Why Duplicate Content Is Bad for Your Website

Here’s an interesting fact you may not be aware of – your website will in fact not be punished by Google, simply for featuring duplicate content. It’s a matter of widespread misunderstanding, which stems from the fact that duplicate content can certainly harm your SEO strategy.In reality, it’s simply a case of duplicate content making it extremely difficult for the search engine to differentiate your content from the other locations/pages where it is featured. Where two pages of content are identical or largely similar, you’re not going to receive the same amount of credit as you would for two completely unique pages.That said, if it becomes obvious that you have been copying and pasting content from elsewhere, you may receive a manual Google penalty. Likewise, should the powers that be become aware of the fact that your site is packed with duplicate content of little to no quality, you may likewise be punished. Nevertheless, duplicate content doesn’t automatically result in a Google penalty – contrary to widespread belief.But this doesn’t mean that duplicate content isn’t bad for your website and therefore shouldn’t be avoided at all costs. Instead, it is very much true to say that duplicate content can be extremely harmful in a multitude of ways, including the following:

• Duplicate content makes it difficult or impossible for your pages to appear prominently in the search engine results rankings. As the content has already been used elsewhere, it will gain no authority or priority over existing pages.
• Duplicate content can be extremely unattractive and off-putting to Internet users in general, thus harming your reputation and professional position.
• Duplicate content harvested from elsewhere could lead to your site disappearing from the rankings altogether, or perhaps land you in trouble due to your theft of somebody else’s intellectual property.

Ensuring Your Content Is OriginalTaking all of the above into account, the importance of ensuring as much of your content as possible is original cannot be overstated. Which in some instances may appear difficult to achieve, but is nonetheless possible with a targeted and proactive approach.For example, there is nothing to say that you absolutely must copy and paste information multiple times over when writing product descriptions. Get creative and simply rewrite the same information in a different way as required, in order to give the description and the page as much value as possible.If sourcing information from elsewhere, be sure to rewrite the content in your own words. And if you are essentially rewriting the work of someone else, you’ll also need to make sure you credit the original content producer at the beginning or end of the peace.Last but not least, tools like Copyscape can be great for ensuring that the content you produce is unique enough to bring your site maximum value, while at the same time keeping you out of trouble. Rather than taking chances, it’s always worth carrying out a detailed check as to the uniqueness of your content.Keep it unique, engaging and useful for your primary target audience – three simple rules that add up to outstanding web content.