Duplicate content occurs when the same content is published in multiple places online. This creates a range of technical problems that can impact your search engine rankings and reduce traffic to your website.

To avoid these complications, there are a number of best practices that you can follow to ensure that you are not penalised for publishing on more than one website.

The technical issues with duplicate content

Google algorithms find it difficult to evaluate trust, authority and authenticity if a website's content appears in multiple places. Without these crucial values, Google may not include your content in its content indices or establish link metrics to your site, resulting in issues ranging from traffic loss to irrelevant search engine results.  Furthermore, since duplicate content is often used in spam, if Google believes your content is spam, they will penalise you by lowering your search engine rankings (Search Engine Land).

How to avoid being penalised for duplicate content

Google's guide to duplicate content offers users best practice techniques to help them circumvent the issues that stem from publishing content in multiple places (Google). In summary, the recommendations that you can follow to avoid penalties are:

●    Use high-quality domain names and extensions
●    Add links to the original article when syndicating your content
●    Use Google’s Search Console to delineate domain index preferences (Google)
●    Avoid boilerplate repetition by providing the information on just one page
●    Do not repeat content on multiple pages

What about .pdfs of your HTML content?

Many websites offer a .pdf download of their website content to their readers. According to John Mueller, Webmaster Trends Analyst at Google, .pdf files of web content will not cause the search engine issues of duplicate content (Seround Table). So you will not be penalised for offering a .pdf download of your website copy.

When creating your content management strategy, it is essential that you follow the best practices that Google has outlined. This way your website is not penalised. ALHAUS can help you to create a content management strategy that incorporates these best practices. Contact us today to see how we can help you declutter your web presence and avoid duplicate content