I keep getting these questions about my opinion of the myths and the truths about the duplicate content penalty at Google. Here is one with my short answer on the subject. We’ll deal more with this issue in upcoming posts, but if you are worried, don’t be. Duplicate content is mirror sites – sites that are exactly the same – scraped content, stolen content, and affiliate pages that are all exactly the same.
People are not being penalized just because their syndicated content on their site isn’t showing up higher than other sites with the same article. THAT is search engines ranking your site – nothing more nothing less.
I hope this issue goes away – if you read Matt Cutts blog you will get the real scoop on this issue and not have to lay awake at night wondering, of all things, if syndication is bad!
- QUESTION: “What do you think about duplicate content? There has been a lot of talk about the search engines cracking down on duplicate content. I’d like your views on this.”
- In short, duplicate content as an article syndication issue is way WAY overblown (and simply not true) by people who should know better. But some have everyone stirred up about it anyway.
- TIP of The Day: If you have noticed a lot of extra stress in your life you can eliminate a large portion of it by staying away from the public forums where SEO mis-information runs wild and rampant. You’ll soon notice an incredible clarity and sense of calm (along with more time to work on your business) once you get away from those forums.
i.e. – never take SEO advice from a 13 year old pimple-faced mouth breather masquerading as a search engine guru! If you frequent public SEO forums, chances are real good you have taken advice from just such a creature thinking you were talking to a real pro!
Syndication is something the web, engines, and individual sites rely on to stay current, fresh, and relevant and that will never go away. Scraping content, copying content from other places, and irrelevant content is mainly what Google has publicly stated and Matt Cutts backs up that they are worried about.
There are no penalties for having the same article on your site as someone else – you just won’t get listed as high as them for that content if they score better in Google overall.
That’s the same “penalty” as everything else Google does with rankings – but irresponsible and careless people who have positioned themselves as gurus on the subject have made everyone think that syndication of content and accepting syndicated content is in any way bad. Check out Matt Cutts blog if you want to really understand the issue and put your worries to rest – he is the authority on the subject above all others.
Well – he’s the only one from Google who is talking. I am sure they keep the Uber-Geeks behind closed doors. Matt talks too much like a real human to be one of the Uber Geeks! 🙂 Must be why they let him have a blog so he could translate Googleese for us mortals.
Also called “content spam” by the harbingers of doom, you can read the best and shortest explanation of what is and what is not content spam here.
More duplicate content information at Higher Revenue Marketing.