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Definition of the term, "duplicate content"

duplicate content

Duplicate content is an issue that can negatively affect your search engine rankings. Basically, duplicate content is the same text repeated on more than one page, either on your own site or over multiple sites.

The duplicate content issue can either be an intentional occurrence (eg, article distribution) or an unintentional result of a programming error (eg your content management system produces multiple URLs for the same page). Either, way the extent that duplicate content affects your site should be monitored.

If your content is duplicated within your own site then potentially the SEO value of the duplicated pages will be reduced - links to the page of content will be diluted due to the fact that inbound links will point to different pages.

In terms of article distribution, the issue isn't a negative effect on your site, but a reduced impact of the links your duplicated articles gain for you. An article published on 20 sites (linking back to you) will have a lot less potency than a handful of articles linking back.

Related terms and definitions

• article distribution
• ethical link building
• inbound links
• inbound links

eflaunt is a UK Internet Marketing and Search Engine Optimisation agency based in Edinburgh, Scotland. For industry news, please refer to the eflaunt SEO blog.