Lately, I have come across many hospitality websites that have duplicate content. Anyone in the search engine optimization world knows that duplicate content is not good.
So, may you ask, just what is duplicate content, why is it bad, and how can it be fixed?
Duplicate content is created with the content of a web page or web site is similar to or the same as that of another site or page. This can happen as duplicate content from other web pages on your site or from other sites, or within a number of sites that all contain duplicate content.
If you have two or more URL addresses that all point to the same directory on your hosting server, you have duplicate content. If you have pages within the same domain that are similar to each other, this is also considered duplicate content.
The search engines are always trying their best to show the most relevant content at the top of the results in the organic listings. There are very complicated algorithms that sift through the results to determine what gets top placement. There are also rules that can get a site lowered in placement, penalized, or even banned from the search engines. One of these rules pertains to duplicate content.
The solution to change duplicate content within your travel website is simple – write unique web content. Rewrite the content on any pages that are the same or similar, then publish the new content.
The solution for duplicate URL addresses is a little more complicated, but can be done. The easiest solution is to cancel all of the websites besides the main URL. If this is not an option, then first pick the URL that has the best performance in web results. Use that URL as the main travel and tourism website. Ask your hosting company to place a 301 redirect from any other URL and point it to the main URL. For example, there are three websites that all have the same content. You determine that http://www.mywebsite.net is the main URL. You then request that http://www.mywebsite.org and http://www.websiteofmine.com have a 301 redirect that points to http://www.mywebsite.net.
If you track results from your sites, a 301 redirect will affect these results. If you use a server log-based tracker, such as Urchin, you may no longer be able to track traffic that is coming from the redirected sites. However, if you use a java script-based tracker, such as Google Analytics, you can add coding to the site to track these jump pages.
