How To Avoid Duplication Issues

Request A Free Website Analysis

November 24th, 2009 by Dan Taylor

At Click Consult we have worked with many sites that have issues with duplicate content. If a search engine detects this within your website, you can be penalised for it and will receive a lower ranking in the SERPs.

These issues are a common pitfall in SEO so here are some of the most common issues and ways to resolve them:

Issue 1

One of the top duplication problems is known as canonicalisation. This happens when ‘www’ is removed from a website URL resulting in a duplication with the site which has the www.

Solution

To get around this, the most effective way is to use the 301 redirect to the version of the website with the www. In some cases this might not be possible so here you can use the rel=canonical tag. If that fails try using Google Webmaster Tools to set the preferred domain.

Issue 2

When you submit a site to a directory, you can make the mistake of entering text from your main website as a description. This may seem like a simple way to add descriptive text in the directories but Google will automatically see this as a duplication, particularly if a large block of text is copied.

Solution

The solution is simple – use unique text for descriptive content and check it does not appear on your site or any other sites.

You can use tools available to double check you are using original text. ‘CopyScape’ is a great tool for double checking your content and will quickly identify any issues when you are adding text to directories.

For more help and advice on search engine optimisation contact us at Click Consult.

Bored with Broad Match
Working as a dedicated Pay Per Click manager on a number of varied accounts, from time to time you will come across issues that you haven't dealt with before and will have to find different solutions to resolve them. Pay…...
Avoiding Damaging Internal Navigation Issues
The search engine spiders that crawl the internet are becoming incredibly advanced, although their basic function remains the same – they use links to traverse the internet, gathering data then recording that content in the search engine’s index. Advances in technology…...
Web Design With SEO In Mind
To many people it may seem that web designers and SEO consultants are at odds with each other in the way that they work. Many web design professionals like to design websites for their aesthetical beauty, with attractive images, animations,…...
Is Google Slipping?
In the world of search we all know that Google is the main player, with 77% of search traffic on Google search alone they are far and away the leader in the industry and the gap may even be getting…...
Identify The Problem And Offer A Solution With Email Marketing
A good approach to email marketing that will attract greater click throughs and higher open rates is to quickly identify a problem that readers face and then pre-sell the solution. The problem can be identified as soon as in the…...