What is duplicated content?
Duplicated content means you have similar information on more than one webpage. Here are two examples:
- Let's say your first webpage talks about x, y, and z. Now, your second webpage talks solely about y. You are now duplicating information about y. There's no need to have this single webpage for y if it's already covered in your first webpage.
- Again, let's say your first webpage talks about x, y, and z. Now your second webpage talks about a, b, c, and y. Even if y belongs on your second webpage, it's still being duplicated.
Why is duplicated content bad?
Having more than one page with similar content will make it harder for search engines to decipher which page is more important. We don't want students getting confused about which webpage they need to click on.
How do I get rid of duplicated content?
- Find the pages on your website with duplicated content and analyze why the information appears on each page.
- Does the information need to be on both pages?
- What purpose does the information serve on each page?
- What are you trying to accomplish by including this information on your website?
- Can your goal(s) be accomplished by listing the information on one page and linked to from the other pages?
- Is this information relevant to your website's primary audiences?
- Can the pages be combined in a logical manner? Remember - fewer pages aren't always better, sometimes it is better for pages to be specific to a single topic, as long as the pages aren't only a few sentences long.
- After examining your content, either combine your information or split it out in a logical manner and re-link your pages together.