Last Updated on March 29, 2024
Duplicate content occurs when identical or very similar text appears on the same web page or on different web pages. Search engines focus on positive user experience and unique content, which is why identical or similar content is only indexed once.
Why is Duplicate Content Good for Our Websites?
Duplicate Content Helps People
Duplicate Content is Democratic and Freedom Loving
Duplicate Content Inspires Us to be Different!
Duplicate Content is Climate-Friendly
Duplicate Content for the Win: Wayfair.com
Is Duplicate Content Harmful?
Duplicate content can happen. You know it, I know it. With the use of AI tools for content creation, the chance of duplicate content appearing is increasing too – and that then becomes a problem for our SEO.
I talk about duplicate content in my classes and I talk about it in my book.
Commercial Break: SEO All You Need to Know Amazon Kindle and Paperback
We shouldn’t beat ourselves – or others – up about duplicate content. We have bigger problems today. Instead, we should embrace it.
Duplicate content frees us. Duplicate content challenges us. Duplicate content is not bad. Duplicate content is good.
According to Matt Cutts, 25% to 30% of the web consists of duplicate content. According to him, Google doesn’t consider duplicate content as spam, (Editor’s note: but Toxic Backlinks are a type of spam), and it doesn’t lead your site to be penalized unless it is intended to manipulate the search results.
Stan Ventures
Duplicate content is good? Indeed. Duplicate content gives us choice. Duplicate content catches our eye. Duplicate content challenges us. With most of our websites beginning to look like identical block towers, duplicate content will make our websites great again!
How Many Different Brands of the Same Thing Do We Need?
My grocery store sells nine different brands of plain yoghurt. Nine. How many types of plain yoghurt do we need? One.
They sell fifteen different brands of ketchup, twelve different brands of mustard, and about twenty different brands of olive oil too. How many do we need? Honestly? How many would get the job done? Probably one of each.
Most people use Heinz ketchup. 150% more expensive than other brands – it’s still all ketchup though.
How many different colas are there? Aren’t they all just fizzy drinks?
There are more than 3,000 different brands of mustard in the world!
I don’t know how many olive oil brands there are but Spain alone has 93!!
50 different brands of sandwich bread, 85 different yoghurt brands, 100 different types of beer … !!!
We live in a world of duplicate content, and we pay top dollar so it has a different label.
Why is Duplicate Content Good for Our Websites?
Our websites are like a store. Or a restaurant. We are loyal to our stores and restaurants even though most of the products are the same we find on other shelves or on other menus.
When is the last time you complained to your local pizzeria that they’re selling the same pizza as other pizzerias? It doesn’t happen. We’re just happy we don’t have to drive to Italy for pizza.
Fun fact: The best pizza in the world is in Pheonix, Arizona – not Italy.
Doing the same thing gives everyone the chance to do the same thing better! I wear jeans, you wear jeans, most people wear the same brand of jeans. No one complains. This is surprising because some people wear jeans better than others.
I probably drive exactly the same model and year of car as many other people. Good chance because 162,000 Renault Capturs were sold in Germany in 2021 alone. The difference is I just happen to drive it better than anyone else.
Duplicate Content Helps People
Duplicate content helps those who need help. Period. That’s really important. Duplicate content is accessible content.
When we have guest posts, or share content of others we are not only supporting their work but their livelihoods too.
And let’s not forget Social Media. Perhaps 10% of our followers will ever see our posts. They are either not online at the time of posting or the algorithm won’t show it. Posting the same content means more people may see it.
Duplicate content here truly means ‘duplo’ – twice is fine. Ten times would be Multiplicate. Don’t go there.
Duplicate content can also save time and money. We could all do with mire of both. Give yourself a boost. Here is one such product: a Content Pack.
Content Packs for Niche Web Agencies:
https://bridgetwillard.com/launch-with-words-premium/
Another Fun Fact! Content Packs aren’t duplicate content.
You can change your content to fit your own needs and those of your customers. Add a star to the back of your jeans. Add curry to your ketchup. Make your fries curly. Add cheese to the crust of your pizza!
The same content on the same website can actually be very helpful. Here is an example: A post about SEO and Accessibility for two different and yet connected target groups; online marketing students and small business owners. The article contains, at certain points, content that would be relevant for both. Duplicate content in the same article for serve a purpose and to help people.
Duplicate Content is Democratic and Freedom Loving
Pan over to scenes of Soviet countries in the 50s and 60s. We were shocked by how little choice people had. Duplication means choice – of the same thing packaged in a different way – perhaps – but choice none the less. Duplication means freedom and democracy. Duplication is good!
That the same content is on my website as somewhere else means my visitors have access to it. They may never see your website. Why should they be deprived of content? There are billions of websites out there and Google only has about 4% of all the pages indexed so the chance is high.
If you don’t allow my duplicate content, are you even being very democratic?
We poo-poo duplicate content because Google won’t like it. We cry for freedom in almost every other aspect of our lives, but we go out of our way to support the dictatorship that is sometimes Google.
Yes. Be ashamed.
If you decide to guest post, there’s a chance your usual audience won’t see your guest posts, so you might want to republish this content on your own blog. Won’t republishing the guest post hurt the rankings, though? Not really. (Neil Patel)
Duplicate Content Inspires Us to be Different!
The same content on different websites is actually different duplicate content.
True. The same is different. How?
- + Different context
- + Different function
- + Different customer journey
- + Different tweeks and twerks
- + Different font style
With SEO already being shrouded in mystery and wrapped in an enigma, it’s no wonder why we collectively flinch when we hear the term “duplicate content.” What is worse than duplicate content, friend? Yep, you guessed it. No content.
Bridget Willard
Duplicate Content is Climate-Friendly
Duplicate content is good. Duplicate content is accessible content.
When we use duplicate content we are recycling. Reusing. Reducing the amount of time online. Reducing CO2 emissions.
Duplicate content is sustainable content. Duplicate content is climate-friendly content.
Yet the SEO world has demonized duplicate content and fear-mongered many webmasters to believe any presence of duplicate content might warrant a Google penalty. It won’t. (Klient Boost)
Duplicate Content for the Win: Wayfair.com
Duplicate content can be used to support long-tail optimization, such as in the case of Wayfair. wayfair.com
80% of this website’s organic traffic comes from duplicate or near-duplicate keywords. Do Search this on Google – site:wayfair.com/keyword.php
Is Duplicate Content Harmful?
No. How you USE duplicate content can be harmful.
When we use duplicate content we often change a term or two. We use a better word, a stronger headline, or a more captivating image. We sort our duplicate content into different categories that suit our website. We tag it with other keywords on our blog.
We use the same content differently. We make it our own.
If duplicate content is bad, just think how much better no content would be.