One problem for webmasters and web designers is the fear of duplicating content on a website.
Google has systems in place to scan for duplicated content across websites, and apply the appropriate penalties to those who “rip” content off another website and claim it as their own.
Fresh, unique content is by far the best way to add value and interest in your website, and for the most part, majority of webmasters create these sort of articles and content items, however sometimes, Google and other search engines can penalize your site for duplicate content, because the same content appears on two or more URLS in your site.
For Example:
http://www.example.com/
http://www.example.com/home
http://www.example.com/home?sessionID=343343
Each of the above addresses points to the same page and content, however Google has no real way of knowing which one is the correct version of that page. That was until now.
On Feburary 12th, Google’s Webmaster Central blog did an article on the new “Canonical” link tags.
What these tags allow you to do, it specify which is the correct version of a page for Google to index. Let’s take a look how it can be used:
<link rel=”canonical” href=”http://www.example.com/article.php?id=google-links” />
This could be placed in the <head> section of your website on the pages with duplicate content:
http://www.example.com/article.php?id=34333
http://www.example.com/article.php?id=34333&cat=news
This new feature is great, and adds peace of mind to content writers and web developers that as far as Search Engine Optimisation and penalties are concerned, they should be covered.