In a recent update to Google’s “SEO Made Easy” YouTube series, Search Advocate Martin Splitt addressed the issue of duplicate content on websites.
Splitt clarified a common misconception among the online marketing community, noting that:
“Some people think [duplicate content] influences the perceived quality of a site, but it doesn’t.”
He continued:
“It might make similar content compete with each other and it can cause pages to take longer to get crawled if this happens.”
Splitt went on to confirm that duplicate content isn’t great and is an issue that website owners should address.
While duplicate content won’t necessarily result in ranking penalties, it can cause operational challenges. For example, slower crawling and indexing can limit the visibility of a site’s pages in the search engine results page.
If a site features content that is duplicate, or very similar, to another piece of content either on the same site or elsewhere on the internet, Google may choose to index only one of these pages, which can reduce visibility.
To avoid these issues, Splitt offered several recommendations for managing duplicate content effectively.
Use canonical tags
A canonical tag is a small piece of code that is added to a page’s HTML to let search engine crawl bots know that there are similar or identical versions of this page.
For example, on an e-commerce website selling a jacket, the main page might use example.co.uk/jacket, but there could also be a version showing the same jacket in blue, with the URL example.co.uk/jacket?colour=blue.
A canonical tag would be added to the HTML of the page advertising the blue jacket, pointing back to the main page, to signal to search engines that this is the main version.
It is important to remember that a canonical tag is a suggestion to Google, and Google may still decide to index an alternative URL if it finds it more relevant.
Combine similar content
Splitt explained:
“If you find that you have multiple similar pages, even if Google doesn’t consider them duplicates, try to combine them. It makes information easier to find for your users and will make reporting in Google Search Console easier to work with.”
If you have multiple pages on your site that cover similar topics, consider combining them into a single, more comprehensive page. This approach can help avoid duplicate content issues and create a better user experience.
When all of the information is in one place, users don’t have to click through the site to find the answer they’re looking for, making it easier for them to stay engaged with your site.
Similarly, if there are similar pages, Google’s crawl bots may struggle to determine which one is the most relevant. By consolidating pages into one, much stronger page, it’s more likely to be crawled, indexed and ranked accordingly.
Do you need help combating issues with duplicate content on your website? Reach out to the team at Engage Web today.
- Google tightens Business Profile guidelines - December 4, 2024
- Google launches much-awaited recommendations feature - November 29, 2024
- Common SEO terms and what they mean - November 27, 2024
