One often overlooked component of a websites ability to rank well is content that has been used elsewhere on the web. Often times, to save money businesses are forced to develop their own websites. Unaware, site owners might be enticed to copy and paste great content or write on a subject that falls in line with content that is very similar to other sites.
Google has made an attempt to only serve information to those searching that is fresh and not duplicated to preserve the search engines integrity and to only give the best in results.
Read on if you feel your site might have duplicate content that is hurting your SEO and holding your business back.
How to Determine If Your Site Has Duplicate Content & How To Resolve It?
According to the SEO experts, there is a long running debate about how duplicate content is handled and whether there are resulting penalties. Sometimes you can have too much of a good thing, as duplicate pages or pages with similar content can impact your search engine ranking, weighing your site down like a virtual anchor.
Search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo deal with page duplication simply by diluting all the content and as a result, rank none of it. This effectively blinds a potential audience to your content, hardly an effective strategy. So do not just leave it up to search engines to determine the most relevant pages, lock in your ranking dominance with the following easy steps.
Meta Robots
Meta robots may sound like something from a science fiction film but they are a great tool that allows search engines to crawl through and exclude duplicate content. By seeing everything at once, a search engine can also make a crucial judgment when it comes to a final search result. Do not restrict tools like this. Instead use them to your advantage! They can be a great solution for duplicate content and also credit your site for its’ unique content. But eliminating duplicate content is just one aspect of building an effective web site. Another is pagination. This makes it easy to find an exact item without overlap or delays.
But always keep in mind that while these tools benefit your clients, they do not always work best for search engines, so you need to balance the results.
Structure
You do not want a search engine to get bogged down on pages that are not adding value. Make sure your categories make sense to both your clients and to search engines. Do a thorough spring cleaning and increase or decrease your catalog items to keep your brand near the top of any ranking.
It is important to keep in mind that the user determines success. If your client cannot find value in your unique content or figure out what your business is, then you have problems. In fact, the Google Panda algorithm deals specifically with low quality content and can penalize an entire site. If you are unsure what types of content can affect your ranking, our team is there to help you by providing recommendations you can easily implement.
Quality
Standing out from the crowd and making a unique impact is the challenge for all ecommerce sites. There is a temptation to solve the issue by generating a huge amount of content that will flood any search parameters. Do not try this! Instead tailor your content. Quality and style is what will set you apart on Google.
Knowing what is valuable is the key to business success. Duplication can happen and be a drain on your site resources. So instead of settling for being the middle of the pack, let us help streamline your content and ensure you are getting your points across succinctly and effectively. There is no need to keep repeating yourself!
In Conclusion
Duplicate content can adversely affect your businesses bottom line. Whether intentional or not, knowing how to handle duplicate content and find it can result in 1st page search results or never being found. And even if duplicate content isn't penalizing your website now, the rules are always subject to change with Google's constantly evolving policies, ranking factors, and algorithms.
I hope you enjoyed this article about how to avoid getting penalized by Google and other search engines for duplicate content.
Interested in more articles about SEO and content marketing?
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