The SEO industry is largely a copycat industry. Once a big-name industry player figures out a new trick, everyone else copies it. That being the case, it is also no surprise that the industry is a hotbed for myths that are readily passed on by SEO services without verification. One such myth has to do with duplicate content.
SEO services have been telling their clients for years that duplicate content is punished by Google. But that is not true. Google officials have stated on many occasions the duplicate content is not a problem unless it is deemed to be purposely deceptive. Since most duplicate content is produced either accidentally or ignorantly, Google doesn’t punish it.
On the other hand, Google takes a very strong position against copied content. Duplicate and copied content are distinctly different. Search engine algorithms are sophisticated enough in the 2020s to discern between them.
More About Duplicate Content
Webtek Digital Marketing, a Salt Lake City, UT agency offering digital marketing and SEO services, describes duplicate content as content containing substantial blocks of previously published content. It can be found on the same site or on other sites across the web.
It turns out that most duplicate content is not deceptive in nature. Publishing it is unintentional. According to Webtek, some of the most common causes of duplicate content include:
- URL variations.
- Sites using both HTTP and HTTPS protocols.
- Pages with and without a trailing slash in the URL.
Again, Google personnel have said in both written posts and videos that the company does not punish duplicate content that is not purposely designed to be deceptive or manipulative. However, duplicate content can negatively impact SEO by simply reducing a website’s value.
The Highest Quality Results
A search engine’s success is rooted largely in its ability to deliver the most accurate results for organic searches. Therefore, it is in Google’s best interests to look at each instance of duplicate content and attempt to determine which one offers the highest quality. That is the one that will rank. Other versions are ignored.
When you are talking about one or two pieces of duplicate content, this is not an issue. But a site with multiple instances of duplicate content ends up with multiple pages that do nothing but dilute the site’s overall value. And when that happens, SEO suffers.
Avoid Copied Content Completely
Basic SEO practices dictate that companies be aware of duplicate content and its ability to dilute value. If a piece of duplicate content evades detection and ends up being published anyway, it will not be a big deal. On the other hand, SEO services should take copied content a lot more seriously.
Copied content is content that has been taken from somewhere else and used without proper permission or attribution. In nearly every case, copied content is intentional. It is plagiarism by any standard and a potential violation of copyright. Google and its competitors want no part of such content. They actively punish it.
Google has been known to implement both manual and algorithmic penalties against copied content. But outside of SEO, copied content could lead to legal issues if the original publishers of such content find out about it. It is just not a good place to be in.
Know Your Content
If there is a lesson to be learned here, it is this: companies should not rely exclusively on their SEO services to weed out duplicate and copied content. They should also be paying attention. As for duplicate content, it’s not punished by Google. But it could lead to a level of dilution that harms a website’s SEO performance.
