What is Duplicate Content?
Duplicate content is repeated blocks of material on multiple website locations (or multiple websites). It can look like entire web pages or individual page elements, such as footers. Typically, duplicate content is accidental and not intentionally deceptive.
More About Duplicate Content
Duplicate content can refer to exact copies of web material or something highly similar. There are lots of innocent errors and oversights that can cause duplicate content.
These mistakes can have severe consequences for a site’s search engine rankings. For example, duplicate content can confuse search engine bots. When they run into it, they may not know which pages to crawl and which to exclude from their index.
There are many ways site owners can avoid duplicate content. A few strategies may include:
- Using the canonical link element
- Syndicating content carefully
- Minimizing repetitive page elements
- Establishing a clear system for URL naming
