When is Duplicate Content Duplicate Content

[National-Homebuyers]

Hi,

I was wondering exactly when duplicate content is duplicate content? Is it always when it is word-for-word or if it is similar? For example, we currently have an information page and I would like to add a FAQ to the website. There is, however, a crossover with the content and some of it is repeated. However, it is not written word for word. Could you please advise me?

Thanks a lot

Tom

[gazzerman1]

I had a conversation about this in a Google hangout with John Mueller, internal duplicate content is not an issue he said. Google will send a customer to the page it thinks is best.

Its only a problem if most of your content is poor quality and duplicated to create landing pages just to capture keywords.

Even external duplicate content is not that much of an issue as many sites have api's and affiliate schemes that have shared content, John Mueller says that if you are offering something different and unique additionally then that should be fine. Also we are seeing lots of content curating lately and Google seems to favor this too.

I see no reason at all for you to be worried, I would go ahead and add it to your FAQ.

[Kokolo]

As Gary said, it may not be harmful, yea.

But it bugs my eye to see issues like duplicate content in moz analytics.

Even if it's not that influential, it's the small things that make everything better.

Here is a nice piece of content from Ellie here on Moz: https://moz.com/blog/how-to-defeat-duplicate-content-next-level

If you feel like you need more content, here is everything on moz about duplicate content: https://moz.com/pages/search_results?q=duplicate+content

[Andy.Drinkwater]

Gary has pretty much hit the nail on the head. What you are proposing doesn't sound like it would cause any issues. Google are smart enough to know that sometimes there is a crossover of content. It might be a different story if every page was the same, but as I always advise in these situations, use a little common sense and think:

• Does the content add something beneficial?
• Why is the page being produced?
• Can what is being proposed, enhanced so it it not copied verbatim?

Make sure the page is well produced, questions clear and answers concise.

-Andy

[National-Homebuyers]

Thank you ever so much, you've all been really helpful. Thanks a lot!!

[AMHC]

We actually have 2 nearly identical ecommerce websites, with identical product descriptions, and prior to us doing a cross-domain canonical, we would frequently have both sites ranking in the top 20 for a keyword.

The cross domain canonical really helped - massive rankings increase.