Duplicate Content
In one line
Duplicate content is the same or near-identical content living at multiple URLs, leaving search engines unsure which version should represent the page.
Going deeper
Duplicate content arises naturally from www vs non-www, http vs https, parameter URLs, pagination, printer-friendly pages and more. It is rarely intentional, but it is everywhere.
The primary fix is rel="canonical". Telling the engine 'A is the canonical URL among A, B, C' lets it consolidate signals onto one URL. When you can collapse the duplicates with 301s instead, that is even cleaner.
It hurts GEO too. Faced with several URLs holding the same facts, an AI hesitates and ends up citing different ones across different sessions. Aim for one canonical URL per topic.
Related terms
Indexing
Indexing is the step where a search engine stores a crawled page in its database. If a page is not indexed, it cannot appear in search results at all.
SEO301 Redirect
A 301 redirect is the HTTP status code that says a URL has moved permanently — passing essentially all of the original page's link equity to the new URL.
SEOnoindex / nofollow
noindex tells search engines not to add a page to the index, while nofollow tells them not to follow a specific link — both are page-level robots directives.
SEOCrawlability
Crawlability is how easily a search engine bot can reach and follow your site's pages — the precondition for indexing.
SEOGoogle Search Console
Google Search Console (GSC) is Google's free tool for monitoring how a site performs in Search — impressions, clicks, indexing status and technical issues.
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