One of the most common challenges I encounter as a digital marketer is clients who don't seem to have a good idea of what duplicate content really is, how to avoid it, and why it's important to them. In this article, I'll dispel some duplicate content and SEO myths that persist in a post-Panda world, as well as some tips on how to stay on the safe side of Google's guidelines so that search engines and users love your content.
Why should I care about duplicate content on my website?
Let's dispel the biggest myth still circulating, the Google sanction myth. Here's the truth: there is NO penalty from Google for duplicate content. This question was addressed in a Google Q&A session in June last year. You can watch the whole video here. However: Google MAY block some of your content from showing as a search result if your site has duplicate content issues, and cell phone number list as with all content, it will aim to show the most relevant content to the user at that time.
Google will still index these pages. If it can see the same text on multiple pages and decides they are the same, it will only display the one it deems most relevant to the user's own query. There is a distinction between content that has been duplicated by your CMS generating new URLs, for example, and users who replicate content at scale and republish it for financial reward, or to manipulate rankings. Google's quality guidelines are clear on this. If you use illicit tactics to generate content or create pages without original content, you run the risk of being removed from search engine results pages (SERPs).
How to check for duplicate content on your site
There are several tools that will help you identify areas for improvement on your own site such as:
Moz's crawler tool will help you identify duplicate pages on your site and with which other pages. It is a paid tool, but it has a 30-day free trial. Siteliner will give you a deeper analysis of duplicate pages, their close link and replicated text boxes. This is useful when large bodies of text are used but the entire page may not be a complete replication:
Nothing prevents you from using the specification of a product and then adding your own wording around it. Add your tone of voice and personality. Think about your specific audience and their personas. Think about why they would want to buy your product, then tell them your unique selling proposition. What problem or need does it satisfy that they will relate to?