Is Repeat Info on a Website Bad for SEO?

Content is the skeleton of any website in terms of SEO. Sometimes, websites need to use the same information multiple times. It was not bad until search engines started acting against similar content. So the question arose, ‘Is repeated or duplicate content bad for SEO?’

Yes. Repetitive content is bad for SEO. Google does not treat duplicate content as spam, but it gets confused seeing two similar contents optimized for one website. That’s why the algorithm does not rank either.

You know that, unique high-quality content is the #1 factor for improving a website's SEO. But, many websites may unknowingly waste their SEO efforts by including duplicate content. If you are one of them, you can avoid repetitive content after this article with proper knowledge about repetitive or duplicate content.

Duplicate or repetitive content refers to blocks of text that are either identical or highly similar to content found on other pages of the same website. Readers can find this sort of content across different websites. Duplicate content can include full pages, paragraphs, or even reused sentences without significant modification. 

Google and other search engines prefer unique and informative content. Therefore, duplicate content can confuse search engines and affect the ranking of your web pages. Search Engine Journal’s duplicate content detection survey presented that 25 to 30 percent of web content is repetitive. That’s why their business pages cannot get enough leads from search engines.

Example of Duplicate Content

• Imagine you own an e-commerce website that sells similar products, such as different models of smartphones. If each product page has a nearly identical description, with only the model name and a few specifications changed, this can be considered duplicate content.
• Another example is when you create multiple landing pages targeting different geographic locations but use the same text on each page, merely swapping out the city name. These samples of duplicate content can impact your SEO efforts negatively.

Types of Duplicate Content

• Internal Duplicate Content: Internal duplicate content occurs within the same website. For example, if a company offers similar services and creates separate pages for each service but uses almost identical content on each page, this would be internal duplicate content.
• External Duplicate Content: External duplicate content occurs across different websites. For instance, copying and republishing a blog post on multiple websites without proper attribution or modification would be considered external duplicate content.

• Near Duplicate Content: Near duplicate content refers to content that is not identical but is very similar. This can occur when slight variations of a piece of content are published on different pages or websites. An example could be product descriptions that vary only slightly in wording but convey the same information.

Believe it or not, duplicate content can affect several SEO challenges. The first issue is poor user experience. Users will become bored, and your pages will have a bounce rate. Then comes self-competition, which is harmful to indexing. Penalties from search engines are present, too. Google will definitely think of duplicate content as a search engine violation. 

If I ask you, why would you repeat the content? Your case may be a mistake. However, a fraudulent SEO planner could use different pages and backlinks for the same content to make crawlers read their content repeatedly and rank one of those. But it's a foolish act! Google will never use two similar content because their users will get annoyed and leave Google.

Search engines promise to deliver the best possible results to users, and duplicate content can make it difficult for them to determine which version of the content is most relevant.

Makes UX Poor

WebAlive’s statistics reported that each $1 investment in UX can return $100. User experience (UX) is a key factor in SEO. Google and other search engines rank unique content so that each link provides new information to the readers and they have a good user experience. Repetitive content threatens the helpful update of Google, so the author's website will be on the “ignore” list for this violation even if they have more unique content.

Creates Self Competition

When you have multiple pages with near-duplicate content, you are competing against your content. As a result, you could have two possibilities. Either one of your content will rank, and the other will be hidden. Or both content will be ignored to avoid confusion. So, the web page crafting efforts are gone here! 

Results in Penalties

We have seen that Google does not directly penalize websites for having duplicate content. Instead, Google can deploy "soft penalties." As a result, your website may experience reduced visibility, lower rankings, and a decline in organic traffic.

We can categorize duplicate content into two groups: 1. Good duplicates, 2. Bad duplicates.

• Good Duplicates: If your news portal has web and printable versions with the same content, it will be a good duplicate. If you are publishing a phone specification, it will also be a good duplicate.
• Bad Duplicates: Bad duplicates are similar descriptions or content from other websites. Something should be different, even in completely look alike companies.

There are situations where repeating information may be necessary as good duplicates. For example, it is totally honest to use specific disclaimers or legal language on multiple pages. Certain product descriptions may require similar wording due to the nature of the products being offered. In such cases, you must handle repetitive content in a way that Google’s language model understands was not intentional.

