Duplicate Content and Effect on SEO Visibility, Rank and Traffic

In order to solve any duplicate content issue your website may be having, it is best to start off with an understanding of what duplicate content is.

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Read our presentation on Duplicate Content at the SES. ( pdf )

What is considered duplicate content?

Duplicate content is having the exact content or similar content which appears on more than one page of your website or domain and is crawlable by the search engines.

Having duplicate content on your website can be problematic and has repercussions depending on what is considered duplicate content on your website. For example, copy write information, press releases posted on your blog which are also covered by other PR sites, etc. may all be considered duplicate content.

The following are the top three questions Milestone has received regarding duplicate content, and solutions for how to fix these common problems.

Can I copy the text from the brand site and use it for my independent hotel website?

Any time you “copy text” you need to be extremely careful of what you are copying. For hotels in particular, you may have to copy some text, such as services and amenities, room types, location of the hotel etc. The following is the best solution to this common challenge:

Solution:

• Write unique and different content around the services and amenities, hotel location, room types, and any other shared data from the brand site to the independent site.

• Create unique Meta data. All of the H1, H2, Title, keywords and descriptions should be unique for each page to avoid any suspicion of duplicate content.

Typically, the search engines will consider duplicate content in situations like this as boiler plate content. You can also the add code (robots-nocontent) just before using similar content from other sites. This will let the search engines know that some content might be coming from other related sites. However, it is still crucial to have unique content for these important pages.

Can I have two websites for the same business on two different domains?

No. To avoid a duplicate content penalty, the webmaster should do a 301 re-direct to the most authoritative site (the site which has the most current and up-to-date information). Otherwise, you will face duplicate content problems and the Search Engines could eventually drop the new site.

What are the main tools to find out if a site is facing a duplicate content penalty?

Google Webmaster Feed Tool:
http://www.google.com/webmasters/

SEO Consultants:
http://www.seoconsultants.com/tools/headers.asp

Copy Scape:
http://www.copyscape.com

In order to avoid a duplicate content issue, it is always best to write original copy for the site. Make sure you have unique Meta data in your Title, H1, H2, Image Alt Tags, page descriptions, and keywords. Add links to content within the site if needed and use the above tools to check for anything you may have overlooked. It is always best to check your website regularly for technical errors, SEO updates, and other routine maintenance. Checking for duplicate content should be added into the routine checklist for your website to ensure you are not hurting your ranking or demoting your own website.