Why is User Experience Important in Web Design (1)

Duplicate Content: More Isn’t Better for SEO

Why is User Experience Important in Web Design (1)

Duplicate content is identified in two ways. First, it’s recognized as content that is repeated from one site to another, or multiple pages on the same site have large sections of information that say the same thing. Either way, publishing duplicate content on your website can negatively impact your Google ranking, even if it’s unintentional.

As the internet expands, search engines must prioritize how information is ranked in order to deliver the most relevant results to people searching for answers. The rapid pace that content is published, read, and indexed into categories for future queries is impressive, but it’s not perfect.

Google defines the amount of time and resources devoted to crawling a site as a crawl budget. It’s important to realize that Google doesn’t index everything on your website, even if they read it. The AI bots are tasked with identifying which pages to index. Google explains, “each page must be evaluated, consolidated, and assessed to determine whether it will be indexed after it has been crawled.”

There are a host of factors that impact whether website URLs are indexed or if they earn SERPs. Different link metrics also affect overall search visibility in search for the organic keywords you earn and search engine rankings and impressions. 

SEO best practices will positively impact your ability to rank higher in search and black hat SEO, or choosing bad tactics will negatively impact your chances of ranking high in search, if at all. And this brings us back to duplicate content.

Is There a Duplicate Content Penalty?

Google states they don’t punish websites for having duplicate content, but they also have a disclaimer saying otherwise. If your duplicate content was not the result of intentional manipulations of search results or spamming practices, then you shouldn’t be penalized for having duplicate content. If it is, you may.

Google states, “In the rare cases in which Google perceives that duplicate content may be shown with intent to manipulate our rankings and deceive our users, we’ll also make appropriate adjustments in the indexing and ranking of the sites involved. As a result, the site’s ranking may suffer, or the site might be removed entirely from the Google index, in which case it will no longer appear in search results.”

3 Duplicate Content Issues You Want to Avoid

Duplicate Content Impacts Link Equity

“Link equity” refers to how certain links transfer authority and value from one webpage to another.

Search engines want to provide the best user experience by showing various original content rather than multiple pages containing the same content. 

The number of external links your page earns matters. According to Backlinko, the top result in Google has 3.8 times more links than positions two to ten.

Worse yet, external websites might link to a duplicate version of your preferred URL instead of your preferred URL. Duplicate content harms your link-building campaigns by reducing the opportunities for each individual link to earn external links.

Identical Content Wastes Your Crawl Budget

If numerous web pages contain duplicate content and you want one indexed, crawlers will crawl all duplicate variants, taking time away from them crawling other important pages.

Your Blog Post Won’t Index 

There are two types of duplicate content: internal and external 

Internal duplicate content occurs when one site creates duplicate content through multiple URLs on the same site. External duplicates occur when two or more different websites have the same page copied. External and internal duplicates can occur as exact- or near-duplicate pages.

As I’ve already addressed, Google doesn’t index everything on your website. However, in Search Console, the Index Report under the Coverage section, you can see which pieces of content are not indexed. 

Among the reasons pages Google excludes content they list:

  • Pages with redirects
  • Pages with no index tags
  • Duplicate pages without user-selected canonical tags
  • Pages that were indexed, not submitted in the site map

As you can see, duplication issues are one of the core reasons content isn’t indexed. It is a waste of time and money to focus on content creation that isn’t going to appear in an organic search, so it’s vital that as much of your website as possible is indexable. 

Common Causes of Duplicate Content

There are many unintentional reasons your website will have duplicate content, including:

  • Faceted/filtered navigation
  • Tracking parameters
  • Session IDs
  • HTTPS vs. HTTP, and non-www vs. www
  • Case-sensitive URLs
  • Trailing slashes vs. non-trailing-slashes
  • Print-friendly URLs
  • Mobile-friendly URLs
  • AMP URLs
  • Tag and category pages
  • Attachment image URLs
  • Paginated Comments
  • Localization
  • Search results pages
  • Staging environment

 

How Much Duplicate Content is Acceptable?

While it’s likely unintentional, website owners create duplicate content. Moz reports that some experts estimate up to 29% of the web is actually duplicate content! While some duplicate content may be acceptable, when blog articles repeat the same information multiple times, you run the risk of keyword cannibalization.

What is Keyword Cannibalization?

