show anyone at all. This directly affects the decrease in traffic on your website. During my expertise, I have seen many times that even good blogs were not able to rank just because of this small mistake.
Some examples of Duplicate Content can be.
You wrote the description of a product on your website and showed it at two different places.
You wrote the information of a city on your website and copied it and put it on two different URLs.
You have copied a post from your website and posted it on another website without changing anything.
So, what is duplicate content? It is the presence of the same information at more than one place on your website. This can happen intentionally or by mistake. But in both cases, it has a negative impact on the ranking of your website. That is why it is very important to understand it and avoid it. It is as important for the health of your website as good food is for our body.
causes of duplicate content
In the previous peragraff, we learned about Duplicate Content and also understood how bad it can be for our website. But now another question comes, “Why does this happen?” Many people think that Duplicate Content occurs only when you copy from someone else’s website, but this is not true. I remember, once one of my clients had a problem of Duplicate Content on his website, but he had not copied anyone’s content. When I looked at his website carefully, I found some things that were inadvertently creating Duplicate Content. For more than 5 years, I have solved the problems of many such websites. My experience says that Duplicate Content often occurs due to unintentional mistakes. With this knowledge of mine, I will tell you what are the causes of duplicate content.
So, if you want to know the causes of duplicate content, then understand it as if you have forgotten your house key somewhere and now you cannot remember where it is. Duplicate Content is also something like this – it often happens due to small things that we ignore.
Some of the main reasons for this can be these.
Technical Issues: This is the biggest reason. Sometimes, a small mistake in our website’s settings can cause the same page to appear on two different URLs. For example, your website’s single page might show up on both www.example.com/page and example.com/page. To Google, these are two distinct pages, even though their content is identical.
You put the same product in two different categories on your website, due to which the details of the same product started appearing on two different URLs.
There is some technical problem in the website due to which some useless things get added at the end of the URL, like www.example.com/page?source=email. For Google, all these are different pages.
Intentional Copy-Paste: This is also a reason, but it does not happen always. Some people copy content from other websites. Or some people copy an old article from their own website and make a new article, but do not change it completely.
Product Descriptions: If you run an e-commerce website and you use the same product description that the company that created it has given you, then this is also a type of Duplicate Content. This is because the same description will be on thousands of other websites. I have always advised my clients to write their own product descriptions, even if it is short.
Press Releases: If you put a press release on your website and put it on many other websites, then this can also be Duplicate Content.
So, actually the causes of duplicate content are mostly technical mistakes, or the habit of using the same content at different places. It is important to understand these reasons because if you know the disease, it becomes easier to treat it.
how it affects SEO
So far we have understood Duplicate Content and also why it happens. But now let’s come to a very important point, how it affects SEO. This question is often asked to me by my clients and students. I remember, once the traffic on one of my clients’ website suddenly decreased a lot due to Duplicate Content. They were not able to understand why this happened. When I checked their website, I found that Google was confused between two pages that had the same information. This is a problem that can stop the growth of your website. In the last 5 years, I have seen many websites sink and then pulled them out of the problem of Duplicate Content. My experience says that if you are serious about SEO, then it is very important to understand this effect.
So, if you want to know how it affects SEO, then understand it as if Google is a class monitor and your website is a student. The monitor wants every student to do his homework himself and in a different way. If you make two copies of the same homework and give it to the monitor, what will he do? He will get confused and it is possible that he may not check both the copies. Something similar happens with Google as well.
Let us understand what effects can be caused to SEO due to duplicate content.
Google gets confused: Google does not understand which one to rank if the Common Mistakes information is on two different pages. This can spoil your ranking, because Google is not able to rank any page with full force. I have seen myself that when I removed duplicate content from a client’s website, the ranking of one of their pages immediately went up.
Your website’s authority is low: Google gives value to any website according to the quality of its content. If you give the same information again and again, then Google feels that there is nothing new or special in your website. This reduces the authority of your website.
