How do you avoid content duplication and cannibalization when creating content variety for SEO copywriting?

Content duplication and cannibalization can hinder your SEO efforts, so it's essential to create a variety of content without overlap. I employ a few strategies to ensure this. Initially, I create a comprehensive content plan outlining the main focus of each piece of content. The plan helps me ensure each topic is distinct and targets unique, relevant keywords. It's crucial to maintain an organized content calendar, specifying the primary keyword for each piece. Secondly, I make use of tools like Copyscape to ensure the originality of the content. These plagiarism checkers help verify that new content isn't a duplicate of existing material, either internally or externally.

Creating engaging content can often be more important than keyword targeting. Keeping one or more keywords or phrases can improve search rankings on those specific keywords; however, search algorithms also track time spent on pages and backlinks. Excessive emphasis on keywords can lead to duplication and cannibalization.

It's almost always more cost effective to update and refresh existing content than to try and revisit a subject you've covered. Optimization can be as basic as changing the publish date of an article or adding new resources.

It's important to note that while we talk about "penalties" being assessed by search engines, you won't suddenly have your site banished or receive a bill from Google just because you had one or two pages with duplicate content. The penalty is that you may not appear in search results, and instead be hidden behind a "see similar results" link all the way at the end of the very last search results page.

It's also important to consider content duplications risks and strategy at the onset of a project. In my experience as a content marketing manager, I maintain a spreadsheet of my proposed topic to promote, as well as a list of different asset types and ways to differentiate the information across content, to maintain credibility while still allowing our team to approach a topic from different angles and for different audiences.

If you find duplicate content issues on your site, you can also take this as an opportunity to create related, but original content. This way, you have a starting point, which can make the process of writing a new article a little faster and easier. By using tools like AlsoAsked or Answer the Public, you can identify related topics that people are searching for and turn your duplicate page into a complementary one, instead.

It's essential to look at your content through the lens of an overall strategy, rather than just through monthly themes or topics. By doing so, you can ensure that you have a balanced approach and enough variety to avoid duplication and cannibalization. It's also important to approach your content with a mindset of "quality over quantity." Sheer quantity is no longer the name of the game, and when it comes to SEO, it can actually damage your reach because of this very issue.

Having an organized content calendar is essential. One great way to do this is with the pillar/cluster approach. First, you identify a handful of broad topics (say, 3-5) that are popular with your audience and beneficial for SEO. Then, you create lists of subtopics that relate to one of the broad topics. By lining this all up on a spreadsheet or in a project management tool like Asana, you can plan out your content in advance and make sure each of your subtopics is unique.