Keyword cannibalization refers to the situation where you have various blog posts on your site that can each rank for the same search term in Google. Cannibalization happens because blocks of content are repeated within the post or because you’ve already optimized another article for the same keyword.

Optimizing posts and articles for similar keywords will compete with each other for search engine visibility. Usually, Google will display only one or two results from the same site in the search results for any given query. However, if you’re an authoritative domain, you might get three.

When you have cannibalized content, your own URLs compete in search queries for first-page positions. For example, this could be the difference between one link in the 5th or 6th position and two links in the 21st and 22nd positions. Which would you prefer?

You can avoid keyword cannibalization by using a duplicate content checker and by ensuring that each type of content you publish uses SEO best practices for quality content. 

Do You Need Help Updating or Removing Duplicate Content?

The content team at SMA Marketing has a comprehensive strategy for identifying duplicate content. We consider each URL independently, taking a holistic approach to update, optimize, and remove content. Give us a call!

What is SEO Content Hint Its Not Just for Search Engines

What is SEO Content? Hint: It’s Not Just for Search Engines

What is SEO Content Hint Its Not Just for Search Engines

For over a decade, Google has insisted ranking factors include high-quality content when building websites and publishing blog posts. Over the years, Google has taken the time to refine the definition of “high-quality,” most recently clarifying that content quality focuses on total user experience, including page layout, design, images, and content relevancy.

What is SEO Content?

SEO content is any content that’s created with the intention of improving a website’s search engine rankings. This could be anything from blog posts and articles to product descriptions and landing pages.

Good SEO content is keyword-rich (which helps search engines understand it) and informative, original, and engaging (which helps readers understand it). It should also be optimized for on-page SEO, which involves making sure the content is formatted in a way that makes it easy for search engines to index and understand. Creating strong SEO content can be challenging but it’s worth doing if you want your website to rank highly in search engine results pages (SERPs).

On-Page SEO

On-page SEO is one of the most important elements of search engine optimization and is an essential aspect of good SEO content. On-page SEO refers to all the techniques and strategies used to optimize a website to rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs). The main factors influencing on-page SEO are title tags, meta descriptions, header tags, keyword density, and alt text.

Title tags are probably the most important element of on-page SEO. They are one of the first parts of the page that search bots crawl and the first thing people see in search results. As such, they play a significant role in determining whether or not people will click through to your website. That’s why it’s essential to ensure that your title tags are accurate, relevant, and engaging.

Meta descriptions are another important element of on-page SEO. These short descriptions appear under your website’s title in the search results. They must be well-written and keyword-rich to persuade people to click through to your website.

Header tags are used to structure the content on your website. They help search engines understand your content and make it easier for people to scan through your pages.

Keyword density measures how often a particular keyword or phrase appears on a page. It’s important to strike a balance here – you don’t want to stuff your pages with keywords, but you also don’t want to use them too sparingly.

Alt text is the text that appears in place of an image if the image can’t be displayed. It’s important to use alt text because it helps search engines understand what your images are about and can also help people with visual impairments access your content.

Optimizing your website for on-page SEO is essential to getting good results in search engine rankings. Using the proper techniques ensures that your website is easy for both people and search engines to understand, leading to more traffic and higher conversion rates. Check out our checklist for optimizing blog posts for SEO to learn more.

Should We Write Content for People or Search Engines?

Most people would say we should write content for people, not search engines. However, it is imperative to consider your audience and the search engines when creating an SEO-focused content strategy in today’s digital age.

Here’s a look at why SEO content is important and how you can make it effective.

SEO content is important because it helps your site rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs). This means more people will likely see your content and click through your website.

Creating high-quality, keyword-rich content is one of the best ways to improve your site’s ranking.

When creating SEO content, it’s important to remember that both people and search engines will be reading it. This means that you must ensure your content is well-written and informative.

Focus on creating a piece of content that is both interesting and useful for your readers. If you do this, the search engines will notice, and your site’s ranking will improve.

Google is Built to Understand Good Content

Good content is content that satisfies a searcher’s query, either to educate, entertain, or inform them. Google’s AI incorporates search intent as a ranking factor. Understanding search intent impacts whether or not your visitors are satisfied with your page’s content.

