How to Find Duplicate Content on Your Website
What is Duplicate Content?
In terms of SEO, duplicate content refers to a piece of text on a web page that is exactly the same as, or very similar to text on another web page.
Search engines don’t like duplicate content, plain and simple; and when Google flags a web page as “duplicate”, that specific page will likely suffer in the SERPs. In fact, if it’s difficult for a search engine to tell which page between two or more is the original source, all the offending pages may be considered duplicates.
Common Types of Duplicate Content
Search engines don’t like duplicate content, plain and simple – so it’s always a good idea to be aware of what content appears on your site, and that new content is original and free of duplication issues. Below are the three main types of duplicate content to look out for, as well as how to find and fix issues when they arise.
Word-for-Word Plagiarism
The most obvious type of duplicate content occurs when content is literally copied from one web page and pasted to another. Even if you are using your own content on multiple pages on your own site, it counts as duplicate content.
How to Find It:
Use the free CopyScape and/or PlagSpotter tools – Type your homepage URL (www.website.com) into the search bar and click “Go.” Each of these tools will search the web for any page that contains content identical to the content of any page on your website. The list of results includes links to each duplicate page.
How to Fix It:
If you have duplicate content among your own web pages, you have a couple of options. Rewrite, or add a no-index/no-follow tag to one of the pages so that search engines will ignore it and only look at the original.
If you believe that your original web content is being used on another site, there are several steps you can take.
1. Contact the webmaster of the site housing your original content and request it be taken down.
2. If that doesn’t work, you can try to contact the host of the site. Who Is Hosting This will help direct you to the right place, where you can request the duplicate content be removed.
3. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) of 1998 makes amendments to US copyright laws with deference to digital platforms. You can also file a formal DMCA complaint against the offending party.
Kissmetrics advises reserving this method for times when the second party is earning high rankings with your content, as the process is fairly complex. However, it is also effective.
Duplicate Meta Descriptions or Title Tags
Meta descriptions and title tags are sometimes accidentally duplicated among pages within the same website. You may also find that a different website has copied your meta descriptions, but the former situation is more likely.
How to Find It:
If your site is connected to Google Webmaster Tools, use that – Under “Search Appearance”, click on “HTML Improvements”. Here, you can click to see lists of pages with identical meta descriptions and title tags. This is the recommended method, because it shows you content that has been indexed by Google.
If you haven’t connected your site to Google Webmaster Tools, your next best option is to use Screaming Frog, a free downloadable web crawler program. It will crawl up to 500 web pages for free, and then give you an entire array of data, including a list of any duplicate meta descriptions and title tags within your site.
How to Fix It:
If a meta duplication problem occurs within your own website, the simple solution is to write unique meta descriptions and/or title tags for the offending pages. If you find that another site has copied your descriptions, you can also follow the advice give above.
One Page, Multiple URLs
This is another common case of accidental duplicate content. You may have created two URLs for one page without knowing that this counts as duplicate content, or perhaps your CMS platform automatically creates second URLs for your pages. NetSuite users, for example, may experience this automated problem.
The SEO problem with having multiple URLs for one page is that Google sees two completely separate URLs as two completely different webpages, so if two URLs lead to the same content, Google will flag both URLs as duplicates.
How to Find It:
You may be able to search for duplicate URLs within your website’s platform. That’s for you to find out. If you can’t, then use Screaming Frog – Click on the “URL” tab and sort the lists of links by “Duplicate.” You will see the pages within your site that have multiple URLs.
How to Fix It:
You can use a DIY solution, but if you choose that route, make sure you know what you are doing. It is possible to have multiple URLs for a single page without getting flagged, as long as you use the rel=canonical meta tag. (An alternative solution is to use 301 redirects.) Unfortunately, roughly 65% of SEO-audited websites have gotten canonical tags wrong, because they require a certain balance to work effectively.
If you know you are dealing with a duplicate content issue, but are not confident in your SEO skills, we highly recommend reaching out to an SEO expert. (And – shameless plug, we also highly recommend that expert be Volume Nine!)
