What is Duplicate Content?
When multiple URLs contain the same or similar content, they are considered duplicate content. The content could be the same, word for word or slight variations of one another. They could also be on the same site or different sites.
In the most glaring cases, duplicate content results from one site copying the content of another and passing it off as theirs. However, duplicate content could also occur due to a variety of reasons, including:
- Variation in a site’s URL
- Article spinning
We will briefly address the causes of duplicate pages below.
Variations in a Site’s URL
Search engines often consider webpages with multiple URLs as different webpages. For example, mydomain.com and www.mydomain.com are considered different pages even though they contain the same content. In this case, the pages become duplicates of themselves.
You can easily avoid this by declaring one of the pages as canonical. That way, search engines will know which pages are original.
Article Spinning
Bloggers and site owners can create duplicate content by making minor changes to existing content and ranking it for the same or a different keyword. The content may belong to them or could be copied from another site.
When taken from another site, the content is often copied without permission and passed off as an original one written by the blogger.