As 51% of website traffic comes from organic searches, search engine optimization (SEO) is crucial for any business. Unfortunately, in their rush to improve their SEO, some businesses have used duplicate content.
While this is often an accidental occurrence, using duplicated content can affect your SEO in a number of damaging ways. This is why it’s important to know why you should avoid using content on more than one URL. If you’re unsure of what to do and need help with your SEO strategy, the experts at Sure Oak can help you implement proven digital marketing strategies that will drive sustainable growth for your company.
Read on to find out how duplicate content can harm your website’s SEO.
Less Organic Traffic for Your Site
One of the best reasons to avoid duplicate content is that it can lead to your pages receiving less organic traffic. This is because the search engines will see that there is the same content on different sites. They could then be unsure as to which URL they should send consumers who are looking for that type of information.
Even if you had first posted the content on your website where you want visitors to go, and then reposted it on another blog page, there is no guarantee the traffic will be directed to your original page.
Poorer User-Experience Could Lower Your SEO Score
There is a strong connection between user experience and SEO. If your online visitors only visit your pages for a few minutes and see they have already read your content elsewhere, they are likely to leave quickly.
This short period spent on your site tells the search engines that people don’t value your pages. They are then more likely to send traffic to your competitors’ sites.
To ensure you only provide original high-quality material, you can hire professional SEO services who specialize in content marketing. These experts will also check for already posted duplicate content on your site and provide you with unique alternatives.
Potential SEO Penalty
There is a duplicate content myth that having any replicated materials on your site will result in an SEO penalty. But, this is simply not the case. Google understands there may be similar content across multiple sites and does not penalize unfairly.
However, there are some occasions when you could receive a duplicate content penalty. This includes if you are deliberately copying content to manipulate search engines.
In this scenario, your pages could slide further down the search engine results. Even worse, they could be de-indexed altogether. These penalties are extremely rare and you are unlikely to have these duplicate content issues.
Avoid Using Duplicate Content on Your Website
While it’s unlikely you will receive a penalty for using duplicate content on your website, there are still other crucial ways it can hurt your SEO. You may find consumers spend less time on your site or even stop visiting it altogether, and search engines may send less traffic to your pages.
Therefore, before you post any content on your website, be sure to confirm it isn’t duplicated.
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