There is a common myth that identical content results in a Google penalty. However, experts say it doesn’t. But, it does have a negative effect on the search engine ranking. Some common issues are that the search engines index each page. Google, in particular, indexes what it considers non-malicious duplicate content. Now search engines don’t want to display the same content multiple times for a single search query. They then filter what they think is the best version to rank in the top results and fulfil user intent. Google does an excellent job here. Basically, identical content confuses the search engines. A sensible approach is to leave identical content to minimize its impact on the website ranking and SEO(website development).
We recommend custom website development services to help you nail the content without any issue of duplicate content. In this article, we will guide you to identify, manage and avoid it. But before this let’s understand what is meant by identical content.
Identical Content
Identical content matches exactly or appears identical to some extent to some other piece of content. You can find it on more than one site. The identical content could be coincidental and not intentional. Google calls the identical content as Dupes. The following are some of the scenarios that can result in identical content on the same or different websites:
- You can access the web pages via a variety of URLs.
- You used the same content on multiple pages.
- Maybe some other site copied the content from your website.
How Does Identical Content Affect SEO?
Identical content affects search engine performance in several ways. However, the question arises how does it exactly affect the SEO performance? Let’s go through the reasons that are suggested by WordPress website design services that can most likely harm SEO more than good.
Loss Of Traffic
Website owners seek to rank high on search engine results pages to increase site traffic (SERPs). Let’s consider the following situations(website development):
- Multiple URLs leading to the same page. Google may serve the unappealing version to the searcher, distracting them from clicking on the link.
http://domain.com/page-name
http://domian.com/category/page-name
http://domain.com/page-name?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=spring_sale
The third URL is uninteresting because it contains strings that are of no use to your intended audience. On the other hand, it tells the searcher everything they need to know about the page they’re about to visit.
- One of the most important ranking factors is amazing user experience. The search engine favours pages with distinct information. It may struggle to identify the original copy. However, the version chosen isn’t the one you want to rank for and direct visitors to.
Ruining SEO Rankings
You may receive external backlinks if you have multiple URLs for the same page. This divides the link equity among them, reducing your chances of ranking the most relevant version on the SERPs.
If you occasionally send articles and other content to other websites you can hire an SEO content writer to avoid republishing content. Hiring a writer allows you to avoid costly mistakes. Otherwise, it will outperform you in your ranking(website development).
hat Causes Identical Content?
We will help you to identify the specific indistinguishable content issues. At this moment, you must be familiar with the kind of content to avoid. Indeed without the support of a website identical content checker.
Trailing Slash
Look at the URL to look at the identical content.
- If your site can be accessed by the domain name, then you have got identical content on the same website. For instance, domain name and domain.com.
- The above-mentioned conditions work for both HTTP and HTTPS.
- Lastly, check the slash at the end of the URL.
Session IDs
While shopping online, have you ever noticed your cart is filled while you browse other pages. Session ID stores this data. Each user has a unique session ID. You will find this in the existing URL. Hence a new URL is created for customers to access. Yet, web crawlers identify each of these individual URLs as identical content. Consider this example(website development):
http://domain.com/index.jsp;jsessionid=08D4CCD5
Mobile, AMP and Printer-Friendly Model
The content remains the same. However, the format changes for mobile, AMP and printer-friendly versions. Therefore, these are also considered identical pages. Think about these examples:
- URL –domain.com
- Mobile URL –m.domain.com/page
- AMP URL –domain.com/amp/page
- Printer-friendly URL –domain.com/print/page
Comment Pagination
Pagination spreads the comments on multiple pages, depending on your CMS. However, implementing this adds more identical content to the same website.
domain.com/post/
domain.com/post/comment-page-2
domain.com/post/comment-page-3
Localization
Businesses located at different locations find it challenging to create unique content. So they use templates for the locals. As a result, the website may lead to almost identical or exactly similar copies. Moreover, all the issues mentioned until now were the internal identical content issues. Let’s look at the example of external problems.
Scrapers
Scrap content is the external problem. It means stealing someone else content. The issue must be addressed as soon as it’s noticed due to the magnitude of the impact. However, sometimes it could be copied word to word.
Tips To Avoid Identical Content
Firstly, we suggest avoiding identical content. Identical content is acceptable to some extent. However, understanding how much is allowable doesn’t matter as this will impact your SEO. It is not an easy task to take care of the damage caused by identical content. Thus, it is necessary to understand technical SEO. However, finding and fixing identical content is a time taking task(website development).
Distinct information helps in ranking well by filtering duplicate URLs. Therefore, it is advised to avoid identical content. You can avoid it in some ways:
- Use canonical URLs to specify the preferred version to Google by combing the URLs. Moreover, you can also add tags to all identical pages pointing toward the canonical page.
- Handle URLs through parameters. The collection of canonicalization options instructs Google, on which parameters to exclude or include. Search performance is affected differently by each option. Thus improving crawl efficiency and ranking value.
- 301 redirects are a good way for ranking signals to the actual URL. This enables it to gain traction in search results.
In the end, we have discussed why to avoid identical content. You will be able t犀利士
o manage now without harming your content and SEO strategy. It is critical to executing the technicalities of removing identical content effectively. This will improve the search rankings of the pages you prefer showing your target audience. This includes informing Google of your preference via canonicalization methods. If you need help, we would suggest you optimize the website in the best way.
