Technical Foundations · 1.7
Duplicate Content & Broken Redirects
The same page existing at two different web addresses, or an old link — say, to a property that's since sold — leading to a page that no longer exists, showing a plain “404 error” instead.
Why this matters
The customer’s side
Clicking through to a dead page feels broken and unprofessional — like the business isn't paying attention to its own website, which quietly undermines trust in everything else you do too.
The search engine’s side
Splits your ranking strength across duplicate URLs
Search engines actively rank down duplicate content, and when the same content exists on two URLs, your ranking strength gets split between them rather than working together.
See it happen
Same listing, two addresses. Watch where the ranking strength actually goes.
Duplicate, unredirected
/property-123
/listings/property-123
Same page, two addresses. Ranking strength split in two.
Redirected to one
/property-123
/listings/property-123 → redirects above
One address left standing. Full ranking strength, combined.
How to check yours
Method 1 — Google Search Console
check the Pages report for anything flagged as duplicate or redirected.
- 1.Go to Google Search Console and select your property.
- 2.Click “Pages” in the sidebar under “Indexing” (this report used to be called “Coverage”).
- 3.Check for anything labelled “Duplicate without user-selected canonical” or “Page with redirect.”
Method 2 — Screaming Frog, for a fuller crawl
run a full crawl of your site to catch what Search Console might miss.
- 1.Download Screaming Frog, free.
- 2.Type your website address in and click “Start.”
- 3.Click “Response Codes” for 404s, and the “URL” tab for a duplicate content filter.
How to fix what you find
Duplicate content
decide which version is “official,” and redirect the other to it.
Broken link
fix the destination, or set up a 301 redirect somewhere relevant.
Keeping on top of it
Every new page is a fresh chance for this exact issue to appear again — worth checking weekly.
How Reyse handles this
Done With You
we run the checks and tell you exactly what to redirect and where.
Done For You
we monitor and fix this directly, every month.