What makes good content? Well, there are a few key things that you should keep in mind:

  • Make sure your content is well-written and free of errors. Google will penalize websites with poor-quality content.
  • Use keyword-rich titles and descriptions to help Google understand what your content is about.
  • Structure your content in an easy-to-read format using headings and subheadings.
  • Include images, videos, and infographics to break up your text and make your content more engaging.

Creating quality content that satisfies search intent is essential for any website that wants to rank well in Google search results. By following the tips above, you can create SEO-friendly content to help your website succeed.

Page Quality Rating

Many factors can influence your page’s quality rating. Generally, the higher your page quality rating, the better your chances of ranking well in search engine results pages (SERPs). Therefore, improving your page quality rating is crucial to enhancing your website’s SEO. Luckily, there are several things you can do in addition to what has already been mentioned to improve your rating. Here are a few tips:

  • Improve the usability of your website. This includes ensuring your navigation is easy to use and creating a user-friendly design.
  • Increase the number and quality of links pointing to your page. This can be done by guest blogging on high-quality websites and including links to your site, for instance.
  • Work on building up the overall reputation of your website. This can be done by ensuring you have a solid social media presence and providing valuable content that people want to share.

Guidelines for High-Quality Written Content

Here are the basics for writing quality content:

  • Content should always have a purpose: It should have a topic of interest, an audience, and an intent stage for that specific audience.
  • Do your research thoroughly: Get the whole story before you begin tearing things apart. What’s happening now, what happened before, and what happens next. 
  • Write well and proofread: Use punctuation and grammar, and try to stay focused and on topic. Provide background when needed.
  • Google cares about where content comes from. What is the brand or person who created the content? It wants to know. Make sure it can tell. The more authoritative a brand or person’s repu­tation is, the better.
  • Make sure there is substance in your content. Your content has a purpose. Does it fulfill its purpose? And does it explain everything thoroughly? Educate your readers, and they will appreciate and depend on you.
  • Always cite your sources. Data and statistics mean nothing unless we know where they come from. Make sure to always cite the source whenever possible.

Search Engines Read Human Language, Not Search Language

Search engines are designed to read human language, not search language. When creating content, you should focus on making it readable and understandable for humans first and worry about keywords second.

This can be a difficult balance to strike, but it’s important to remember that people will be the ones reading and engaging with your content, not machines. So while keywords are still important for SEO purposes, they shouldn’t be your sole focus. Write for people first, and the rest will follow.

Learn about Semantic Search

Keyword Research

There are a lot of different ways to approach keyword research. For example, some people focus solely on finding keywords that will rank well in search engines, while others prioritize finding keywords that will be most relevant to their target audience.

The best approach is a mix of both: finding both popular and relevant keywords. This way, you can attract a large number of potential customers while also ranking high in search engine results pages (SERPs).

Here are a few keyword research tips:

  • Use long-tail keywords, which are more specific and tend to have less competition.
  • Think about the intent behind a keyword. What are people searching for when they use that keyword?
  • Target both broad and narrow keywords. Broad keywords will attract more traffic, but you may have difficulty ranking for them. More limited keywords will be easier to rank for, but they may not get as much search traffic.
  • Beware of “keyword stuffing” – cramming too many keywords into your content in an attempt to game the system. Not only will this make your content difficult to read, but it will also turn off potential customers and penalize you by Google.
  • Check search volume. Use a keyword research tool to ensure the long-tailed phrase you want to focus your content around has search volume and matches your search intent. Check out our favorite tool, SEMRush, free for 14 days here!

Keyword research is essential to SEO and should be done regularly to ensure that your content is relevant and visible to your target audience. By following the tips above, you can produce content people are looking for and improve your chances of ranking high in SERPs.

SEO Content Writing Should Target Your Ideal Buyer

Your SEO content needs to be compelling and valuable for your target audience, but it must also be optimized for search engine ranking. Remember that people are the ones who ultimately decide which content is successful. If your content is interesting, informative, or engaging, people will share it, link to it, and come back for more. But they’ll quickly move on if it’s not well-written or relevant.

That said, there’s no point in writing great content if no one ever sees it. That’s where search engine optimization (SEO) comes in. Optimizing your content for certain keywords and phrases ensures that it appears higher in search results and thus gets seen by more people.

The bottom line is that you need to write great content that’s optimized for both people and search engines. Then, with a little effort, you can reach a wider audience and build a successful online presence.Easy Guide to Content Marketing