Duplicate Ranking: If a page of your website has duplicate content, then Google will not give good ranking to that page. It is like a student not getting good marks because he copied someone else’s homework.
Google does not crawl your website: Google has a fixed time in which it checks your website. If your website has too much duplicate content, then Google’s time is wasted. This means that Google does not spend much time in finding other new and good content of your website.
So, basically how it affects SEO of Duplicate Content It directly harms the ranking, traffic and authority of your website. This is a disease which is very important to cure.
how to identify duplicate content
We have learned a lot about Duplicate Content so far – what it is and why it is dangerous for your SEO. But now comes the most important question, how to identify duplicate content. It is just like you have a fever and you have to find out what is wrong. I remember, one of my clients thought that there was no problem with his website, but when I told him some easy ways, he was surprised to see how many places in his website had the same content. In my experience of the last 5 years, I have found duplicate content in many ways and I will tell you some easy ways that you can use yourself too.
So, if you want to know how to identify duplicate content, then think of it as if you have become a detective and you have to find the hidden mistake in your website. I will tell you some tools and methods that will make this task very easy for you.
Google Search Console: This is a free tool from Google where you can add your website to see what Google sees on your site. There’s a section called ‘Coverage’ where you can check how many of your pages Google has indexed. If there’s an issue, it will tell you which pages might be duplicates. For me, this is always the first and most reliable method.
Duplicate Content Checker Tools: There are many free and paid tools available on the internet that scan your website and tell which content is copied. You can check by entering the URL of your website. I have used tools like Copy scape many times and they are very useful.
Site Command: This is a very easy method that you can do yourself. Go to Google and search by typing site: yourwebsite.com. This will show Google all the pages on your website. Now if you see a page with a very strange URL and it is the same as your original page, then it may be duplicate content.
Your own eyes: Sometimes the easiest way is to read your content yourself. Read every page carefully and see if you have written the same information in two different places. Especially if you have an e-commerce website, then carefully check the description of each product to see if it is the same.
So, how to identify duplicate content For this, you have to think like a detective. With these easy methods, you can easily find the problem of Duplicate Content hidden in your website.
best tools to detect duplicates
In the previous article, we talked about some easy ways to identify duplicate content. But what if your website is very large and you cannot check each page manually. Then we need some special tools. Many people ask me the best tools to detect duplicates. I remember, once one of my clients had more than 5000 pages in his website and he had to find duplicate content. I used some special tools and gave him a list of all duplicate pages in just a few hours. My experience says that by using the right tool, you can save a lot of time and effort. I will tell you which tools are the most reliable based on my practical experience.
If you are wondering what are the best tools to detect duplicate content, then understand it as if you have to clean the inside of your house. You can manage with just a broom, but if the house is very big, then you will need modern tools like a vacuum cleaner. There are some equally smart tools for finding duplicate content.
Here are some of the tools that I have found most useful:
Google Search Console: This is my favorite free tool. Google itself tells you what issues your website has. It has a section called ‘Coverage’ where you can see which of your pages Google has indexed and if any page is duplicate, it tells you. It is very important to use it because it gives information directly from Google.
Copyscape: This is a very popular tool. You can enter the URL of any page of your website here to find out if your website’s content has been copied somewhere else. It has a free version that gives you limited information, and a paid version that is much more useful. I have used it many times to find out which other website has stolen my client’s content.
Screaming Frog SEO Spider: This is a very powerful tool, designed especially for large websites. It scans your entire website and tells you about problems like Duplicate Content, Duplicate Titles, and Duplicate Meta Descriptions. It can be a bit technical, but once you learn it, it is very useful.
Ahrefs Site Audit: Ahrefs is a very popular and comprehensive SEO tool. It has a Site Audit feature that completely scans your website and gives a detailed report of all SEO problems including duplicate content. This is a paid tool, but if you are serious about your business, it is worth the investment.
