Butterfly effect. The problem of duplicate content on e-commerce website
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Butterfly effect. The problem of duplicate content on e-commerce website

The duplicate content problem on e-commerce websites isn’t something to take lightly. The more duplicate content you have, the lower your website’s rank with search engines, and the fewer people will be able to find your site online. This can lead to a drastic drop in sales, so it’s important to remove duplicate content as soon as possible. In this guide, you’ll learn what exactly the duplicate content problem on e-commerce websites is, how it affects your website’s ranking, and how you can resolve the issue once and for all.

What is duplicate content?

Duplicate content is defined as substantive blocks of content within or across domains that either completely match other content or are appreciably similar. In other words, it’s when two or more pieces of content on the internet are the same or very similar.

There are two main types of duplicate content: complete and partial. Complete duplicate content is when you have an exact copy of a page found elsewhere on the web. Partial duplicate content occurs when there are only bits and pieces from one page found on another page (e.g., images). It also includes cases where some information is different but much of the text on both pages is the same.

Consequences. What does it mean for an e-commerce store?

Have you heard about the butterfly effect? The butterfly effect is the idea that small causes can have large effects. In the context of e-commerce, it means that even a small amount of duplicate content can have a negative impact on your website. 

For SEO e-commerce store, duplicate content can negatively affect both the store’s search engine optimization and its chances of conversion. There are a few consequences that can arise from having duplicate content. The first is that it can result in search engines penalizing the site, which can lead to a drop in traffic and organic search visibility. Additionally, it can create confusion for customers who are trying to purchase products from the site. If they land on two different pages with the same product, they may become frustrated and leave without making a purchase. 

Watch out. Whether you acted unknowingly or you actually plagiarized, Google will treat you the same. It all depends on the algorithms used by the browser to maintain a high-quality network and provide users with results consistent with their queries. In this context, pay attention to:

  • Panda algorithm – introduced to combat poor quality websites, spam and duplicate content. It lowers the position of websites that do not meet the established criteria and, in extreme cases, imposes penalties.
  • Pirat algorithm – it takes care of copyright on the web, its task is to remove plagiarized pages.

How to check if I have a problem with duplicate content?

First of all you should check your website with SEO audit agency. This is the best method that will objectively evaluate the quality of your website and its content. The expert will create a recovery plan to improve its quality and ranking. Additionally, you will not have to use programs and learn how to operate them.

Of course, however, you can do everything yourself. There are a few ways to check if your e-commerce website has a problem with duplicate content. The first is to use a tool like Copyscape, which will scan your site and compare it to other online content to see if there are any matches. The second way is to do a Google search for the URL or domain name of your site and look at the number of results that come up. If you find several pages from your own site in the search results then this might be an indication that you have duplicate content. Finally, as you browse through various pages on your website make sure that the content does not repeat across multiple pages. If this happens then consider consolidating similar content into one page or removing duplicates altogether.

How can you get rid of it?

First – don’t panic. One way to avoid duplicate content is to use a rel=canonical tag on your website. This tells search engines that the page with the canonical tag is the original version of the page, and any other versions are duplicates. You can also use 301 redirects to point search engines to the correct version of a page. Make sure that all the products on their website have unique descriptions. Finally, make sure to keep your website well-organized and use unique titles and descriptions for each page. In really exceptional situations, however, it is better to entrust the matter to specialists.

Simply be original. 

If you notice your content on another page:

  • You can report plagiarism directly to Google and after verification it will be excluded from the indexing process.
  • Block content from being copied on your site.
  • For image files, set the file replacement option.
  • You can use the option to add a link to the page of the copied text.

In conclusion

Duplicate content is a serious problem for e-commerce websites. Not only does it hurt your search engine rankings, but it can also lead to lost sales and customers. If you suspect that you have duplicate content on your site, take steps to fix it immediately.  Make sure there are no additional pages with duplicated content, and use the canonical tag to specify which page should be indexed in search engines. It’s important to do this before being penalized by Google or other major search engines!

Main photo: Burst/pexels.com

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