Duplicate Content
Duplicate content is identical or near-identical text across multiple URLs.
Key Takaways

Splits ranking signals.

Confuses search engines.

Wastes crawl budget.

Needs canonical/redirect fixes.

Common in faceted navigation.

Not a penalty, but an issue.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is duplicate content?
Splits link equity and confuses bots.
Why is it bad?
Splits link equity and confuses bots.
How to fix?
Canonicalize or merge pages.
Does Google penalize it?
Not directly, but rankings drop.
Can AI detect duplicates?
Yes, using similarity scoring.
Step by Step Plan
01
Crawl Site
Detect duplicate content pages.
02
Find Duplicates
Check identical text blocks.
03
Apply Canonicals
Mark main version URLs.
04
Apply Canonicals
Unify duplicates.
05
Redirect
301 redundant pages.
Comparison Table
Duplicate Pages
Unique Pages
Same text
Unique text
Confuses Google
Clear signals
Split signals
Better rankings
Lower rankings
Efficient crawl
Poor crawl
Higher trust
Sources