Duplicate content, which is defined as content that appears in more than one location on the web, can hurt your website’s SEO performance. When there are multiple sites around the internet that contain eerily similar content, Google has a difficult time determining which one is more relevant to a user’s specific search query. To help address this issue, Savvior, the IT consulting experts in Pittsburgh, have assembled a quick guide detailing what causes of duplicate content, the issues that result from it, and how to effectively address them.
What Causes Duplicate Content to Occur? 
Did you know that 29% of the internet is stuffed with duplicate content? Most of the time, duplicate content is created by accident, rather than through malicious intentions. The most common causes of duplicate content include:
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URL variations, which occur when website designers create multiple URLs by accident after embeding click tracking or analytics code onto their pages
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Publishing a page version with a “www” prefix, such as “www.savvior.com” as well as a version of “savvior.com” will produce two separate pages that each contain the same content
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Product information that is taken from another page that is then written in a blog post will also result in duplicate content pages.
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Adding print-only URLs will create identical versions of the same page too.
What Problems Arise From Duplicate Content?
Duplicate content presents multiple problems for both search engines and website owners. Search engines, such as Google, will have trouble deciding which version they should include in their index or which ones they should rank for query results. They will also have trouble determining whether they should direct the link metrics to just one page or to all of its various versions they find online. As a result, the website’s rankings and traffic will suffer.
This is obviously a problem to the website’s owners, as they want to show off their website and drive people to it, rather than allow it to remain hidden in the shadows.
3 Quick and Easy Tricks to Fix Your Website
Trick #1: Make sure all of your pages have a Canonical URL tag
The Canonical link tag tells search engines the single URL to use for all versions of a given web page. There are numerous situations where this is relevant. For instance, when creating links with Google Analytics or using other analytic packages, you tend to make links that contain a plethora of variables within them. As a result, you are creating backlinks to a page which are not unique. This can then end up causing a duplicated content penalty for your site.
If you are publishing a multi-part article, you will need the search results to direct users to page one. Therefore, you would want to make a Canonical link for the article that points back to the first page.
To create a Canonical URL tag that will tell search engines where the authoritative source of that content should be, specify the permanent link to each page in its header area. If you are using SavviCMS, then you just need to add this snipped to your header:
Echo $PAGE->linkCanonical;
Trick 2: Only serve your website from one domain name
This trick goes back to the WWW vs. non-WWW URLs we discussed earlier. You can fix this by either placing this snippet into your global scope:
if (php_sapi_name() !="cli")
{
$mydomain = "www.savvior.com";
if($_SERVER['HTTP_HOST']!=$mydomain)
{
$protocol = (!empty($_SERVER['HTTPS']) && $_SERVER['HTTPS'] !== 'off' || $_SERVER['SERVER_PORT'] == 443) ? "https://" : "http://";
header("HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently");
header("Location: {$protocol}{$mydomain}{$_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']}");
exit;
}
You could also use this code:
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^savvior.com
RewriteRule (.*) http://www.savvior.com/$1 [R=301,L]
Trick 3: Set up a 301 redirect
A 301 redirect sends users and search engines to a URL that is different from the one that they originally requested. This essentially combines multiple pages that all have the potential to rank well into one, single cohesive page. Since they no longer have to compete against each other, your intended page’s ability to rank well increases.
Conclusion
SEO best practices are effective in driving traffic and increasing conversions for your business. It is critical to make sure that you are doing everything in your power to achieve this. Even a tiny error can ruin your chances of ranking well on the Google search engine. Make sure you continue to monitor your website as well as industry news regarding SEO tips and tricks to ensure that your business is getting the most out of its online presence. For more information on how Savvior, the IT consulting experts in Pittsburgh, can help your business boost its SEO, contact one of our team members today.
