We will learn what is Duplicate Content and what to do with them on your or client's website. This is Amudhakumar and I am Professional Online Digital Marketing Trainer.  I help any individual or a business owner to become digitally independent to handle their own business.

In this episode, I will talk about duplicate content. Let me start by saying make sure your site adds value to your visitors. "It's common sense," you may think. But unfortunately, not all content creators
abide by this rule.

Think of yourself as a user. Would you regularly visit a site with no original content? Or would you prefer to go to the sources directly?

What is Duplicate Content and What to do with it on your website?


Your content or a unique and valuable functionality, which we'll treat like content, should be the focal points for users visiting your page. If you have ads serving on pages with little to no value, the ads may be limited or disabled until you make the significant improvements.

As stated in the Google AdSense Publisher Policies, Google Ads may not be placed on sites with scraped or copyrighted content. Some examples include sites that copy and republish content from other sites without adding any original content or value. Sites that copy content from other sites, modify it slightly.

For example, by manually rewriting it,  substituting synonyms, or using automated techniques and republish it. Sites dedicated to embedding content such as video, images, or other media from other sites without substantial added value to the user.

It's important that you contribute your own original content whether it's specialist knowledge, improvement ideas reviews, or your own personal thoughts. Check that the content on your site is unique, and that it's not copied from other sites.

Also, ensure that the same content is not duplicated in the same page or across multiple pages of your site. If you have many pages that are similar or have very similar content, consider expanding each page
or consolidating the pages into one.

Let me tell a bit more about duplicate content. Duplicate content refers to significant blocks of content with or across domains that either completely match or are pretty similar to other content. This isn't always meant to be deceptive. It's very common for sites to have some pages duplicated completely, say, across the www and non-www versions..

This kind of technical duplication is fine. The goal is not to have these versions indexed, just to have them accessible should users reach that version of the URL. That said, having many copies of the exact same page can make crawling a bit harder. 

Another common use case is when parts of a page are copied within your website. For example, you may have printer-friendly versions of content or you may have category or tag pages that contain a snippet of the individual detailed pages. These are fine, too, though it may result in Google not being sure which of your pages to show for some searches.

If your site contains multiple copies of the same page, I recommend telling Google what is your preferred URL. This is called "canonicalization." To learn more about it, check out this video on canonicalization by John Mueller that is given below:



In some cases, however, content is deliberately duplicated across domains or different websites to manipulate search engine rankings or win more traffic. This adds no value and can result in a poor user experience when a visitor sees the same content repeated on search results.

What Happens if Someone Duplicates My Content?


If you believe that another site is duplicating your content, you can contact the site's host to request removal. Depending on the situation, you may be able to ask Google to remove the infringing page from search results by filing a request under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, DMCA.

More of this here. So remember, make sure your site adds value. It's important that you create original content, and that you avoid scraping content from other sites. Using duplicated content in your website
can make it harder to crawl and index pages from your site and can make it harder for Search to show the best fitting page.

Duplicate content across domains could negatively affect your performance on organic search and your monetization strategy. Instead of duplicating content from other domains or sites, we recommend working on unique content instead. 

In the next article, I have shared the information about Thin Content and the Importance of Quality Content in your website. Read it right now if you have missed it.