{"id":21327,"date":"2023-08-29T13:30:59","date_gmt":"2023-08-29T12:30:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fifteen-staging.fifteen.dev\/blog\/why-is-duplicate-content-bad-for-your-website\/"},"modified":"2023-08-21T15:54:47","modified_gmt":"2023-08-21T14:54:47","slug":"how-can-duplicate-content-affect-seo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fifteendesign.co.uk\/blog\/how-can-duplicate-content-affect-seo\/","title":{"rendered":"How can duplicate content affect SEO?"},"content":{"rendered":"

According to Google<\/span><\/a>, almost 60% of the entire web is duplicate content, and this can cause confusion for search engines because they won\u2019t know what content is the most useful, appropriate and relevant for users. You\u2019ll have probably heard that duplicate content is bad for your website, but how does <\/span>duplicate content affect <\/span>SEO<\/span><\/a>?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In this blog, we explore what duplicate content is, how it affects your website and SEO and how you can fix it.<\/span><\/p>\n

What is duplicate content?<\/b><\/h2>\n

Duplicate content is blocks of content that are identical or very similar to other web pages or websites. It can occur in many instances, such as when a website duplicates its own content across multiple pages, or when a different website copies and publishes the same content as another website.<\/span><\/p>\n

Whilst there aren\u2019t any penalties for having <\/span>duplicate content on your website<\/span>, it can have negative implications for your SEO. That\u2019s why it\u2019s incredibly important to create content that is unique and valuable for users.<\/span><\/p>\n

How does <\/b>duplicate content affect SEO<\/b>?<\/b><\/h2>\n

When you have <\/span>duplicate content on your website<\/span>, it shows your content isn\u2019t unique and doesn\u2019t have the quality Google is looking for. This can lead to a negative effect on your rankings and you could lose traffic because search engines won\u2019t know which piece of content to rank first. This applies if you have multiple pages on your website with the same content or if you have the same content as another website.<\/span><\/p>\n

Duplicate content can also impact your link profile. Because there\u2019s multiple pieces of content that are the same across the web, other websites will want to link to one of these web addresses and this might not be yours if your rankings have taken a hit.<\/span><\/p>\n

Users may also think you have not put the time or effort into creating your own content and damage trust. It may lead to searchers feeling frustrated if they are presented with a multitude of the same content and can\u2019t find the information they want instantly. With all of these pieces of duplicate content, searchers might not know which source of information to trust.<\/span><\/p>\n

Where might you find <\/b>duplicated content on a website<\/b>?<\/b><\/h2>\n

There are some instances where a website purposely duplicates their own content. For example, to advertise the same service in different cities and they may have separate landing pages for each of these cities containing the same content.<\/span><\/p>\n

In most cases a business doesn’t mean to duplicate content on their site, but it\u2019s important to know where this could be. Some places where duplicate content is often created by mistake are:<\/span><\/p>\n