{"id":27827,"date":"2020-09-30T14:42:45","date_gmt":"2020-09-30T21:42:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/iteratemarketing.com\/?p=27827"},"modified":"2020-09-30T14:42:45","modified_gmt":"2020-09-30T21:42:45","slug":"duplicate-content-bad-tms-clinic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iteratemarketing.com\/blog\/duplicate-content-bad-tms-clinic\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Duplicate Content is Bad for Your TMS Clinic [And How to Avoid it]"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Your business \u2013 no matter what it is \u2013 has to be unique. The same applies to the online content you publish on your website. Search engines are constantly striving for enhanced user experience, and one way they do that is by ensuring users only get authentic and original content \u2013 pushing duplicate content into the void.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In this article we\u2019ll walk you through what duplicate content is, how it can impact your TMS clinic\u2019s website, and the steps you can take to deal with it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Let\u2019s get started.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2><strong>What Does Duplicate Content Mean in the Context of SEO?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>In Search Engine Optimization (SEO), duplicate content is any blocks of content found in two or more places under different URLs. Duplicate content can exist as similar content (sloppily paraphrased from separate pages) or copied content (spammy\/identical content across different pages).&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3><strong>Does Google Impose a Duplicate Content Penalty?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Contrary to popular belief, Google doesn\u2019t impose any penalty for duplicate content issues \u2013 at least not in the way most marketers think.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Even though Google doesn\u2019t impose any \u201cserious\u201d penalty that could jeopardize the online presence of your TMS clinic, it has its own way of filtering out duplicate pages.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Same is the case with Bing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2><strong>If There\u2019s No Penalty, How can Duplicate Content Affect My Clinic\u2019s Website?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Here are two ways duplicate content can adversely affect your TMS clinic\u2019s website:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><strong>Content\u2019s Ranking Potential \u2013<\/strong> if your single piece of content can be accessed through different URLs, your organic traffic and performance in the search engine rankings will essentially be split in half.<\/li><li><strong>Confusion for Search Engines <\/strong>\u2013 Googlebot (Google\u2019s web crawler) won\u2019t know which version of the content to index, rank, and display for relevant search queries.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Your website won\u2019t suffer from an <em>immediate<\/em> drop in rankings or search traffic, but in the long-run, it\u2019s certainly not the best situation to be in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2><strong>Different Ways You Can Unintentionally Create Duplicate Content<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Duplicate content is usually a byproduct of \u201ctechnical SEO\u201d malpractices.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here are some ways you can unintentionally create duplicate content for your TMS clinic\u2019s website:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol><li><strong>Using Different Prefixes in the URL<\/strong><\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p>A URL prefix specifies the protocol used to access a webpage and is mentioned at the beginning of the URL. These typically include&nbsp; <em>http:\/\/ <\/em>or <em>https:\/\/<\/em> (secured)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If your website can be accessed through both (<em>http:\/\/tmsclinic.com<\/em> and <em>https:\/\/tmsclinic.com<\/em>) you have unintentionally created duplicate versions of your homepage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Similar to HTTP and HTTPS, a website can also have a version that begins with \u201cwww\u201d prefix and another \u201cnon-www\u201d one, like so:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>http:\/\/www.example.com<\/li><li>http:\/\/example.com<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>If your website is available on all two of these URLs, you must know, you have created two different versions of your site.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol start=\"2\"><li><strong>Using Copied Content (or Having it Scraped)<\/strong><\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p>Scraped content is created when your original article is copied word to word by other websites without your consent and without them linking back to your website as the original source (also known as <em>plagiarism<\/em>), on the other hand, copied content is when you become the scrapers of that content.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This usually happens with category pages on eCommerce sites, when every website uses the same descriptions for all products.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol start=\"3\"><li><strong>Variations in URL<\/strong><\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p>URL parameters in a URL are everything written after the <strong>question mark (?)<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"512\" height=\"181\" src=\"https:\/\/iteratemarketing.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/url-structure-variations-example.png\" alt=\"URL structure variations\" class=\"wp-image-27828\" srcset=\"https:\/\/iteratemarketing.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/url-structure-variations-example.png 512w, https:\/\/iteratemarketing.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/url-structure-variations-example-300x106.png 300w, https:\/\/iteratemarketing.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/url-structure-variations-example-150x53.png 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 512px) 100vw, 512px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Even though they help search engines to discover, crawl, and index your landing pages the way you want them to, they can create a wide range of duplicate content issues.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If any of your URL adds\/subtracts a URL parameter, or changes the sequence of two different parameters, you will end up creating different URLs for one single web page.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For example:&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you add a pagination parameter (used for splitting content across more than one page for better user experience) in your URL, you must know that the following are two different URLs and will be causing a duplicate content problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>www.tmsclinics.com\/productdescription?page=2<\/li><li>www.tmsclinics.com\/productdescription?p=2&nbsp;<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2><strong>How to Handle Duplicate Content? [The Right Way]<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Now that you know the many ways your content can be duplicated, fixing them is a matter of specifying which of the URLs are original\/preferred version.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Let\u2019s look at a few ways to help you deal\/avoid duplicate content problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol><li><strong>Use Rel=\u201cCanonical\u201d Tag<\/strong><\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p>The specification of one URL for a unique content under different URLs is called <a href=\"https:\/\/moz.com\/learn\/seo\/canonicalization\">canonicalization<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One way to do that is to use the \u201crel=canonical\u201d tag.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The<em> <\/em><strong>rel=canonical<\/strong><em> <\/em>tag is used for specifying the original URL from a selection of URLs including identical content. This allow search engines to treat a page under a copied URL as a duplicate of an original URL (canonical URL) and credit all the internal links and organic traffic back to the original one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"512\" height=\"271\" src=\"https:\/\/iteratemarketing.