Duplicate Content
Identical or very similar content appearing on multiple URLs, which can confuse search engines.
Duplicate content is when the same (or substantially similar) content appears at more than one URL. This can happen within your own site (internal duplication) or across different websites (external duplication).
Common causes of internal duplication: www vs. non-www versions, HTTP vs. HTTPS versions, URL parameters (like sorting or filtering), print-friendly pages, and paginated content. Most sites have some duplicate content without realizing it.
Google doesn't penalize duplicate content in the traditional sense — there's no "duplicate content penalty." Instead, Google picks one version to show in search results and ignores the rest. The problem is that Google might pick the wrong version, or split your ranking signals between multiple URLs.
External duplication (someone copying your content, or syndicated content) is a different issue. Using canonical tags pointing to your original version helps, and Google is generally good at identifying the original source.
Why It Matters for SEO
Duplicate content dilutes your ranking signals across multiple URLs instead of consolidating them on one. It wastes crawl budget, can lead to the wrong version being indexed, and makes it harder for search engines to determine which page should rank.
🔍 How to Check This
AuditMySite's SEO Scanner identifies duplicate content issues including missing canonical tags and duplicate meta tags.
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