What’s The Difference Between Copied Content And Duplicate Content?

There is always much confusion about copied content and duplicate content and both terms are often used interchangeably. The problem is, they are both fundamentally different so it’s important that you understand the distinction. Read on and let’s clear it up once and for all…

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What is Copied Content?

Copied content (or plagiarised content) refers to any content that was taken directly from another website (typically a competitor).

You see this often on website’s built by amateurs who don’t fully understand the repercussions of copying the content from another website.

It is stealing and there are no two ways about it.

Yes, your competitor might do exactly the same thing as you and thus it may be tempting to use the words they have on their website (especially if they communicate it so well). However, it is a poor SEO practice and you will be penalised for it.

Copied content can refer to:

Content that was quite literally *copy & pasted* from another website, to your own. An exact match – which is also the easiest to identify.
Content that is copied, though reworded and changed so that it doesn’t exactly match the original source material. Some people change a few words, others rewrite it entirely which can make it harder to spot.

What is Duplicate Content?

Duplicate content on the other hand refers to content on your website that is similar or exact to other pages.

For example, if you have a lot of similar product pages on your website, it’s not uncommon to have some duplicate content. However, this can be an issue with Google as if they spot duplicate content they struggle to determine which page is more important and your rankings will suffer as a result.

Another common duplicate content issue is when businesses sell products on behalf of another brand (e.g., a power tools supplier). What often happens is that people will copy & paste the manufacturers description of the product from the original brand website. And while this might not necessarily be deemed as “stealing” because you are selling a product on their behalf, it is almost certainly considered as being duplicate content and both parties can suffer as a result.

Following that, there are also a multitude of other technical issues that can lead to duplicate content on a website (e.g., a cloned post being published unintentionally).

What’s the difference between copied and duplicate content?

Copied content is typically ‘stolen’ content, whereas duplicate content tends to come from technical issues, or marketers not wanting to write thousands of unique product descriptions.

How can you avoid copied and duplicate content?

The easiest way to avoid falling into copied and duplicate content traps is to always produce unique content – even if it means writing 1,000 individual product pages.

Regarding the technical issues that can lead to duplicate content issues on your website, unless you are well-versed in web development and feel comfortable digging around in the back-end of your website, we’d recommend calling for professional assistance.

Not only can this SEO company in Dubai help you identify and rectify any duplicate content issues on your website, but they can also help you produce unique and engaging content of your own so you don’t feel obliged to copy & paste it from
elsewhere.

Want to outperform your competitors and dominate the Google SERPs? You’ve got to invest in quality content creation of your own!

Also Read : What Is Meant By ‘Anchor Text’? Does It Make That Much Of A Difference?