Duplicate content: understanding and avoiding this SEO pitfall

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Duplicate content

Duplicate content is a recurring problem on the web. It can have harmful consequences for search engine optimisation (SEO) and the visibility of your website.

In this article, we're going to look at various aspects of content duplication, to help you understand it better and avoid it.

What is duplicate content?

Le duplicate content refers to the presence of the same text or a similar part of a text on several different web pages, whether on a single site or several separate sites.

This duplication may be the result of voluntary or involuntary copying of content by publishers, or it may be caused by technical problems such as server configuration errors or poor URL practices.

Why should you avoid duplicating content?

Duplicate content can lead to penalties for your site in terms of natural referencing. Search engines like Google attach great importance to the quality and originality of content.

When they detect a web page with duplicate content, they may decide not to take it into account in their search results, thereby reducing its visibility. What's more, if this practice is repeated and widespread on your site, it can have an impact on your overall SEO.

Identifying duplicate content

To detect whether you have duplicate content on your websiteThere are a number of free and paid online tools available for carrying out audits. These tools include :

Siteliner which allows you to analyse the content of your site and identify internal duplication using a percentage of similarity between the different pages.
Copyscape Compares the texts on your site with those on the Internet and indicates sources of external duplication.
Google Search Console which provides access to potential duplication errors relating to meta tags and URL your pages

It is important to regularly monitor the presence of duplicate content on your site using these tools so that you can act quickly in the event of any problems.

How can I avoid duplication of content?

To prevent duplication of content on your site and improve your SEO performance, here are a few best practices to implement:

Setting up an editorial strategy

It is essential to work upstream on a editorial strategy by determining the objectives, themes, formats and distribution of content on your site. In this way, you can avoid repeating subjects and create texts that are relevant, original and of high quality.

Optimising meta tags

The meta tagstags, such as title and description tags, play a crucial role in search engine optimisation. They must be unique for each page and reflect its specific content. This practice not only avoids duplication of content, but also improves theuser experience in terms of search results.

Writing clear, structured URLs

The creation ofClear, structured URLs makes navigation easier to understand for visitors and search engine spiders. By avoiding unnecessary parameters in your URLs and giving them a logical hierarchy, you will limit the risk of duplication due to technical errors.

Using canonical directives

When several different URLs point to the same content (for example, due to different versions of the same article), it is advisable to use the rel="canonical" to indicate to search engines which version of the page should be considered as the reference and thus avoid penalties for duplicate content.

Managing and dealing with duplicate content

If, despite all these precautions, duplicate content remains on your site, there are a few things you can do to limit the impact on your SEO:

Delete or merge pages with duplicate content. It is preferable to keep a single version of a text, while ensuring that deleted URLs are redirected to the new address.
Rewrite the content concerned to make it unique and relevant. The aim here is to add real value to duplicated texts so that they stand out from other sources of duplication.
Use "noindex" tags on pages with duplicate content, when it is not possible to remove the text. These tags will tell search engines not to index these specific pages.

In short, the problem of duplicate content should not be taken lightly. By working effectively on the creation of unique content and by applying good SEO practices, you'll avoid the penalties that can threaten your website's visibility.