How to check duplicate content on the website for better SEO?
It wouldn’t be wrong to say that content is what gives life to a website. No matter what purpose your website serves, if the content is in mint condition, not only will it project a better image on the readers, but also it will help in establishing a pristine online reputation.
Content management is incomplete if duplicate content goes unnoticed. Despite creating unique content, it happens many times that your content gets copied. Identical content puts your website under negative ratings. So, it is only logical that you keep a check that your website content stays original. And if copied, to make use of one’s legal rights to protect copyright infringement in case of human error or fix the technical issue, which is leading to the content duplication.
A poorly configured web server will lead to duplicate pages. It is crucial to fix the issue as soon as possible because once search engines scroll through, due to the duplicate content found on the domain, search engines are going to consider it as a spamming website and will drop its ranking considerably.
Let’s briefly understand what leads to duplicate content:
It is not that complex as it might seem. There are only two reasons that lead to duplicate content. One is the copying of content intentionally, which we can also call human error, and the other reason is the technical issue where the content on your website generates double copies due to duplicate URLs and links to your website.
Content scraping is something where we need to stay vigilant. What happens in this is that a website owner would deliberately copy all of your content on their website. One can get it checked manually in which on Google index your website would show flagged, which makes it easier to identify. Once you know, all you got to do is to report Google about it, and the problem will get fixed. Easy peasy!
Content syndication, which in every inch is similar to content scraping, but the only difference is that you voluntarily ask for it. As odd it may seem, but syndicated content is a great way of promoting the website on Google. Isn’t that crazy? To put it precisely, it is like trading your content on another blog, which exactly shows the same content with links intact. It helps in making your website come out to be more visible in return that can fetch traffic to the source, and by that, it means roping in traffic on to your website.
How duplicate content affects SEO?
Despite the benefits of content syndication, do know that duplicate content will affect the Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) of your website.
There is a little misconception here that duplicate content leads to Google Penalty, which means the website would get banned. It’s an absolute no! Duplicate or copied content cannot lead Google to penalize your website, so stay relaxed. But, do know that search engines will rank your website utterly low, and that will fail your purpose of creating the website in the first place. Low ranking implies fewer leads, and if you cannot get the desired traffic, the website will considerably fail, which can be a huge setback for an e-commerce business.
The main reason why copied content is objectionable is that it confuses the search engines in choosing the correct source. It becomes difficult for the search engines to find the exact source, and that leads to various anomalies. What can happen is that despite your website to be the source, someone else’s website may rank higher than you.
The contributing factors can be many where maybe the content strategies of another website might be way well-built than yours. In that case, despite the copied content, the other website gets the benefit instead of yours. That is why we cannot let go of the importance to chalk out duplicate content and take necessary actions for its prevention.
Now the above is the case if someone deliberately copies your content. But duplication can be inside one’s website as well. For websites made with the purpose to run an online business, have products to sell, and the like, if the product descriptions are duplicates, the search engines will get confused, and the page might not get listed well on their platforms. It will hinder one’s capability to run a business efficiently.
How to check duplicate content?
It is a neat practice to keep on checking the website for any duplicate content. From manually checking, where one can see if the website is compliant with Google’s webmaster quality guidelines or not, to using online software, you have the choice.
The online software that helps you check for content duplication includes Copyscape, Grammarly, Semrush, Copyleaks, and the like. From paid services to general checks, you can use online software that would help in thoroughly examining plagiarism.
A piece of advice!
But it can be that some loopholes could still persist due to inexperience of thoroughly chalking out the technical issues or human error that led to content duplication. Getting expert help could be a wise decision as that takes this tedious job off your shoulders where you can depute your time and energy to other necessary business chores.
If your website is suddenly getting low leads despite your every possible strategy in the right direction, it can be due to the fact that your content is no longer plagiarism-free.
Maybe there are multiple URLs created or replication of content happening externally or internally. To quickly fix the issue before things go out of hand, continuous checking for content duplication is a must. It is highly recommendable that you do not ignore this small area because that can affect SEO and lead to poor performance.
One of the pivotal techniques to keep the website running and for effective SEO strategies is the content of the website, which should be immaculate, alluring for the reader, informative, well-written, and beautifully presented. SEO cannot be effective if it lacks good content, and that stands indispensable. So, make sure that your website reads correctly, puts its points across clearly, and is aesthetically pleasing.
