Managing duplicate content

There are three ways in which duplicate content can occur on the Web. All three are intentional acts, and two of them can be controlled by the webmaster. 

Let's first address the uncontrollable factor, which is content that someone has copied and published as their own, without giving credit to the author or acknowledging the copyright owner. If you suspect that someone has copied your content, you can report content to Google. 

The Duplicate Blog Post: SEO Sin

Posting the exact same blog column, update or opinion piece is the most frequently-occurring case of deliberately-duplicated content. This is content that is exactly the same, word for word, published on different sites. Let's say you have an article about tulips published on site A. If you decide to publish the same article about tulips on site B as well, that is duplicate content. 

Some SEO practitioners engage in "black hat" tactics, such as spamming sites with duplicate content to generate links for search engines. ​​This duplicate content is considered to be a problem because search engines are likely to notice and flag this content. In this situation, the best-case scenario is one of the sites not being indexed. In the worst case, both sites could be punished with lower rankings on the search engine results page. The reason for this is that Google and other search engines prioritise fresh, original content and accordingly, they penalise those assumed to be copying existing content. 

When to use 301 redirection?

There are legitimate situations where content needs to be temporarily duplicated across multiple pages or domains. This could be due to the webmaster making changes to the URL structure of the site or being in the process of migrating it to a new domain. Since it is desirable to maintain the hard-earned ranking of the original pages, it can be a good option to preserve the inbound links. 

The best way to avoid penalties for temporarily duplicated content is by using a 301 redirect code. When a visitor enters the original page URL, 301 redirects seamlessly tell visitors and search engines that the page has moved and swiftly shifts them to the new web address. Importantly, you must remove the original content eventually and then redirect it, because if not, you will have duplicate content. 

Using Canonicals to Resolve Duplication Issues

A canonical tag is a piece of HTML code (rel=canonical) that indicates to search engines which version of a page is the primary version. This helps to differentiate it from other pages that are identical or very similar to it, separating it from being flagged as duplicate content.

Canonical tags are a soft signal that is used to let search engines know which version of the page you want to appear in search results. This gives it a nudge in the right direction, encouraging crawling and indexing the correct version of your website. 

Using canonical tags is a strategic approach to resolving the issue of duplicate content, which if left unchecked, can be harmful to your SEO performance. By implementing canonical tags, website creators can indicate to search engines which page of content should be considered as the primary or "canonical" version. When canonical tags are used correctly, they ensure that it is clear which content you want to rank, consolidating all signals to the primary page, and protecting the integrity of your website.

The Risk of Duplicate Content with AI 

One of the primary concerns for website content writers considering using AI-generated content is the potential for issues surrounding duplicate content. While AI detection tools are imperfect and often misidentify human-written content as AI, search engines do not rely on these tools for ranking decisions. Google has explicitly stated that their ranking systems aim to reward original, high-quality content that demonstrates E-E-A-T (Expertise, Experience, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness) qualities. The focus is on the quality of content, and search engines favour content authored or reviewed by an expert or someone with authority on the topic. 

Whilst, this may seem reassuring, AI-generated content can often fall short in meeting the E-E-A-T qualities prioritised by search engines, resulting in a high chance of a lower ranking than desired. 

A significant weakness of AI-generated content is the tendency for it to produce similar responses to alike prompts. As many creators will write on similar topics and target the same keywords, AI tools may generate content that closely resembles material that already exists. This reiteration of similar content can trigger duplicate content penalties from search engines and have a negative impact on rankings. 

Duplicate content is a serious concern for website owners, as it can negatively impact their search engine rankings. Using SEO techniques such as 301 redirects and canonical tags can help to alleviate the issue, but are not a permanent solution to having duplicate content. It is important to be aware of the risks associated with AI-generated content and ensure that you are producing high-quality, original content that meets E-E-A-T standards . By following these best practices, website owners can maintain the integrity of their website and ensure that they remain visible in search engine results pages.