Why Duplicat Content Fears Don't Make Sense

[The Expert]

I've never joined in the Duplicate Content Debate, buta thought struck me the other day and has been with me ever since.

Being afraid of your article receiving a Duplicate Content Penalty when mass distributing articles or whatever doesn't make sense. After all, one of the original focal benefits of article marketing was that webmasters might stop by an article directory, pick up your article, and republish it on their site...leaving you an author's resource box link, and possibly some inbound traffic.

Let's say this went well and 1,000 webmasters picked up your piece and republished it. You'd now have 1,000 backlinks and 1,000 pieces of duplicate content out there...not "spun" in any way/shape/form.

Would you consider this bad? I think not.

I read a transcript of an interview with Matt Cutts and he said that duplicate content is only a fear of "White Hat" types and he said it was unfounded 90% of the time. Truth is, when multiple copies of the same thing are found one version is chosen for promotion while the rest are stuffed to the bottom of the pile of competing pages for that keyword.

But the backlinks on those pieces are not "not counted" or rendered with some type of "invisible NoFollow" attribute. Thus the links still help promote your site regardless of whether or not the content itself is a copy.

[dynameek]

Hi The Expert,

Thank you for your post. I've always found the whole duplicate content issue confusing too but never really got a chance to check it out till now. I came across an article the other day, not sure where, and it explained something similar to that you just said.

One thing I remember vividly about it goes like this, like you said, if your articles get dupplicated over and over, Google crawlers have a way of telling which one is the original one. They'll pick that up and discard the rest when a search is made for the KWs. One thing I'm not sure about though is if this is right and how the penalty works - that's if it exists.

I'm a little curious to see what others have to say about this...

Thanks

[mark@1to101]

Anyone know for sure if the links that come from pages in the supplemental index (i.e. mainly ones that Google views as duplicate content) carry the same weight as ones in the main index?

I'd have thought not as it would make sense for Google to reward fresh, original content, though I have no basis for this apart from that it is what I would do if I were Google.

I'm not saying that links in the supplemental index don't count at all, just that they don't carry the same weighting.

Thoughts?

[AlexTampa]

it has never been a penalty.

Its simply not valued highly for uniqueness

[mostphere]

I'm not saying that links in the supplemental index don't count at all, just that they don't carry the same weighting.

I agree. However, I use many duplicate content to boost my search engine ranking and it seems OK. But please note that I only post to 10 places, so I only got 10 dup. I am very sure that the articles will never republished by someone elses, so perhaps that what make everything go smoothly.

Bottom line, in my opinion, duplicate content wont hurt your site if used correctly.

[mark@1to101]

Originally Posted by AlexTampa

it has never been a penalty.

Originally Posted by mostphere

Bottom line, in my opinion, duplicate content wont hurt your site if used correctly.

Whilst I'm fairly sure, and Google themselves have even said so, that it's not a penalty and hence your site's ranking won't drop because of it, I'm really not sure if duplicate content will increase your site's ranking.

[David]

Originally Posted by mark@1to101

Anyone know for sure if the links that come from pages in the supplemental index (i.e. mainly ones that Google views as duplicate content) carry the same weight as ones in the main index?

I'd have thought not as it would make sense for Google to reward fresh, original content, though I have no basis for this apart from that it is what I would do if I were Google.

I'm not saying that links in the supplemental index don't count at all, just that they don't carry the same weighting.

Thoughts?

I don't think anyone, not even Bruce Clay or Stompernet can say *anything* for sure about does Google value X over Y for sure

I do local SEO and from where I sit battling others for ranking...

If one side has X and the opposing side doesn't
you win

supplemental or not.

That's from my personal daily battle experience.

[mostphere]

I'm really not sure if duplicate content will increase your site's ranking.

It will but not high impact. For instance, I resubmit an approval articles at EA to web 20 property sites, and in 5-7 days i can see a jump of rank in google. But not to first page of Google.

I try to very careful about this and I saw that 10 dup is fine so I stick on it.

[Stephen Root]

Duplicate content is inevitable in the modern internet. Just look at all the press releases, blog posts etc. syndicated all over the place. If you use content that can be found on another site, just make sure your title is unique. It's mainly the title that kills your rankings if it's duplicate content.

