A “Duplicate Content Penalty” refers to a search engine’s negative impact on a website’s ranking due to the presence of identical or very similar content across multiple pages or domains. This penalty is imposed because search engines, like Google, aim to deliver unique and valuable content to users. When multiple pages feature the same content, it can confuse search engines about which page to prioritize, potentially leading to lower rankings for all pages involved. To avoid this penalty, it’s essential to ensure that each page on a website offers distinct and original content.