So, these are some of the Best Tools to Detect Duplicates. By using these tools, you can easily find the hidden problems in your website. In my experience, by using these tools you not only save time, but also make your website look better in the eyes of Google.
how to fix duplicate content
If you are wondering how to fix duplicate content, think of it like you have two keys in your house that open the same door. What is the best way? Either throw away one key, or put different labels on both. This is what we do to fix duplicate content.
Here are some of the methods that work the most in my experience.
Use Canonical Tags: This is a very powerful and easy method. Canonical tags are a kind of hint that you give to Google. Suppose, your website has two pages with the same content: example.com/page1 and example.com/page2. Now you want to tell Google that page1 is the original and page2 is a copy of it. So you will put a canonical tag in the HTML code of page2 that will point to page1. This will make Google understand which is the original page, and your ranking will not be affected. I have saved clients’ rankings many times using this method.
Use 301 Redirects: If you have two pages on your website that have the same content, and you want to remove one completely, you can use 301 redirects. This tells Google that one page has permanently moved to another. For example, if you have two pages example.com/old-page and example.com/new-page, you can 301 redirect the old-page to the new-page. This will transfer all the traffic and value from that old page to the new one.
Change the Content: This is the best method. If your website has the same content on two pages, you can completely change the content of one of those pages and make it brand new. This will differentiate the two pages for Google. In my experience, this is the most effective method because it adds unique and new content to your website.
Use a “noindex” Tag: If there are some pages on your website that have duplicate content, but you do not want to remove them (like a thank you page or a print page), then you can put a ‘noindex’ tag on them. This will prevent Google from indexing that page, but it will remain on your website.
So, by using these simple and effective methods, you can save your website from duplicate content issues. Remember, use these methods wisely and at the right place. Once you do this, you become more trustworthy in the eyes of Google and no one can stop your website from growing.
noindex vs canonical
So, if you want to know what the difference is between noindex vs canonical, let’s understand it with a very simple example. Imagine you have two rooms that look exactly the same.
Noindex: It is like a room where you put a big board on the door, which says, “Entry prohibited.” When Google visits your website, it does not enter after seeing this board and does not include that room (ie page) in its list (index). You use it when you want Google to completely ignore a page, like a ‘thank you page’ or a login page. I remember, once I accidentally ‘noindexed’ an important blog post and it disappeared from Google’s list. It was a big mistake.
Canonical: It is like a room where you put an arrow mark on the door, which says, “The real room is that one.” You use this when you have two or more pages with identical content, but you want Google to rank only one of them as the original. You put an arrow on the other pages, telling Google which is the ‘original’ page. This prevents confusion and Google knows which page to value.
Now, let’s clarify noindex vs canonical further.
Intent of use: ‘Noindex’ is used when you want Google to ignore a page altogether. ‘Canonical’ is used when you want Google to identify the original page among identical pages.
Result: A page with the ‘noindex’ tag will never appear in Google search results. A page with the ‘canonical’ tag may appear in Google search results, but Google will value the original page you specify in the canonical tag instead.
In my experience, using both of them correctly is an art. If your website has a problem of duplicate content, in most cases it is better to use the ‘canonical’ tag. ‘noindex’ should be used very thoughtfully, only for those pages that you do not want to show on Google under any circumstances.
So, now you must have understood what is the difference between noindex vs canonical and when to use which one. Now that you have learned how to completely remove and manage duplicate content.
conclusion
So friends, in this entire journey we have understood a very important problem in depth. We learned what duplicate content is, why it happens, and how it can affect your hard work. We also saw how to find it in your website and how to fix it in some simple but effective ways.
In my more than 5 years of experience, I have learned one thing very well. SEO is not magic. It is like strengthening the foundation of your website. Fixing duplicate content is like removing weak bricks from that foundation. When you do this work correctly, Google trusts your website, and your ranking starts improving automatically.
Remember, just writing good content is not enough. You also have to ensure that your content is unique and it is also correct in the eyes of Google. If you follow these rules, then no one can stop your website from being successful.
