You may have seen many websites and online stores that are using the same product descriptions for similar items. This is a good example of duplicate content. Such content can harm the content marketing efforts of an online business.
The problem with duplicate content is that search engines have trouble discerning which one should be ranked higher. Consequently, they rank both items lower.
Other problems include the dilution of the SEO value of pages, bad user experience, indexing issues, backlink confusion, and even plagiarism penalties. That is right, duplicate content often results in plagiarism as well.
Everything that we mentioned just now is crucial for content marketing’s success. By using duplicate content unintentionally or intentionally, you can lose the benefits of content marketing and harm your own SEO strategy.
In this article, we will teach you to avoid this problem altogether.
How to Avoid Duplication of Content
- Conduct Regular Audits
Conducting content audits will help you to find out whether your platforms have duplicate content or not. The easiest way of doing a content audit is to use an SEO tool. Powerful platforms like Ahrefs and SEMrush can conduct site audits where they can identify several SEO-related issues including duplicate content across webpages.
However, these tools require money. So, think hard about which tool you want to use before you pay for it. Check out some reviews and see whether these tools have other features that you could use.
Of course, conducting a manual site audit is also possible, but it takes longer. Here is how you can do a manual audit.
- Identify the goals you want to achieve with your content.
- Compile a list of your content.
- Categorize the list into different parts (you can choose any method of categorization)
- Assess whether there is an overlap between different categories.
- Check whether you have published content that is too similar to each other i.e., duplicated.
This way you can find out if you are using duplicate content or not.
- Convert Multiple Similar Pieces into One Comprehensive Piece
If you do end up finding duplicate content during your audit, then there are a few ways to salvage the situation. One method is to find out the reasons that you wrote those duplicate pieces.
If the reasons/goals are sufficiently aligned, you can consolidate those duplicate pieces of content into one single article.
The benefit of doing this is that you safeguard your platforms against SEO penalties and other drawbacks of duplication. Another benefit of consolidating similar articles into one comprehensive article is that you still target all the keywords and the same audience without sacrificing anything.
This does have one drawback though; you may have to let go of the pages with duplicate content that have gained some SEO value. But ultimately, that will benefit you rather than hurt you.
- Rewrite and Change Content that is Duplicated
Another method of dealing with unintended duplication and plagiarism is to evaluate your articles and change similar parts. You see unintended duplication usually occurs in small sections of content rather than the entire article.
Instead of consolidating such articles together into one piece, you can simply remove the plagiarism from one article and make them both unique.
That is quite easy to do. All you have to do is to change the content that is similar to other articles on your site. You can do that manually or by using a tool. To do it manually, you have several options, they are given below.
- Delete the duplicate content.
- Change the wording extensively using synonym exchange.
- Alter the length and sentence structure.
Or you can relegate this task to a tool. To remove plagiarism and duplication with a tool, simply do the following.
- Go online and search for a plagiarism-removing tool.
- Find a free tool and input your duplicated content into it.
- Select a mode that drastically changes the write-up.
- Confirm your decision and get the output.
And that is usually enough to remove plagiarism and duplication from your content.
- Take Steps to Avoid Content Scraping
Avoiding duplication and plagiarism necessitates that the writer understands why it occurs in the first place. One of the most common reasons for duplication to occur is content scraping. Many content writers scrape the web to find some good content and then alter it to fit their needs. But many times, they fail to change it enough to remove duplication in it.
That is why their content gets flagged for duplication and subsequently penalized. So, content writers need to avoid this route altogether.
Additionally, there is another problem with content scraping. You may not be scraping content from the internet, but others could be doing it to you. This can potentially harm you, so you should take steps to check if your content has been scrapped.
There are tools you can use to find out if other copies of your content exist on the internet. If somebody is scraping your content, then issue a DMCA to them and take all the steps possible to get them to remove the duplicate content.
Conclusion
In conclusion, avoiding duplicate and plagiarized content requires that content marketers stay alert. They should be auditing their content to find problems, consolidating duplicate articles into one, rewriting, and checking for content scraping. By applying these tips, they can avoid content duplication.
