Having a unique site, targeted to your target and useful for your users is essential to be rewarded by search engines. But what are the techniques to avoid duplicate content on Shopify eCommerce?
Consider that, between two identical contents, Google rewards only one but it could get confusing and, in any case, waste time and consume resources to scan the duplicate url. For this reason, we recommend that you always create unique content. In this article, we will explain in detail what they are and “How to avoid duplicate content on Shopify eCommerce?”
Are you sure your business doesn’t deserve original content? Maybe you don’t know that, sometimes, duplicate content is generated automatically by the CMS with which your e-commerce is built. To figure out if your site has duplicate content, just do a thorough website audit.
Does your Shopify eCommerce have a lot of duplicate content?
First of all let’s clarify: what is meant by duplicate content? Duplicate content is made up of blocks of content that are the same or nearly the same as others within the same or another domain.
It often happens to find duplicate content in product descriptions or when the same product belongs to more than one category. Actually, to make a product sheet original, you just need to add more specific information. This is what can make your online shop unique.
But the problem of duplicate content is not just about product sheets. In many e-commerce sites there are the same pages with different target audiences, i.e. the same content is repeated for different targets. Another example of a duplicate that is often encountered is identical titles or meta descriptions in the pagination.
Think about it, did you make any of these mistakes? Do you know what the risks are of having duplicate content on your site?
Strategies to avoid duplicate content on Shopify eCommerce.
If you don’t know how to deal with the duplicate problem, don’t despair! There are SEO strategies that can help you.
So how do you solve the problem of duplicates in e-commerce? With 4 basic steps:
- Sitemap optimization;
- managing URL parameters;
- the correct use of canonical and noindex tags;
- correct use of filters.
Let’s see all the steps in detail.
A complete sitemap is essential for Google to include pages without inbound links in the search results. It is a site map – as the word “sitemap” itself says – usually in xml format , in which a list of pages and resources present throughout the website is inserted.
A well-structured sitemap helps search engines index your site faster and correctly.
To encourage indexing, you need to make sure the robots.txt file is configured correctly.
Another decisive role is what bradcrumbs play. By creating an intuitive and logical navigation structure , you allow the user to have a good user experience within your site.
How to manage URL parameters
URL parameters are variables that are used to:
- order items;
- store information on users’ browsing;
- select items;
- track advertising campaigns;
- customize the page.
By examining the various URL parameters, we cover those that do not impact significantly, as opposed to those that have a lot of influence. Typically, for the former, which are ad campaign tags, sorting, filters, and personalization, we use a noindex or canonical rule.
It is very important to pay attention to pages that do not have products: for this reason, you must prevent clicking on links to a blank page.
Noindex and canonical are used to give directions to search engines. Their functions are very different.
The noindex tells search engines that a page should not be indexed.
The rel canonical tag tells search engines that two or more URLs are on the same page, but only one is the official one. The canonical tag is very useful from an SEO point of view, as it preserves the authority of the page.
In some cases, however, it is necessary to use the noindex, especially if you do not want to index any version of the page. These two tags should never be used at the same time. The no index should be set at the beginning and not when the page has already been indexed.
What content should be designated as canonical?
- duplicates;
- the content of the display pages;
- the A / B tests of the official URL.
While it is better to insert these contents as noindex:
- the personnel login pages;
- shopping carts and thank you pages;
- the internal search pages;
- duplicate pages that cannot be included as canonical;
- the narrow categories of products, which are similar to their main categories.
Why you need to pay attention to Product Filters
We can distinguish filters into two categories: those that can be scanned by search engines and those that cannot be crawled.
The filters to be indexed are those that produce different and structured pages. Their function is to significantly extend product categories. In addition, they give more information about the product, describing its characteristics.
Filters that shouldn’t be indexed are those that don’t add value to the content but rearrange it without any changes. Filters help you to make a sort product price or popularity fall into this category.
And Filters that save user preferences, without affecting the content, should also not be indexed.
Indexing filters is a job that requires great attention and skill.
Here’s what you risk if your site has a lot of identical content
As we mentioned, inserting duplicate content can be a quick and convenient way to fill a site, saving you the expense of creating texts.
But do you have any idea how harmful it can be? The problem of the originality of the contents is felt when trying to have a good positioning on search engines.
What happens when Google detects the same textual content on two different pages?
The biggest risks of having duplicate content are these:
- the page loses positions in the search results;
- you lose visits and potential customers;
- your customers do not perceive the uniqueness of your product;
- the differences between you and the competition do not emerge.
- This means your Shopify eCommerce will generate fewer sales.
Troubleshoot your e-commerce errors
As you will have understood, the presence of duplicate content does not help your e-commerce site to stand out in the search results. Losing positions in the SERP also leads to a loss of visits and compromises the sales of your online store.
But what good is e-commerce that does not sell? Avoiding duplicate content, identifying it and managing it correctly requires great skill. Don’t give up on visibility, let your customers find you and increase the sales of your e-commerce site by contacting us for advice.
Conclusion
Finally, you know “How to avoid duplicate content on Shopify eCommerce?” Do you have any more questions in your mind about Shopify Store? Tell us. We will answer your question as soon as possible.
