Web Copy SEO

Written by: Gary Horsman

Web Copy SEO

The Perils of Duplicate Content

I recently studied a website and soon discovered that its content was essentially identical to many other websites. These websites were all part of the same franchise and the owners of the individual franchises – though capable business people – probably were not aware that the individual websites were working against each other. The issue was the duplicate content.

As defined by Google . . .

Duplicate content generally refers to substantive blocks of content within or across domains that either completely matches other content or is appreciably similar. Mostly, this is not deceptive in origin and examples of non-malicious duplicate content could include:

• Discussion forums that can generate both regular and stripped-down pages targeted at mobile devices
• Store items shown or linked via multiple distinct URLs
• HTML and Printer-Friendly versions of web content

If your site contains multiple pages with largely identical content, then you may want to make some adjustments just to be on the safe side. There in no need to be penalized by Google for legitimate duplicate content.

Here is more from Google . . .

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 ranking of the site may suffer, or the site may be de-indexed.

Here is my Web Copy SEO advice:

• Google tries hard to show pages in their search results with quality unique content. Create high quality unique content even if you are the owner of a website that is a member of a franchise. 
• If you own a franchise website then consider how you can expand the content of your website. Break up a page were multiple services are described into multiple pages describing each service. This way you can increase your depth of content and avoid the issue of duplicate content as well. 
• If you are a franchise website owner do something creative and different with your content. Add a photo gallery to the page or a video. Craft a compelling offer and match it with a strong call to action. Offer some free advice via a download link that no other franchise website has. 
• Get to know a good copy writer. I use the services and work with Heidi White. She is a Freelance Copy Writer. She is a great writer and also has a very respectable handle on search engine optimization from a copy writer’s perspective. If you struggle with writing or perhaps do not have the time to create high-quality web copy then Heidi can be a great service provider for you.

If you are interested in an SEO Audit then feel free to contact us (802-457-9799). Our SEO Audit will also provide you with insights as to whether your site could be perceived as having duplicate content as well as providing you with insights on other SEO related aspects of your website.