Is repeat info on a website bad for SEO? This is a common question for website owners, and it’s important to understand the risks of duplicate content on the same website pages for those who want to ensure they have high-ranking websites and better business success.
In this context, duplicate content can include things like identical pages, similar pages that have minor variations, and even pages with boilerplate content. Your website performance and SEO rankings are contingent upon the quality and quantity that you have, and duplicate content can interfere.
Examples of duplicate content on websites
So, what does SEO repeated content look like?
– Identical pages
For example:
A small bakery might have a website with different pages for each of the food products they have, including brownies, cookies, and cakes. But the pages themselves are completely identical. If someone were to click on the page for cookies versus the page for cakes, the content would be exactly the same, explaining the organic products the bakery uses and what the baking process is like.
Firstly, you can have identical pages. This is when you have completely identical pages on your website. This can be caused by several factors such as not conducting an audit of existing web pages and having new content produced that happens to cover the same subjects but it can also be an attempt to flesh out a website with extra content, but this results in identical pages.
– Similar pages with minor variations
For example:
An addiction treatment center has five locations and information for all five on a single website. So, the pages they generate for information about an inpatient and outpatient treatment plan might seem almost exactly the same for all five locations, with the only difference being a minor variation in the description of the physical location and the amenities offered at that location.
Secondly, you can have similar pages that have minor variations.
– Boilerplate content
Thirdly, you might have boilerplate content.
For example:
A legal aid company providing content on how to take a service provider to a small claims court might have 25 companies about whom they want articles written.
If readers were interested in finding information about taking different companies to small claims courts, they would quickly realize that the information for all companies is almost entirely the same. This might have a detrimental impact on potential clients and clicks, but it has an even greater impact on SEO.
So, they have a brief explanation about the respective company at the start of each article, followed by boilerplate content about the small claims court process for the rest of the article.
Why is having duplicate content an issue for SEO?
So why is having duplicate content an issue for SEO?
– Confusion over which page to rank
Search engines use unique algorithms to detect duplicate content across the web. Duplicate content might have little or no information in it, noticeable overlap in terms of structure or wording with another piece. No matter what, there are penalties for duplicate content so it can hurt your rankings, resulting in your page no longer ranking as high as it once did or not ranking at all.
– Dilution of link equity
It can also distribute unnecessary backlinks. Backlinks are the things that link other websites to your website, and each of these backlinks serves as support for the accuracy and viability of your website. But if you have two or more versions of the same type of content, this creates what is called diluted link equity. This can signal a drop in your rank as well.
– Potential Penalties
In the worst of cases, you might suffer potential penalties from search engines, poor user experience, and limited engagement because of repeated content.
Common causes of repeated content
The most common causes of repeated content are technical issues or content management practices.
#1. Technical issues
Technical issues might be the culprit behind your repeated content.
Sometimes, this has to do with URL variations where search engines treat certain iterations as separate pages. For example:
- www vs. non-www
- HTTP vs. HTTPS
Other times, it has to do with the session IDs. Your session ID can create duplicate content issues when they get upended to the URLs, which means you have multiple URLs, all of which point to the same article or web page. This is particularly common if the session IDs time out.
There might be issues with printer-friendly versions where you have a separate URL for your printer-friendly version and a separate URL for your regular page, in which case your SEO rankings might consider those to be separate pages and, therefore, duplicate pages.
#2. Content management practices
In many cases, the cause of repeated content is poor content management practices. to cut corners or save money, some companies might reuse the same content across multiple pages, maybe even copying and pasting product descriptions from manufacturers instead of designing product descriptions themselves. This can lead to duplicate content across several pages and poor SEO practices for your website.
Solutions to prevent and fix duplicate content on the same website
#1. Technical fixes
If the cause of duplicate content on the same website scenario has to do with technical issues, the solutions are technical fixes.
– Canonical tags
These tags can prevent what appears as duplicate content across multiple URLs, helping the search engines to understand original content versus duplicate pages.
– 301 redirects
This can help you ensure traffic gets redirected to new pages if your website has moved.
– Utilizing the “noindex” meta tag
These tools can help manage the crawl budget for your website and instruct SEO bots from indexing non-public or low-value pages that might otherwise be perceived as “duplicate”.
– Consistent URL structures
Consistent URL structures can create the right hierarchy for your pages, making it easier for users and bots alike to navigate your pages.
#2. Content strategy adjustments
However, if the cause has to do with poor content management practices, the solution is to make adjustments to your content strategy.
– Creating unique, high-quality content
Search engines prefer relevant and valuable content. As such, the more high-quality and unique content you produce, the more of an authority figure your site becomes in your field, attracting reputable backlinks and improving your ranking.
– Regular content audits
Regular content audits can improve your marketing and your SEO by figuring out which strategies are working or not working, and where you have any gaps in the information you are publishing.
– Combine similar pages into a single comprehensive resource
If you have similar pages, you can combine them into single, comprehensive resources rather than subdividing them and in so doing, increase your SEO ranking.
Summing up
Why is having duplicate content an for SEO? it can lead to difficulty for search engines trying to figure out where to rank published content, resulting in your website being ranked much lower than it should be. Duplicate content on same website situations can also make the user experience diminished, reducing activity with your website and your overall success.
It’s important that you create unique, SEO friendly content and have regular audits so that you can strategically create new content. website owners should consult SEO experts to ensure their website SEO health.
FAQ section
#1: What is considered duplicate content by search engines?
Duplicate content is any content that exists in multiple locations online that is identical or similar, whether that’s word for word or very similar but slightly rewritten or has no information in it.
#2: How can duplicate content affect my website’s ranking?
Repeated content can make it difficult for search engines to decide which version they want to display in search results. This means that all versions where the duplicate content exists end up with lower rankings.
#3: How often should I conduct a content audit to check for duplicate content?
It is recommended that you conduct a content audit to check for duplicate content at least once per year. However, if you make significant website changes or you publish a significant amount of new content, you might want to increase the frequency.
