Why Bing Doesn’t Struggle with Canonical URLs and Duplicate Content, But Google Does!

Let’s talk about something that’s been driving me nuts for years: Google’s ongoing struggles with handling canonical URLs and duplicate content. It’s a problem that, despite being fundamental to search engine optimization (SEO), Google still can’t seem to get right.

And while Google continues to flounder, guess who’s quietly acing it? Bing. Yes, you read that right – Bing!

It’s honestly baffling. Here we are, in 2024, and Google, the self-proclaimed king of search, can’t even get the basics of web indexing straight.

Let’s break this down.

The Canonical URL Catastrophe

A canonical URL is meant to tell search engines which version of a page is the “official” one when you have multiple URLs with similar or identical content. Seems simple enough, right? You’d think Google, with all its technological might and years of search engine dominance, would have perfected this by now. But nope. Google’s handling of canonical tags is, more often than not, a dumpster fire.

Why? Because Google has a tendency to ignore your carefully placed canonical tags, or worse, it just gets them wrong. It might pick the wrong version of your page, or even worse – it might randomly declare some other URL as the canonical without any explanation.

This leads to pages getting improperly indexed, with duplicate content spread across multiple URLs and absolutely no way for you to control it. Result? Your rankings plummet, your SEO strategy crumbles, and your site’s traffic tanks – all thanks to Google’s refusal to play by the canonical rulebook.

But, oh, here’s where it gets good. Bing? Bing doesn’t have these problems. Bing can crawl your site, see your canonical tag, and follow it like a well-behaved child. It doesn’t second-guess you, doesn’t ignore your instructions, and doesn’t make arbitrary decisions that hurt your visibility.

Bing understands that when a site owner points to a canonical URL, that’s what it should respect. It’s as if Bing actually listens to website owners, while Google seems to be playing SEO bingo with your site’s content.

Duplicate Content Woes

Then there’s duplicate content. Another area where Google’s “genius” just falls flat. We all know duplicate content is a big issue when it comes to SEO. When search engines find multiple copies of the same content, they’re supposed to figure out which one is the most relevant and display it in search results. Seems simple, right? Well, it’s not.

Google has been notorious for misidentifying duplicate content, sometimes even penalizing sites with pages that have only slight variations. I’ve seen it happen time and again: you publish a well-researched article, and somehow, Google finds another page on your site and decides they’re too similar, tanking your rankings.

Why does this happen? It’s because Google’s algorithm, despite being incredibly complex, still can’t reliably handle duplicate content in certain situations. There are cases where Google just can’t seem to distinguish between genuinely different pages and what’s essentially the same content presented slightly differently – even if those pages are clearly differentiated by their canonical tags or intended purpose.

The result? Duplicate content penalties, frustrated webmasters, and a whole lot of wasted time trying to get Google to "understand" your site.

Now, Bing? Bing doesn’t overcomplicate things. It doesn’t see minor content variations and freak out like Google does.

It doesn’t penalize you for every slight difference between two pages that have the same general topic. Instead, Bing takes a more balanced approach to identifying and handling duplicate content. You won’t find yourself scrambling to fix duplicate content issues that Google invented in the first place. It just works.

The Moral of the Story

Why is Bing, a search engine that many still dismiss, consistently getting the basics right while Google is out here making life unnecessarily difficult for website owners? The answer is simple: Google is overcomplicating things, and it’s failing to acknowledge the importance of consistency and accuracy in indexing and content management.

In contrast, Bing seems to have a more grounded, practical approach. Bing might not dominate the search engine market the way Google does, but at least when it comes to handling canonical URLs and duplicate content, Bing is getting it right.

It’s time for Google to stop pretending that its “complex algorithms” are the answer to everything. Sometimes, simplicity works better. Maybe it’s time for Google to take a page out of Bing’s playbook and fix the very issues that have been plaguing SEO professionals for years. Because if Bing can get it right, there’s absolutely no excuse for Google to keep getting it wrong.