Non-technical duplicate content issues can also impact a website’s performance in search engines. Common non-technical duplicate content issues include:
- Content scraping: When content is scraped from one website and published on another, it can lead to duplicate content issues.
- Product descriptions: E-commerce websites often use the same product descriptions provided by manufacturers, leading to duplicate content on multiple websites.
- Copy & Paste content: The whole content or parts have been stolen from another site (use Copyscape.com to identify stolen content)
- Boilerplate content: Duplicate content can also occur when websites use the same boilerplate content, such as terms and conditions, on multiple pages.
- Translations: Websites that provide translated versions of the same content can also lead to duplicate content issues.
- Printable versions: Printable versions of pages or articles can also lead to duplicate content if not handled properly.
To prevent non-technical duplicate content issues, it’s important to use original and unique content on your website, and to properly attribute any content that is used from other sources. Additionally, you should monitor your website for scraped content and take steps to remove it if necessary. Finally, if you provide translated versions of your content, it’s important to properly handle those translations and ensure that they are not seen as duplicate content by search engines. If you internationalize your content translations are of course fine. Don’t forget to use an hreflang for the correct identification of the respective language and country version.
How to prevent non-technical duplicate content issues?
- Avoid creating multiple pages with similar content: Creating multiple pages with similar content, even if the content is slightly different, can lead to duplicate content issues.
- Use copyscape.com: Using tools like copyscape.com to QA & check if your content is unique or (partially) copied from other sources.
- Use descriptive and unique page titles and meta descriptions: Writing descriptive and unique page titles and meta descriptions can help prevent duplicate content issues and improve the visibility of your pages in search results.
- Use unique and original images: Using unique and original images can also help prevent duplicate content issues and improve the overall quality and uniqueness of your website.