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From: Mike -
Date: Sat, Dec 27 2014 9:25AM
Subject: WCAG 2.0 and Duplicate Content
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Hello,

We have a client that would like to feature the same web page in two different places on our web site.

Essentially, we have a landing page that features links to the current issue as well as past issues of a weekly publication. Rather than featuring the links on the landing page, they want it to feature the first page of the current issue. The links would be moved to another page.

Since each volume of the publication has multiple pages, a new sub folder is created every week to house the report. This means that the first page would reside in both the sub folder (i.e. /report/33/index.htm) and on the landing page (i.e. report/index.htm) -- thereby creating two pages with the same content.

This does not seem like a good practice to follow for various reasons:

1) it could result in a screen reader reading the same content twice;
2) search engines may index the landing page with text from the current issue, but since the page changes every week, the search results listing may never be accurate;
3) duplicate content may be regarded as spam and result in penalties by the search engines;
4) since the landing page changes every week, it can create confusion if the page is bookmarked and later revisited, or if it is linked to by external parties;
5) it requires additional overhead to maintain

In my opinion, these reasons are entirely sufficient to discourage the requested set-up.

However, I am looking to know if WCAG 2.0 has any guidelines that relate to the avoidance of duplicate content.

Thanks