Duplicate content is material that appears in more than one location on the Internet. That “one place” is defined as a spot with a distinctive website address (URL); therefore, if the same content would seem at more than one website address, it is considered duplicate content.

While duplicate content is not technologically a penalty, it can still impact search engine rankings. When there are many instances of “significantly similar” content in multiple locations on the Internet, search engines may struggle to determine which edition is more pertinent to a specific search query.

Why is duplicate content important?

In terms of search engines

• Duplicate content can cause three major problems for search engines:
• They are unsure which version(s) to include or exclude from their indexes.
• They are unsure whether to consolidate the link metrics (confidence, power, keyword phrase, link equity, and so on) on a single page or keep them separate across multiple versions.
• They are unsure which version(s) to prioritize for query results.

For webmasters

Site owners may suffer ranking and traffic losses if duplicate content is present. Two major issues frequently cause these losses:

Search results rarely mention various copies of the same content to offer the best search expertise, forcing them to choose which edition is most likely to produce the greatest result. This minimizes the visibility of each duplicate.

Because other sites must choose between the duplicates, link fairness can be further diluted. Instead of all link building pointing to the same piece of information, they link to several pieces, distributing link shares among the duplicates. Because internal links are a ranking factor, this can affect a piece of content’s search visibility.

How to Resolve Duplicate Content Problems

Fixing redundant content issues boils down to one central concept: determining which of the multiple copies is the “appropriate” one.

When the content on a website is accessible via numerous URLs, it ought to be canonicalized for search results. Let’s look at the three primary approaches: Using just a 301 redirect to the appropriate URL, the rel=canonical ascribe, or Google Search Console’s parameter handling tool.

Redirect 301

In many cases, setting up a 301 redirect from the “copy” page to the original programming page is the most effective way to combat duplication.

When multiple documents with the possibility to rank well are compiled into a single page, they no longer compete with one another and create a greater relevancy and popularity transmitter overall. This will improve the “correct” page’s capacity to rank well.

Rel=”canonical”

The rel=canonical attribute is another solution to dealing with duplicate content. This instructs search engines that a provided page should be treated as if it were a copy of a particular URL and that all links, information metrics, and “ranking power” attributed to this page should be credited to the specified URL.