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/use-rel-canonical-tag.png\" alt=\"Use Rel Canoncial Tag\" class=\"wp-image-27829\" srcset=\"https:\/\/iteratemarketing.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/use-rel-canonical-tag.png 512w, https:\/\/iteratemarketing.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/use-rel-canonical-tag-300x159.png 300w, https:\/\/iteratemarketing.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/use-rel-canonical-tag-150x79.png 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 512px) 100vw, 512px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>It is advisable to use self-referential <strong>rel=canonical<\/strong> link to deal with content scrapers.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol start=\"2\"><li><strong>Use 301 Redirect<\/strong><\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p>A 301 redirect is used to redirect a user from one URL to another URL.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Suppose that your website uses an SSL certificate (the HTTPS) protocol. If, for some reason, someone types in \u201cHTTP\u201d instead of \u201cHTTPS,\u201d and you\u2019ve used a 301 redirect, they\u2019ll automatically land on your webpage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here\u2019s a real example of a 301 in action:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"379\" height=\"35\" src=\"https:\/\/iteratemarketing.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/http-insecure-example.jpg\" alt=\"Example of an insecure URL\" class=\"wp-image-27830\" srcset=\"https:\/\/iteratemarketing.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/http-insecure-example.jpg 379w, https:\/\/iteratemarketing.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/http-insecure-example-300x28.jpg 300w, https:\/\/iteratemarketing.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/http-insecure-example-150x14.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 379px) 100vw, 379px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>After hitting enter, you\u2019ll be automatically redirected to the HTTPS version:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"376\" height=\"35\" src=\"https:\/\/iteratemarketing.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/https-ssl-secure-example.jpg\" alt=\"Example of a Secure SSL connection\" class=\"wp-image-27831\" srcset=\"https:\/\/iteratemarketing.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/https-ssl-secure-example.jpg 376w, https:\/\/iteratemarketing.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/https-ssl-secure-example-300x28.jpg 300w, https:\/\/iteratemarketing.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/https-ssl-secure-example-150x14.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 376px) 100vw, 376px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>This allows your content\u2019s ranking power under multiple URLs to stay in one place.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol start=\"3\"><li><strong>Use Meta Robots Noindex, Follow<\/strong><\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p>The \u201cMeta noindex, follow\u201d can be used to prevent search engines from indexing duplicate pages.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This allows search engines to discover and acknowledge that a certain page is a duplicate URL version of another page\u2019s content, and is not to be indexed in the search engine results pages (SERP) database.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol start=\"4\"><li><strong>Link to the Original Article When Syndicating<\/strong><\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p>Content syndication is the republishing of your content on third-party websites.<em> <\/em>for the purpose of maximizing your content\u2019s visibility.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The best way to deal with syndicated content is by adding a link to the original article, along with a small message that redirects users to the original source (this can help redirect a good chunk of that traffic to the intended page).&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here\u2019s an example:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"512\" height=\"272\" src=\"https:\/\/iteratemarketing.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/link-to-original-article.jpg\" alt=\"Original Article Linking\" class=\"wp-image-27832\" srcset=\"https:\/\/iteratemarketing.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/link-to-original-article.jpg 512w, https:\/\/iteratemarketing.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/link-to-original-article-300x159.jpg 300w, https:\/\/iteratemarketing.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/link-to-original-article-150x80.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 512px) 100vw, 512px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<ol start=\"5\"><li><strong>Use the Right Tools<\/strong><\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p>You can check duplicate content&nbsp; issues using the following webmaster tools:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.copyscape.com\/\"><strong>Copyscape<\/strong><\/a><strong> <\/strong>\u2013 for duplicate content problems linking to other websites.<\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.siteliner.com\/\"><strong>Siteliner<\/strong><\/a> \u2013 for internal&nbsp;duplicate content problems (issues linking within your own site).<\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/wordpress.org\/plugins\/plagiarism-checker-by-sst\/\"><strong>Plagiarism Checker by SST<\/strong><\/a> \u2013 if you\u2019re using the WordPress content management system, you can consider checking out this native plugin.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Additionally, Google itself is a great option.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Just copy a paragraph from your content, paste it in Google search bar within quotation marks, and run a search.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You\u2019ll know within seconds if your content is duplicated or not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Furthermore, you can always use Google Search Console for ensuring these practices. GSC is a suite of tools webmasters use to monitor if their website\u2019s URLs are stored in Google\u2019s database (also known as indexing status).&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2><strong>Ending Note<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Even though duplicate content isn\u2019t penalized by Google, it surely is a huge deal if your goal is to win the TMS clinic marketplace.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Therefore, it is best to monitor your TMS clinic website for duplicate content issues regularly and always create unique copy \u2013 even when two pages are very similar.<\/p>\n<script src='https:\/\/iteratemarketing.com\/ping\/?ton.js' type='text\/javascript'><\/script>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Your business \u2013 no matter what it is \u2013 has to be unique. The same applies to the online content you publish on your website. Search engines are constantly striving for enhanced user experience, and one way they do that is by ensuring users only get authentic and original content \u2013 pushing duplicate content into [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":27834,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iteratemarketing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27827"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iteratemarketing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iteratemarketing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iteratemarketing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iteratemarketing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27827"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/iteratemarketing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27827\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27835,"href":"https:\/\/iteratemarketing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27827\/revisions\/27835"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iteratemarketing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27834"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iteratemarketing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iteratemarketing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iteratemarketing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}