[David]

Originally Posted by mostphere

It will but not high impact. For instance, I resubmit an approval articles at EA to web 20 property sites, and in 5-7 days i can see a jump of rank in google. But not to first page of Google.

I try to very careful about this and I saw that 10 dup is fine so I stick on it.

Ok... your last sentence begs for an explanation:

What did you mean by 10 dup is fine?

please elaborate

[Viggie]

I am glad this debate came up because. I submit to about 20 directories, but use an article spinner software and have been wondering if it actually does help. It takes almost as long to spin the article as it does to write one.

The one Area I could see changing is title that way hopefully your article gets picked up in a wider range of search terms. So I will probably stop spinning the articles and see if i notice any drastic change. If i notice something worth mentioning i will repost here. Thanks for you guys insight.

[mark@1to101]

Originally Posted by mostphere

It will but not high impact. For instance, I resubmit an approval articles at EA to web 20 property sites, and in 5-7 days i can see a jump of rank in google. But not to first page of Google.

Thanks for sharing that. So there definitely is some benefit then.

[Stephen Root]

Originally Posted by Viggie

I am glad this debate came up because. I submit to about 20 directories, but use an article spinner software and have been wondering if it actually does help. It takes almost as long to spin the article as it does to write one.

If you want to save time, just spin the title

[mark@1to101]

Originally Posted by Stephen Root

Just make sure your title is unique. It's mainly the title that kills your rankings if it's duplicate content.

Originally Posted by Viggie

The one Area I could see changing is title that way hopefully your article gets picked up in a wider range of search terms.

I'm thinking this too - the changing of the title is important.

I tend to spin each sentence in an article 3 or 4 times and the title about 50+ times, and then submit it to 'Article Marketing Automation' and 'Unique Article Wizard'. I've made fairly good progress in the serps with this approach.

[mostphere]

What did you mean by 10 dup is fine?

What I mean is, I posted the same articles to web 20 properties and articles sites, that all 10 places. I have never had problem with that though.

Sometimes i did this to get my site indexed faster, and these articles, which is will be duplicate content did it good. It never hurt my site though.

[askloz]

Originally Posted by The Expert

Let's say this went well and 1,000 webmasters picked up your piece and republished it. You'd now have 1,000 backlinks and 1,000 pieces of duplicate content out there...not "spun" in any way/shape/form.

Would you consider this bad? I think not.

Ok... here's how it works. This not an opinion based on assumption, it's based on fact derived from experimentation, which many don't bother.


If you post the same article, lets say 100 of them, once they are all indexed, if you type in the name of the unique title, or a passage / sentence or at least 8 or so words from the sentence encased in quotation marks, you'll get about 14-16 that will show up in the results. On the next page (page 2 of the results), you'll get this italicized message that says something or another in regards to that google found more results based on your search query and only included those it thought was close enough to your search term.

Now a back link is a back link, but each back link has a relevancy score, this score is reduced each time a new document is found to be the same that contains the same link.

Only one of these duplicate articles will rank at any one time, this article on which site ranks highest will change from time to time, one day it could be ezine articles ranking highest for your article, another day, week, or month it could be goarticles, etc.

Google will determine the relevancy factor on many attributes, goarticles may score higher than ezines, or article dashboard, and visa versa, or a site that is mainly driven around that niche that contains your article.

Your ranking for that phrase you hyperlinked in each article, will change as these articles you duplicated to all these sources, will change as well.

So in essense, you're wasting your time, since only one of these articles will show up at any one time.

You're better off re-writing the article so it's at least 70-100% unique.
Structuring the article in such a way that the main keyword phrase is used in a number of combination's. If you can rank for these articles all at the same time on the first page, then your ranking for the main phase you're going after, will remain stable. It wont fluctuate as much, if at all this way.

Originally Posted by The Expert

I read a transcript of an interview with Matt Cutts and he said that duplicate content is only a fear of "White Hat" types and he said it was unfounded 90% of the time. Truth is, when multiple copies of the same thing are found one version is chosen for promotion while the rest are stuffed to the bottom of the pile of competing pages for that keyword.

