What is the Impact of Duplicate Content on SEO?

Plagiarism and Duplicate Content

Plagiarism and duplicate content can overlap, though they both have different meanings:

• Plagiarism is a legal term when someone steals intellectual property. This can be publishing something already created by someone else without their permission, which means you can be liable for legal penalties.
• Duplicate Content is a SEO problem, not a legal one. Google cannot fine you if its algorithm identifies your site has duplicate content. This is why Google rewards websites that offer content that is useful and authoritative. The more original content you publish, the higher your chances are of improving your ranking on search engine results pages (SERPs)

Article Spinning and Duplicate Content

If you have seen a blog post by one of your competitors that is valuable and useful to your own audience, you may decide to “spin” the article to make it original. This is often done manually. 

This approach must be done with care, as it is misleading. The uniqueness will not be high quality. Plagiarism states you cannot use a sentence taken from someone else without their permission, so while you can “spin” the article to be close to one hundred percent unique, it could still be plagiarised.

Spinning content is not a good strategy if you want to be seen as an authority in your industry. 

Duplicate Content Types

There are a number of different types of duplicate content that you need to be aware of. The most common duplicate content includes:

• Copied content – when content is copied from one side and posted on another. This is usually done without permission, which means it is plagiarism
• On-site duplication – when you publish content yourself on numerous pages, this results in duplicate content. Maybe you posted a blog on your website and then posted the identical blog on your social media page, this is still seen as duplicate content. Duplicate content can also refer to meta tags and descriptions
• Similar content – when you publish content that is not identical, but appears very similar to another piece. While it is not a direct match, it is very similar, which means it's not one hundred percent unique. 

SEO Issues Resulting from Duplicate Content

It is important to remember when creating content that search engines and your audience are looking for new, fresh, and relevant content. Content must always be one hundred percent unique, focusing on SEO Best Practices. This includes the E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authority, and Trust) principle.

When you publish duplicate content, you are not doing yourself any favours in terms of your SEO efforts. Search engines can get confused when they see duplicate content, which means you will not see an improvement in ranking. At the same time, your website visitors, will not see your brand as credible and authoritative, if they have just seen the same content on another website.

Conclusion

Anyone creating content for the purpose of boosting rankings in search engine results pages (SERPs), needs to understand the difference between original and duplicate content, along with the implications it causes to your SEO success.