Possible Reasons for Duplicate Content (Important Info)

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Hey WA family. This post will address the following questions:

  • possible reasons why you received duplicate content errors
  • Wordpress tags and categories

Today I received an email from a fellow WA'er Luke who checked his Semrush and it appeared that he has duplicate content.

He couldn't figure out why this happened since all the content was created by him. We've come to the conclusion that the reason could be that he used the same words for both tags and categories.

Don't EVER do that!!!

I had a short, yet straight-forward WA training tutorial published a couple of years ago and it's very much relevant to today's blog post topic.

What are tags and categories, and reasons why you should NOT use the same word for both.

It's short and straight to the point. And possibly will help you understand why you had duplicate content errors (or avoid it future).

I don't even use tags, just categories and that's it. I don't want to come off as over-spamming in Google's eyes.

Let me know your thoughts in the comments!

P.S. I was told that Jay is against using tags too, I guess it could be for the very same reasons.

Important

Do not remove the already existing tags, it will give you 404 error in Google Webmasters. Please, just leave the existing tags.

Thank you for your input @Shrestha!

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Recent Comments

100

This is definitely good information about tags and categories.

Another item to check: duplicate content can also occur when webmasters don't specify their preference as to https://YourWebsiteName.com and https://www.YourWebsiteName.com. Google will treat this as two instances unless people use Search Console to indicate to them which is the preference. Many refer to this as the canonical URL.

Here is what Google has to say about it:
https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/139066

I think by now Google should figure this out that people mean it to be the same. But, unfortunately, this is not the case and webmasters are supposed to choose the preferred form.
Best Regards,
Jim

Thank you for sharing this resources, Jim :) Appreciate it!

Dang, I just figured this out last week with a 2 week trial of SEMrush.... boy is it great, but about $90/month .

I recommend that when anyone gets knowledgeable enough to navigate and use WordPress, you next real objective should be to "polish" your knowledge through their tools and recommendations. It's definitely being added to my arsenal asap!

I could have corrected this al LONG time ago. Great support value here.

Haven't used Semrush yet but I did hear a lot of good stuff about it for sure. Once we get $$$ flowing in affording $90 will be a piece of cake lol

Can I ask you to be more specific regarding Category names and Tags (both H1 and Title tags)? For example: lets say my category is CBD Pet Products, and my H1 Title of my post is CBD Pet Hemp Oil. Do you consider that duplicate content/spammy looking. And then, let's say the SERP title is What is CBD Pet Hemp Oil ?..... Is this making it worse, because I don't know how to avoid legitimate keywords for which I'm trying to rank that just happen to have some of the same words being used.

Your thoughts?

If I understand you correctly, then I wouldn't consider it duplicate content. To me it seems that you are using proper SEO strategies (like low hanging keyword in the SERPS title). As for the category, it's pretty specific but it's not exactly the same as the title and as far as I know the issue is between TAGS and categories, not the titles and categories.

That's just my opinion though.

The biggest duplicate content lesson I recently lerned from SEMrush is that it's the Title Tags in SERP and H1 tag for the post or page that cannot be the same.

I am confused by title tag in SERP you are referring to the title that's seen to people in google and H1 is the title within the blog itself?

If so, then I have no idea how the hell that could cause duplicate content... so many people use the exact same keyword within the post and as the title for people to see in search.

And SEMrush says that they cannot be exactly the same. Weird
? Yes. Perhaps an SEMrush expert could advise us and help clarify...as opposed to hundreds of worthless opinions.

I don't use SEMrush so I am not sure what exactly they mean but probably it is wiser indeed to contact them. Sorry I couldn't help.

I already did. That's why I'm sharing their info.

Thanks. I never knew this.

No problem

This is very easy to do if you are not concentrating. At least for me. It is automatic that I want to put the posts in a relevant category and also use relevant "key" words in my tags. I have had to go back and uncheck a few categories on some posts for this reason (although I never received a duplicate content warning).

I am curious about your stance on not using tags as everything I have researched indicates you should definitely use them to help with SEO/ranking. I would be interested in knowing potential for being viewed as spam for using them.

Woiuld it be "Overuse" or adding too many tags? I see a lot of back and forth about how many is too many. If anyone knows a good legit answer to a limit for tags I would like to know as the answer seems to be all over the place on that.

I learned about tags a while ago and now I don't remember any sources so I can't even link to them. But I haven't used tags probably like forever. My content ranks well without tags too.

Hopefully other people will be able to continue their knowledge too. I will be looking out for this one once I go through the bootcamp training.

Ok..thanks. I am always open to hearing new tactics and warnings about what not to do as well.

Good post on letting folks know about the category/tag issue.

Always happy to contribute to the community :)

Not sure if this will help anyone, but I'm going to offer it anyway.

I used to do some get paid writing web content as a ghostwriter for extra cash, and their are several free online plagiarism checkers out there that will check and highlight anything that is showing as duplicate content. Often it is as simple as a common quote or phrase that will flag it.

These tools will show you exactly where the duplicate content is in your post.

I do not remember the one I used in the past, but if you just google the phrase, "online plagiarism checker" you should find several options.

You might try a couple of them, just to be sure.

Hope this helps.

Shane.

Hey Shane, thank you for sharing your thoughts, I am sure people will benefit from your input.

Thank you for the update. I will look into that right away.
Sheila

Happy to be of help

Very interesting, Zarina. Thanks.:)

Pleasure, Vera :)

:))

:)

Thanks for the heads up! It was very helpful..

Glad I could help :)

As soon as I saw your post, I went to my site and doubled check my categories and tags and I gladly found out that they were not the same.

However, you mention in your post that you don't use tags for fear of over spamming Google?

I did some research a while back and found out that Categories are meant for the broad grouping of your posts. In contrast, Tags are meant to describe specific details of your posts. So I use tags on all of my posts.

I was not aware of the fact that tags would penalize my post? Could you explain why?

I am not 100% sure but last time I checked It was believed that search engines don't pay much attention to tags anymore as tags have been greatly abused in order to drive traffic to sites with irrelevant content.

If you are using tags just be careful to not over spam it (similar keywords multiple times).

I know some people do still use tags and I don't want to give an incorrect advice. I am just saying what I heard a couple of years ago.

Great info. I did not know that about tags, I don't use them either but it is good to know what happens, Thanks very much for sharing.

Carl

Yeah it's good to know just in case. Thanks for stopping by, Carl!

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