When it comes to eCommerce, it’s the small issues that really count. Your website can look as slick as the major brands, your buying process quick and easy, but if you don’t iron out the details chances are your store may never get off the ground.
One of these ‘small’ problems is what’s known as duplicate content. This issue can impact a wide range of sites, but due to the nature of how eCommerce sites work, they are far more susceptible to it than your run-of-the-mill website.
What Is Duplicate Content?
Duplicate content is exactly what it seems to be – it’s content that’s shown on more than just a single page online. The content can either be on your own site, or spread across several. It can be a result of technical issues, a simple oversight, laziness, or plagiarism.
Whatever the root cause, duplicate content causes major problems for eCommerce websites and you should do everything you can to avoid it.
Duplicate Content and SEO
If your website relies on organic traffic from Google (i.e. you want to rank on page 1), then unique content is an absolute must. The search engine giant hates plagiarism and sites that simply churn out the same old text that’s been seen many times before – even if it’s on your very own domain.
Should you decide to persist with using duplicate content, your site will simply fail to rank on Google. We know that almost 90% of organic traffic from search engines comes from first page rankings – if you’re not there, you can pretty much discard it as a traffic stream.
This means having to invest in expensive PPC campaigns, traditional advertisements, or other online avenues such as Facebook ads. This can get extremely costly in a real hurry.
When it comes to eCommerce store design and content creation, being unique will work to your advantage.
Originality Sets You Apart
Even if you resell products that are made by another manufacturer, there’s no reason not to write your very own descriptions. It will set you apart from other eCommerce websites out there, giving customers an additional reason to pick you over anyone else.
It will give you content an added sense of legitimacy and professionalism. Instead of plagiarising content from other sites, you’ve got convincing copy that sells. Even if you have very similar products, try writing something new for each and every one.
How to Fix Duplicate Content
Despite the big problems that are caused by duplicate content, it’s actually quite easy to fix most issues. These are the most common causes, together with their solutions.
Category Pages
If you’ve built your eCommerce store on a platform that churns out automatic category pages, it’s time to put a stop to it. The reason for this is that it leads to duplicates. If you do decide to use categories, make sure these pages use snippets instead of the full content.
Canonical URL
Did you know that www.yourwebsite.com isn’t the same thing as yourwebsite.com? Google actually considers these to be two separate pages. However, they each have their own content. There are many such instances on an eCommerce site (some more complex than others).
To fix this, you need to set the ‘Canonical URL’. This is the preferred URL given to Google – this ensures the search engines consider only one, rather than all pages with the same content. This can either be done through HTML or by the content management system you are using.
Printer-Friendly Pages
Many companies create specific printer-friendly pages for content. You shouldn’t do this, as it creates duplicate text. Instead, opt for print CSS (style sheets). The code will tell the printer what settings to use, ensuring the results are printer friendly.
Write Unique Content!
Not all problems are purely technical in nature. Sometimes, the biggest duplicate content issues come from human error. It’s important that you always write unique content, even if it requires additional effort.
Don’t copy text from other websites. Ever. If you have similar products, invest some time to make the descriptions slightly different. Ensure new articles on your store blog are completely new, rather than rehashed material.
The full duplicate-content fix list for eCommerce
The article covers category pages, canonical URLs, printer-friendly pages, and writing original copy. Those are the right starting points; here is the complete practical list, because eCommerce platforms generate duplicates in more ways than most merchants realize.
- Faceted navigation and filters. Filter and sort parameters (?color=, ?sort=) create near-infinite URL variants of the same listing — the most common eCommerce duplicate-content source. Control it with canonical tags pointing to the clean category URL, parameter handling, and noindex on low-value filter combinations.
- The canonical tag, used correctly. The article is right that www vs non-www and trailing-slash variants are seen as separate. Beyond redirects, set a self-referencing canonical on every page and a corrective canonical on variant URLs so search engines consolidate signals onto the one page you want ranked.
- Product variants. Size/color variants as separate URLs duplicate the description. Either consolidate variants onto one canonical product page or genuinely differentiate the content if each must be its own URL.
- Manufacturer descriptions. The single biggest off-site duplication: the same supplier copy on hundreds of competitors' sites. Rewriting your best sellers in your own words is both a duplicate-content fix and a conversion improvement, exactly as the article argues.
- Pagination and "view all". Paginated category pages and a "view all" version can compete with each other — pick a canonical strategy and apply it consistently.
- HTTP/HTTPS and staging leaks. An indexable staging or HTTP copy of the site is a full-site duplicate. Enforce HTTPS, redirect HTTP, and block/noindex staging environments.
- Printer-friendly pages. The article's advice holds: use print stylesheets rather than separate printable URLs so you do not create a parallel set of duplicate pages.
How to find your duplicates
- Crawl the site and group pages by near-identical title or body to surface clusters.
- Check Search Console coverage for "Duplicate" and "Alternate page with proper canonical" statuses.
- Spot-check by searching a sentence of your product copy in quotes — if competitors rank for your exact text, that copy is doing nothing for you.
Frequently asked questions
Is there a Google "duplicate content penalty"? Not usually a manual penalty — the practical harm is dilution: search engines pick one version (often not the one you want) and your ranking signals are split across duplicates, suppressing all of them. Scraped or deceptive duplication is a different, penalizable case.
Do I really need to rewrite manufacturer descriptions? For your revenue-driving products, yes. Identical supplier copy gives search engines no reason to prefer your page, and gives shoppers no reason to buy from you specifically. Prioritize best sellers first.
Will canonical tags alone fix faceted-navigation duplicates? They are the core tool, but combine them with sensible parameter handling and noindex on low-value filter combinations. Canonicalization consolidates signals; controlling what gets crawled and indexed prevents the problem at the source.
Duplicate content is one of the most common and most fixable eCommerce SEO drags. See our eCommerce SEO services, or contact 1Digital Agency for an audit.