Is duplicate content the biggest SEO problem?

Duplicate content has been called the "single biggest search engine optimisation (SEO) problem on the internet" by one sector commentator.

Making his assertion, SEOmoz's Danny Dover points to a Best Practice post on the site by Jen Lopez which explains duplicate content is quite simply content which features in more than one location online.

When there are multiple pieces of identical content, the job of the search engines becomes harder as they encounter difficulty evaluating which version is the most relevant answer to a user's search query.

As search engines are unlikely to discount the additional identical features they will aim to use the one it deems to be an original or the best, which could see businesses losing out.

Ms Lopez notes whenever content on a site is found at multiple URLs they need to be "canonicalised" for the search engines using a 301 redirect to the correct URL.

"When multiple pages with the potential to rank well are combined into a single page, they not only no longer compete with one another, but create a stronger relevancy and popularity signal overall," she adds.

In turn, this will see the content ranking well on search engines.

Keyword targeting is also important in SEO, with SEOmoz's Randfish noting planning is key to getting the best results possible.

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