Duplicate content: what is it? How to check duplicate content?

What is duplicate content?

Therefore, if the same content appears on more than one unique webpage, we have duplicate content.

Now let’s move on to practical matters: what impact does this type of content have on your website? Is duplicate content a harmless way to expand your site or rather a tactic that comes with a range of complications? How do search engines treat this type of content? Before answering these questions, we need to explain the difference between duplicated and copied content.

Duplicate content and copied content – what’s the difference?

The term “copied content” refers to the intentional and deliberate duplication of text. On the other hand, duplicate texts often occur as a result of different actions, appearing within the same website and without containing any malicious content.

As a consequence, pages with copied main content receive the lowest possible rating from Google, while there is no penalty for duplicate content.

The aforementioned issue is crucial for understanding how Google treats different types of content that exist on multiple pages.

How is duplicate content created?

In the majority of cases, duplicate content is not a result of intentional actions but rather a consequence of website architecture or its content. Here are a few common situations:

1. Different variations and parameters in URL addresses (e.g., when a page exists in two versions, regular and mobile).
2. Domain address variations (“www.example.com” and “example.com” if both contain the same content; a similar issue occurs with http:// and https://).
3. Replicated content (e.g., in online stores, where multiple references to product pages use the same description provided by the manufacturer).

How to check duplicate content on your website?

Although Google does not penalize for duplicate content, it is still important to minimize its occurrence for better search engine optimization. How can you achieve this? The easiest way is to utilize Google itself and use the so-called search operators, which are commands that allow you to search for specific types of content in the search engine.

If you want to check how many unique URL addresses on website X contain the word Y, simply enter the following in the search engine:

Google will display all pages on stronax.pl where the word “Y” appears. The more specific you make the word (or phrase) after the “intitle:” command, the more accurate results you will obtain. This simple method allows you to quickly identify all instances of a specific word (or even an entire sentence) on the chosen website.

Armed with this knowledge, we will be able to take appropriate steps to make our website’s content more unique.