But the backlinks on those pieces are not "not counted" or rendered with some type of "invisible NoFollow" attribute. Thus the links still help promote your site regardless of whether or not the content itself is a copy.

Right, that's basically what I said... but what he doesn't tell you is that the score for that link is reduced. So if you want the highest score for each link, then it needs to be unique content.

if you use the right tools, 30-60 seconds you can create 1000 articles and have these blasted out over a course of a week or two weeks or over a period of a month (recommended), every other hour or so, you'll see much better results this way, and even better results if you link back to the published articles cos if they rank higher, so will you.

[mark@1to101]

Originally Posted by askloz

You're better off re-writing the article so it's at least 70-100% unique.

Firstly, thanks for sharing the results of your tests / experiments with us. Greatly appreciated.

Secondly, with regards the uniqueness figure you mentioned, do you always go for such a high figure? Is that playing it safe or the absolute minimum based on your experience?

[edgray]

From my experience, Google only indexes one version of duplicate content it finds. So if you're writing articles purely for linkbuilding purposes then this is a bad thing. In this case, I'd use an article spinner to avoid this.

If you're writing articles to promote something, or hope it gets picked up by oher publishers then there's no need to spin.

[askloz]

sorry, you're wrong. You will find google will index as much as 16 of them, and any one of these will rotate to the first page, while others wont.

Originally Posted by edgray

From my experience, Google only indexes one version of duplicate content it finds. So if you're writing articles purely for linkbuilding purposes then this is a bad thing. In this case, I'd use an article spinner to avoid this.

If you're writing articles to promote something, or hope it gets picked up by oher publishers then there's no need to spin.

[askloz]

well, that figure of 70% comes from the fact that google mainly looks at the first part of the page and the last part of the page, which adds up to around 70% on a 5 paragraph article, first two paragraphs, and last two.

any ways up, more unique you can make it, the better, if you can get it to 70%, why not spend more time to make it even more unique? I found that trying to cut corners due to laziness, just doesn't do you any justice, better doing a job properly to sustain the results.

Originally Posted by mark@1to101

Firstly, thanks for sharing the results of your tests / experiments with us. Greatly appreciated.

Secondly, with regards the uniqueness figure you mentioned, do you always go for such a high figure? Is that playing it safe or the absolute minimum based on your experience?

[mark@1to101]

Originally Posted by askloz

any ways up, more unique you can make it, the better, if you can get it to 70%, why not spend more time to make it even more unique? I found that trying to cut corners due to laziness, just doesn't do you any justice, better doing a job properly to sustain the results.

Cheers. Had been going for around 60%ish but will take heed of this and push on for some more uniqueness.

[4morereferrals]

Im seeing this for articles duplicated as blog posts on 25 or 30 different domains - all the same title and content.

Google has been rotating the freshest newest blog post / article on page 1 in position 4-7 for about 2.5 weeks now. I've been observing this daily. There's at least 16 maybe more of them indexed when I search for this 4 word long tail in quotes.

Originally Posted by askloz

sorry, you're wrong. You will find google will index as much as 16 of them, and any one of these will rotate to the first page, while others wont.

[banker0679]

there's a difference of posting one article per day or per week...then posting it all on the same day.

press releases posted on the same day generally experience the worst
you run one PR..and will notice only 1-2 sticking in the index after 2-3 weeks

if you post articles weekly you'll see them rotate ...and they'll tend to stick on the index a whole lot longer...and may not even come off the index (depends on the niche)

i have experimented with this...and Google USED to just copy parts of an article
Now most Search Engines copy the WHOLE ARTICLE which means they can detect the duplicate content a lot easier.

You need to change the title and content

I tried rearranging the article and that doesn't work

[askloz]

yeah, google's been rotating pages now since they took out, at least to my knowledge, the supplemental index, that's been almost 2 years now.

Originally Posted by 4morereferrals

Im seeing this for articles duplicated as blog posts on 25 or 30 different domains - all the same title and content.

Google has been rotating the freshest newest blog post / article on page 1 in position 4-7 for about 2.5 weeks now. I've been observing this daily. There's at least 16 maybe more of them indexed when I search for this 4 word long tail in quotes.

