Detect, fix and avoid duplicate content
Posted: Sun Apr 20, 2025 8:47 am
On-page optimization is not only about avoiding duplicate content, but also about identifying and fixing it as quickly as possible when it occurs. SEO tools like Google Search Console, Screaming Frog, SEMrush, Sistrix, or Seobility offer features for checking duplicate content and help identify similar content . They show whether the duplicate content is on your own domain or another domain and identify the affected URLs.
If duplicate content is detected, website operators should act quickly to prevent ranking losses, penalties, or indexing issues and exclusions. Several measures can be taken to avoid duplicate content problems and ensure users find the content they're looking for. Best practices include:
create unique content and individualize texts for different areas, for example for iran phone number data use on your own website, external price comparison sites or shopping portals
Reduce pages with similar content by expanding individual pages with individual content or combining several pages into a single one
refer to the main page using a canonical tag in the source code of the duplicated page , so that the duplicate is not taken into account during indexing
Mark pages with duplicate content with the noindex tag so that indexing does not occur at all
reduce recurring text blocks and instead link to a separate page with detailed information on the topic
When restructuring the website, set up 301 redirects for pages that should not appear in the search results
Use the hreflang attribute on internationalized pages so that the Google bot does not classify content on individual country domains with identical or very similar language as duplicate content
These measures and recommended actions are explicitly mentioned in Google's guidelines for avoiding duplicate content . It also states that crawler access to pages with duplicate content should not be blocked. If access is denied, the crawler will treat the pages separately, as it cannot automatically recognize that the URLs point to the same content. It is recommended to mark the URL as duplicate – by using the link element rel="canonical" or a 301 redirect – and allow crawling of these URLs.
What to do if pages have been removed from the SERPs due to duplicate content?
If a website has been removed from search results due to a deceptive attempt , the site should be reviewed. Only after revising the site in accordance with Google's Webmaster Guidelines should a re-review be requested.
If the Google algorithm selects the URL of an external website that reproduces content without the author's consent, thereby violating copyright, you should first contact the site operators and request that they link to the original source or remove the content. If the website host does not comply, Google Search Console offers a contact form to have pages with illegally used content removed from search results.
If duplicate content is detected, website operators should act quickly to prevent ranking losses, penalties, or indexing issues and exclusions. Several measures can be taken to avoid duplicate content problems and ensure users find the content they're looking for. Best practices include:
create unique content and individualize texts for different areas, for example for iran phone number data use on your own website, external price comparison sites or shopping portals
Reduce pages with similar content by expanding individual pages with individual content or combining several pages into a single one
refer to the main page using a canonical tag in the source code of the duplicated page , so that the duplicate is not taken into account during indexing
Mark pages with duplicate content with the noindex tag so that indexing does not occur at all
reduce recurring text blocks and instead link to a separate page with detailed information on the topic
When restructuring the website, set up 301 redirects for pages that should not appear in the search results
Use the hreflang attribute on internationalized pages so that the Google bot does not classify content on individual country domains with identical or very similar language as duplicate content
These measures and recommended actions are explicitly mentioned in Google's guidelines for avoiding duplicate content . It also states that crawler access to pages with duplicate content should not be blocked. If access is denied, the crawler will treat the pages separately, as it cannot automatically recognize that the URLs point to the same content. It is recommended to mark the URL as duplicate – by using the link element rel="canonical" or a 301 redirect – and allow crawling of these URLs.
What to do if pages have been removed from the SERPs due to duplicate content?
If a website has been removed from search results due to a deceptive attempt , the site should be reviewed. Only after revising the site in accordance with Google's Webmaster Guidelines should a re-review be requested.
If the Google algorithm selects the URL of an external website that reproduces content without the author's consent, thereby violating copyright, you should first contact the site operators and request that they link to the original source or remove the content. If the website host does not comply, Google Search Console offers a contact form to have pages with illegally used content removed from search results.