Websites with good rankings containing duplicate content can easily fall into the depth of the Google void, which means it becomes extremely difficult to find these sites through the search result pages. Webmasters have never been disturbed by this; however, since the existence of Panda and Penguin, webmasters have realized that it is not something that can be ignored any longer. Not many webmasters know exactly what duplicate content means and what it is they are supposed to do when it is present. In this article, you will learn a few useful things concerning duplicate content.
What is Duplicate Content? 
Bear in mind that there are several types of duplicate content, such as:
– Content that can be found on your website as well as on other websites
This normally means the content that you have on your pages are the same as the one found on other sites/pages.
– A reproduction of content that is found within your website
Your website is most likely filled with a header, footer, and a sidebar with content that is visible on each page of the website. In addition, there are keywords stuffed into your content on the website. In the past, this made for good SEO practices, which helped plenty of websites to gain rankings in search result pages. However, it is an entirely different story now, as these things can lead you to the Google void. You should avoid duplicate content within your website, while taking the meta-lines and meta-descriptions into consideration, as well, as they are seen as content.
– Content based on the idea of canonicalization
There are a few versions of how a website is determined in terms of ranking. For example, if people type, “abc.com” and “www.abc.com”, they will end up on the same page, or it seems like it. However, those are two different pages that have their own Page Authority and PageRank. This means, one of the two pages will obtain more traffic, which will gain further authority eventually. Thus, it is imperative that you highlight the page that you want Google to recognize. This can be done by applying a code to let search engines know which page is better or preferred.
Can Duplicate Content Ruin Your Life?
Duplicate content can have undesirable effects on traffic and rankings. Your website or websites were ranking higher due to the keywords that you created to make sure it stays on top. All the years of hard work are paying off, or so you think. One day, you wake up to check your websites’ rankings and they are nowhere to be found on Google.
There is a huge possibility that the duplicate content on your websites are the cause of your loss. People have practiced SEO for many years and SEO used to work very well for many website owners. However, Google has seen it as an unnatural way of inflating rankings. As a result, Google has decided that it might penalize sites or pages with disproportionate duplicate content. This could certainly lead to the demise of many websites.
A Quest for Duplicate Content
Is it possible to find out if all your content is duplicate content? The answer is, yes, and there are a few ways you can use to determine if you have duplicate content on your website. The easiest way to find out is to copy the content into Google along with quotes surrounding the content phrase. This way, you are able to tell if the content can be found on other websites, as the links to similar content will be highlighted in the search result pages.
Alternatively, you can use an SEO site crawler to help streamline the process of finding duplicate content on several different websites. If you would like to apply canonicalization to fix it, it is best that you hire a web developer to assist you, especially if you do not know a lot about canonicalization.
Now that you are aware of the different types of duplicate content and how to fix it, you can implement what you have learned to regain your website status or ranking. Google is kind enough to create a page for Webmaster Tools, where you can find plenty of answers to all the questions you might have in regards to Penguin, Panda, and duplicate content. If you are looking at creating a new website, you might want to consider implementing the most basic of SEO practices and avoid the black hat tactics. If you ignore it, then your website has a chance of being penalized by Google and it will eventually lose its current traffic and rankings.