[askloz]

ok, let me give you another tip.

Remember how so many people are hung up on phrases that will get them loads of hits? So they go after that phrase in the hope to get a share of it, and wonder now why they dont get as many, and think that google is over quoting the search numbers?

In fact, they're not, these searches are comprised not just from the google search engine, but partners as well, PLUS they're derived from GEO-IP locations.

You may get more hits in Texas for screensavers (which is actually true), than you will in any other country or state around the world Don't ask me why texans are hung on screensavers, beats me...lol


So, rather than focusing on just the keyword and how many hits it gets, start looking at certain parts of the countries towns, cities, states, boroughs, etc.

There's some tools out there that will work this out for you, just google some search terms related to GEO IP Keyword tracking

Originally Posted by mark@1to101

Cheers. Had been going for around 60%ish but will take heed of this and push on for some more uniqueness.

[askloz]

well, the title is one of the main important aspects of the rankings... would you want to see a phrase you enter come up and have 10 listings saying the same thing? close your eyes and pick one, i guess

but the main trick is to modify the title and at least the first and last paragraph, since these are the main areas that google will use in its main calculation... if they can't work out where to rank your article, they'll dig in deeper to find a place to rank it.

Originally Posted by banker0679

I tried rearranging the article and that doesn't work

[The Expert]

My goal with article marketing is to build links. I want people to find my site, not GoArticles or any of the other. Once they are on your site you have more control.

As that is my goal I use articles to build backlinks...both to my site and to my blog farms.

I generally will buy articles in bulk. 25+ at a time to get a discount. I buy three sets of 25 with each set being produced by different writers

The original articles from Set #1 are not spun and get posted on the 25 blogs in my blog farm network. They promote the money site and other members of the farm network based on a chart.

The original artiles from Set #2 are spun by me into multiple versions. These will link to either the new posts on the blog network published from Set #1 or some older posts that already exist in the network.

Version #1 of these spun articles is pushed out to Linkvana, Version #2 pushed to AMA and Version #3 to Article Marketer. Again, the links in this second set only point to sites in the blog farm network which are working for me to promote the money site.

Set #3 is used to promote the money site directly. They are spun with versions again being pushed to Linkvana, AMA, and Article Marketer.

The end result is lots of links criss-crossing everywhere. The Blog network is segregated into Six "Compartments" with only light crossover between any two compartments. Also, because of all the links being generated in a completely haphazzard way, it's difficult to establish any type of "pattern" on these...so the network is kept relatively safe.

Other linkbuilding methods are in the mix as well including outsourced mass directory submissions, social bookmarking with BMD 4, 3-Way Link Programs such as LinkBuildingSolutions.com, and gathering high-value links manually with Angela's and Pauls Backlinks.

[nailzer09875]

Originally Posted by The Expert

I've never joined in the Duplicate Content Debate, buta thought struck me the other day and has been with me ever since.

Being afraid of your article receiving a Duplicate Content Penalty when mass distributing articles or whatever doesn't make sense. After all, one of the original focal benefits of article marketing was that webmasters might stop by an article directory, pick up your article, and republish it on their site...leaving you an author's resource box link, and possibly some inbound traffic.

Let's say this went well and 1,000 webmasters picked up your piece and republished it. You'd now have 1,000 backlinks and 1,000 pieces of duplicate content out there...not "spun" in any way/shape/form.

Would you consider this bad? I think not.

I read a transcript of an interview with Matt Cutts and he said that duplicate content is only a fear of "White Hat" types and he said it was unfounded 90% of the time. Truth is, when multiple copies of the same thing are found one version is chosen for promotion while the rest are stuffed to the bottom of the pile of competing pages for that keyword.

But the backlinks on those pieces are not "not counted" or rendered with some type of "invisible NoFollow" attribute. Thus the links still help promote your site regardless of whether or not the content itself is a copy.

Hi Expert
I think this will not be great issue for penalty. Google or Other search engine always indexed according to uniqueness of your Meta tag keyword based content. When ever you or anyone else taking theme that’s not a crime I think. But if someone directly taking the content his/her moral duty would be to take permission as well as give a trace back link to original author writing.
Take care
Nailzer