Duplicate Content

SEO isn’t just about link building.

But with all the content about links, it’s easy to forget about the benefits of fixing problems on your website. 

One of these problems is duplicated content, which is a big reasons for:

• Losing traffic
• Losing rankings

But, the good news is you can fix it yourself.

Let’s find out how.

What Is Duplicate Content?

Duplicate content is when search engines index more than one version of a web page.

This makes it hard for search engines to pick a web page for relevant search queries.

And not showing duplicated content is how search engines give searchers a good user experience.

So to do this, they pick a version that’s best for that query. 

Duplicated Content Causes

The main reasons for duplicated content include:

URL Parameters

Sometimes URLs have extra parameters because of tracking, such as:

• Marketing campaign IDs
• Analytics IDs)

Even a website’s CMS adds custom parameters.

The following are examples of URLs that point to the same web page:

• http://www.yourwebsite.co.uk/page1
• http://www.yourwebsite.co.uk/page1?source=organic
• http://www.yourwebsite.co.uk/page1?campaignid=3532

Printer friendly pages

Web pages also have options for printer friendly versions of that page, which also leads to problems with duplicated content.

The following are examples of URLs that point to the same web page:

• http://www.yourwebsite.co.uk/page1
• http://www.yourwebsite.co.uk/printer/page1

Session IDs

Websites also track visitor’s session on their website.

For example, websites offer personalised features based on visitors and their past interactions.

Or ecommerce stores remember what previous customers added to their shopping cart.

This also causes duplicated versions by session ids being included in the URLs. 

The following are examples of URLs that point to the same web page:

• http://www.yourwebsite.co.uk/page1
• http://www.yourwebsite.co.uk/page1?sessionid=12455

Duplicate Content Problems

Problems duplicated content cause for search engines include:

• Not knowing which web page version to index
• Not knowing which web page link authority to assign
• Not knowing if web page link authority should be divided across multiple versions
• Not knowing which web page version to rank for relevant search queries

All these problems for search engines mean web pages:

• Lose rankings
• Lose organic traffic

Finding Duplicate Content

The following are free tools you can use to find duplicate content problems on your website:

Google Webmaster Tools

Use Google Webmaster Tools to find pages with:

• Duplicated titles
• Duplicate meta descriptions

To do this:

• Navigate to “Search Appearance”
• And click on “HTML Improvements”
• Then click on the links for “Duplicate meta descriptions” or “Duplicate page titles”

Screaming Frog

The Screaming Frog tools allow you to crawl 500 pages for free, plus a lot of different things.

But you will need it to find duplicate content problems.

So, start by downloading the Screaming Frog Web Crawler.

To find duplicate page titles or meta descriptions:

• Clicking the “Page Titles” or “Meta Description” tab
• Then filter for “Duplicate”

And to find duplicate URLs:

• Click on the “URL” tab
• Then sort by “Duplicate”

Fixing Duplicate Content

As mentioned before, duplicate content problems affect both organic traffic and web rankings.

But it’s quick and easy to fix:

Canonical Tag 

Use canonical tags so search engines know which web page version to show for relevant search queries.

You can find the canonical tag in the web page’s header.

And it’s best to use when you want to make multiple web page versions available for users.

301 Redirect

301 redirects send visitors from old web pages to new URLs.

301s also tell Google to pass link authority to the new URL, whilst ranking new URL for relevant search queries.

It’s best used when you don’t want to make multiple versions of a web page available.

Meta Tags 

Meta tags tell search engines not to index a certain web page.

They are best used to make web pages available to users without being indexed, like your terms and conditions page. 

Conclusion

Duplicated content is a problem for websites.

But now you can solve these issues with the steps mentioned above.

Now it’s over to you.

Tell me how you deal with duplicated content?

And what have been the results after?

Let me know in the comment section below.