The SEO algorithm does not work this way! No exact percentage of duplicate content is considered acceptable, as search engines evaluate content on a case-by-case basis. Google will understand if you are on the way to creating valuable content for each page and avoiding unnecessary repetition. 

If you have to include similar content across multiple pages, consider using canonical tags and disclaimers to indicate the preferred version to search engines. Google itself can detect the EEAT of a published blog, but it cannot identify which author is real. So, you must insert the proof.

In the past, we have discussed AI content penalizations. Now, we will highlight the repetitive content penalization process. Contrary to popular belief, Google does not impose manual penalties for duplicate content unless it is deceptive. Google uses algorithms to filter out the best relevant content in serials. The filtering process can still result in lower visibility and rankings for pages with duplicate content.

You have a few options as a fix for duplicate content. However, not all options can bring the same results. For example, rewriting or paraphrasing the content is not enough. Now Google can understand which one is the original page and what the paragraph means by speech. So, the best options are removing pages, using canonical tags, and localizing content URLs. Some SEO experts use internal linking, but we do not think that is an effective strategy. 

Content Audit

SEMRush shared that site audits cause content flags if 85% of the content is identical. That means conducting a content audit is the first step in identifying duplicate content on your website. The main part of content editing is reviewing all the pages on your website. Later you can take actions like rewriting contents or removing pages.

Canonical Tags

Canonical tags are small HTML codes. It indicates to search engines which version of a page is the original or preferred version. Simply add a rel=”canonical” link element in the HTML code. Use canonical tags and consolidate the ranking signals of duplicate pages. After doing it, the search engines will focus on the most authoritative version.

Localization

Make the similar content as if they are for two different geographic locations. For example, we have two similar content about “best seo service.” Now, we have to make one page for Bangladesh and one page for the USA by differentiating the region.

• …bd/blog/best-seo-service
• …us/blog/best-seo-service

There are several tools available that can help you identify duplicate content on your website. Some popular options include:

• Google Search Console: Login to Google Search Console for detailed insights. Learn how Google views your website and get alerts for potential duplicate content issues.
• Screaming Frog SEO Spider: The system allows you to crawl your website like Google to identify duplicate content, meta descriptions, and titles.
• Copyscape: Copyscape is a popular plagiarism detection tool for deep scanning. It can help you find duplicate content across different websites.
• Siteliner: Siteliner is another tool that scans your website for duplicate content and provides a detailed report on the results.

Many believe duplicate content can lead to Google bans, but it typically results in lower rankings instead.

• Google Ban: One of our clients asked whether using similar content will ban his website on Google. We convinced him that there are no such policies. The worst possibility is getting ignored on SERP with the pages or losing one of the page’s rankings.
• Scrapping Attack: People used to panic that scrappers could hurt the website with duplicate content while extracting data. But marketing specialist Pugazheanthi Palani wrote on scrapping that any kind of scrapping improved the ranking and helped receive customer feedback.

At VISER X SEO service, we take the job seriously. We offer comprehensive content audits and optimization so that your web pages can fulfill the visitors' unique needs. From the head to the bottom, everything will match the current SEO benchmarks. 

If you want to know more about our work process, feel free to contact us today. We have a supportive customer agency and project managers who will listen to your queries and respond to you in a friendly manner.

In conclusion, duplicate or repetitive content is not a heavy-level threat to a website, but it is bad for the SEO performance of those pages. Your first priority should be publishing each unique content according to the keywords. 

If you cover two similar topics on two pages, make one description smaller and link to the bigger one. For large business websites, we recommend you contact an expert SEO service provider and audit the website using premium tools. VISER X is here to help you navigate these challenges!

Can I have duplicate content on different websites?

No. If you put the same content on two different websites, the second website can lose ranking. Google will detect plagiarism in the content. Even if you own both websites, it is a bad idea. Google will de-rank one of the two sites. Sometimes, the Google algorithm avoids both problematic sites to ignore any confusion.

What to do if I have to repeat page information?

You can quote the marked part as it is taken from other sources. Plus, there is an option to interlink the main page and refer as the main source. But these two options are not available all the time. The best practice is using canonical tags to label one page as the main.

How does VISER X keep the same content without changing information?

VISER X has a proficient SEO and content writing team. They can bring uniqueness to duplicate or plagiarised content. Using a natural tone and different writing styles, the writers deliver the same message in different formats. You can contact us and discuss the complete process.