When your brother-in-law told you about it, you didn’t dare ask him this simple question: but what is duplicate content? You know it’s an important concept to grasp to earn money on the internet, but this language is still Chinese for you. Do not panic, this article contains all the keys to shine in society on this subject. You will learn, in passing, some tricks in referencing and SEO (Search Engine Optimization), very useful before launching on the net. Understanding duplicate content in 5 minutes is possible with this article. But in addition to better understanding this term, you will also discover the consequences of duplicate content and how to avoid it.
What is duplicate content?
Duplicate content or duplicate content is, as its name suggests, the occurrence of identical content on different sites or pages. It concerns about 30% of the web, and can be of different types.
- Duplicate content by nature
When we take up a quotation, a film commentary, the lines of a press article, the repetition of a writing is inevitable. The very nature of the text generates a percentage of similarities without this being harmful.
- Duplicate content by clumsiness
For lack of information or experience, a site can generate duplicate content. Take the case of a site that exists in https and http, or even accessible with or without www. Clumsy duplicate content also concerns many e-commerce sites, whose product descriptions use the same terms, changing the type or color of the model.
- Malicious duplicate content
In addition to the cases mentioned above, it may happen that the owner of a domain chooses to draw articles from competitors to expand his site quickly and at a lower cost. A copy-paste, and you’re done. This practice is simply plagiarism and therefore totally prohibited.
How to avoid duplicate content?
Even if you are the best in your field, you are unlikely to be as effective with words. Which is totally natural. Whether it’s an online sporting goods store or a bakery, maintaining and optimizing a website is far from being within everyone’s reach. You have understood that copying and pasting is to be avoided. To avoid the consequences of duplicate content, the text must differ on each page. All your breads may be baked in the same oven, using the same ancestral knowledge, but their descriptions will still have to be different. The same goes for premium fair trade cotton t-shirts. The male and female models are almost identical, but the appended text must be unique.
If it is relatively simple to build a site from scratch with CMS such as WordPress, Shopify or Prestation (although…), the content takes precedence. Remember that for Google, the user experience is paramount. A happy user will stay longer on your site, but if he gets bored, he will leave. Enough to increase your bounce rate. For an optimal UX, your content must be of good quality, without errors, structured and often updated. But above all, they must be unique.
There are a number of free sites (Dupli checker, platinum, etc.) that allow you to check that your articles are original, but writing for the web is a profession in its own right. Delegating this part of your activity is an option that can be wise. Your best asset against duplicate content is then to call on an SEO web editor. This professional knows the expectations of search engines and will save you valuable time. By focusing on quality content, regularly updated, it will bring your site to life. Reformulate, renew, rewrite, and offer you new ideas, that’s his job. While you manage your business, Professional ghostwriting services will write the unique texts that will allow Google and Internet users to recognize your value. Highlighted in the SERP, your business will get the boost it deserves.
What is duplicate content? If you had to remember one thing from this article, it’s that content is the key to SEO. Duplicate content is a plague against which search engines fight with determination. As a result, it is one of the parameters that you need to monitor to optimize your site. You can choose to take care of it yourself, but it is still time-consuming. Otherwise, do not hesitate to build your team of SEO web editors to support you in the development of your activity: you will be guaranteed to obtain original content, optimized for search engines.
What is the duplicate content filter?
When you start on the internet, it is best to consider Google as an ally. For him to help you develop, you have to give him what he wants. And his goal is simple: he wants to satisfy his customers, namely, Internet users! However, duplicate content degrades the user experience (UX). I don’t know about you, but I find it very unpleasant to come across the same text several times during my research.
The Panda update in 2011 specializes in detecting this plague. Google’s algorithms are almost as smart as us. Over the course of the updates, they become more and more efficient and they track down dishonest sites. Search engines therefore use the duplicate content filter to penalize those who plagiarize their competitors (and themselves!).
When a web page is put online, it is scanned by Google’s crawler robots. Classified defense secret, nobody knows exactly how they work. Nevertheless, we have a small idea. Google uses some 200 criteria to assess the relevance of information that arrives on the web. The more the site offers appropriate information for a query, the more it will be highlighted in the SERP (the search results page). The algorithm sees and records everything: the structure of your articles, the presence of keywords, and a fortiori the similarities between two pages.
What are the consequences of duplicate content?
So, what is duplicate content? You know all about it, now let’s talk about its consequences. If Google detects duplicate content, your page or site may be penalized. You who counted on him to attract prospects, it is completely missed.
If you want to use a quote, don’t worry, it’s always possible. To avoid creating duplicate content, you just need to use the appropriate html markup. So, the robots will know that the repetition of the text should not be taken into account.
- <blockquote> for long quotes;
- <q> for shorter ones;
- <Cite> to add sources and references.
In the case of a clumsiness, and if it remains anecdotal, the search engine will probably choose to hide the part of the search results that it deems less relevant. The best thing is to avoid it and check that you are not plagiarizing yourself. Indeed, it is always possible to go up in the good graces of Google, and consequently in the SERP, but it can be long and painful.
Finally, in the case of a dishonest approach, the challenge of the algorithmic system will be to determine who the author of the original content is. To proceed, it will use all available information: the notoriety of the site, the date of publication, sharing on social networks (if applicable), and many others. In the event of proven plagiarism, the site designated as the thief will be deindexed or relayed in the abyss of the SERP. This will be followed by a fall in the e-reputation, organic traffic and turnover of the offending site.
