Is duplicate content a myth??

[kyhawk2]

I read various opinions,including googles, and really don't know what to believe. I am starting a campaign with 20 domains using a cpa offer. I bought some articles but when trying to spin them I found them unreadable. I wanted to keep them 50% different and used a service called dupe cop to check the changed content. First, I used a free service called jetspinner. I just decided to change the head lines and keep the rest of the article the same and hope that I can avoid the sandbox...if one exists.It seems all the articles directories would be obsolete if there was the penalty, not too mention the big ones Cnn.com have nothing but dupe content. Thanks for any advice.

Ie. Below is one of the articles I am changing including domain and keyword
..Below is the article and I am just changing the keyword to fit the headline and and keeping the rest of the article as withthe keyword spinkled in.
I plan on doing the same for all of the 20 domains I have the campaign in.


Tips for Lowering Car Insurances Rates in Richardson


(car insurances richardson is the keyword and domain.)

If you already have car insurances in Richardson but you still want to lower your rates, you do not necessarily need to change car insurance companies to do it. You can get the best deal in the same company as long as you keep in mind the following tips.

• If you have several insurance for other things such as your house, boats, motorbikes, and even your life, you should consolidate them in one company. Of course your company should also offer insurance for such things. Consolidating them in just one company will lower your rates because of discounts.
• Always maintain a high credit score because most car insurance companies look into this. Pay all of your credit card bills on time. A higher credit score will give you lower rates.
• Be a safe driver and have a safe car. The car insurances rates in Richardson company will review your records for the past several years and they will check if you have had car accidents, speeding tickets, or other traffic-related troubles. You will get a higher rate if they found out that you have a bad traffic record. They will reward you with lower rates if you keep a good record. Safe cars will also help you get you lower rates. Make sure that your car has automatic seatbelts, airbags, and other safety features that help you prevent accidents.
• Mileage is another factor that you should look into. Insurance companies check for the car’s mileage—the lower the mileage is, the lower the rates will be. If possible, only use your car hen necessary. You can use public transportation or you can use your bicycle or take a walk if you will go to a nearby place. By following the advice given you will be sure to get the best car insurances rates in Richardson.

[kyhawk2]

I just did a quick search on duplicate content myth
and found some interesting takes...and feel better already.
duplicate content myth
The Duplicate Content Penalty Myth
Google will find you if you duplicate content | Volacci®

[kflanagan28]

Is duplicate content a myth ?? No of course not. I take it you are referring to the duplicate content penalty.

There are two types of dup content. Lets break them down:

1) Duplicate Content Off Page - This is when you have the same article indexed against different sites i.e. PLR content thrown up a number of different sites. There is no penalty. What Google does is rank the most authoritative one and bury the rest.

2) Duplicate Content on your site - This is when you may have a number of different URLs indexed against the same page creating duplicate content on your site. This is def a problem and I have first hand experience on working with large dynamic sites (100k+ pages indexed) that are full of dup content. Again Google attempts to group all your content together, select the best page to rank for a keyword and forget the rest. The problem is it can reduce crawl rates on your site and the page google selects as the best, isn't always the best.

Anyhow, I wouldn't go with respun articles. Either rewrite the article or outsource a little article writing for your content. You will do better in the long run. Respun articles are pretty whack !!

[dburk]

Originally Posted by kyhawk2

I just decided to change the head lines and keep the rest of the article the same and hope that I can avoid the sandbox...if one exists.

Hi kyhawk2,

The Google Sandbox Effect is the result of new pages ranking lower due to the fact that they haven't existed long enough to have earned trust. There is no relationship to Duplicate Content in the "Sandbox Effect".

Originally Posted by kflanagan28

I take it you are referring to the duplicate content penalty.

Hi kflanagan28,

As I'm sure you already know, there is no such thing as a duplicate content "penalty". There is a duplicate content filter that reduces the possibility of the same content being duplicated in the SERP.

[kyhawk2]

Thanks for the help. I think they will be ok. It's just a few articles I am putting up now, about 5. If there is a problem, I think I can solve it by changing the content by about 25% on any remaining articles I post. My deal is I have 20 domains on the same subject..auto insurance.. and I want to get them up asap. I am working with a coach on cpa and I am "leasing" these domains at 50 a month. So I want to buy them back asap. Thanks again for any help.

[GeorgR.]

dupe content doesnt always equal dupe content.

According to my own observations, Google handles "self written" content like articles from ezine articles et al. indeed as "duplicate content".

But content from RSS feeds like newswires, associated press etc. NOT <---

This would make a lot of sense if you know that those services like associated press distribute their news to many, many sites. (And many actually use them 1:1 without any modification). They're basically the source where anyone else gets "their" news. If Google would see those as "duplicate content", every site which features that AP article would be "penalized", including CNN, MSNBC etc..

But i have seen its BAD to re-use those typical ezine articles.

So..it depends on what kind of content. With some google allows it to be redistributed without that penalty.

[dburk]

Originally Posted by GeorgR.

dupe content doesnt always equal dupe content.

According to my own observations, Google handles "self written" content like articles from ezine articles et al. indeed as "duplicate content".

But content from RSS feeds like newswires, associated press etc. NOT <---

This would make a lot of sense if you know that those services like associated press distribute their news to many, many sites. (And many actually use them 1:1 without any modification). They're basically the source where anyone else gets "their" news. If Google would see those as "duplicate content", every site which features that AP article would be "penalized", including CNN, MSNBC etc..

But i have seen its BAD to re-use those typical ezine articles.

So..it depends on what kind of content. With some google allows it to be redistributed without that penalty.

Hi GeorgR,

Let me repeat, there is no such thing as a duplicate content penalty. There is a duplicate content filter that tends to prevent the SERP from listing multiple copies of the same content. Sites are never penalized for duplicate content.

[ChrisBa]

Originally Posted by dburk

Hi GeorgR,

Let me repeat, there is no such thing as a duplicate content penalty. There is a duplicate content filter that tends to prevent the SERP from listing multiple copies of the same content. Sites are never penalized for duplicate content.

This is what I have heard as well - they aren't penalized, however they aren't treated any better for having the content

[cashcow]

but google do gave heavier weight to the original contents

Actually, I believe Google gives heavier weight to the content that has the most relevant links coming in to it.

Lee

[GeorgR.]

Originally Posted by dburk

Hi GeorgR,

Let me repeat, there is no such thing as a duplicate content penalty. There is a duplicate content filter that tends to prevent the SERP from listing multiple copies of the same content. Sites are never penalized for duplicate content.

that "filter" is what i actually consider the "penalty". If my site doesnt show up in SERPs, that's the penalty.

[quickregister]

I was thinking about setting up a separate blog because my domain has been banned by Google Adwords for low clickthrough rates. I wanted to run simple Adwords campaigns for each article and post I make on my blog. Just a few laser targetted keywords per post. The second blog would be on another domain but mirror exactly the first blog. I wonder if there would be any negative repercussions for this?

[dburk]

Originally Posted by GeorgR.

that "filter" is what i actually consider the "penalty". If my site doesnt show up in SERPs, that's the penalty.

If that is your definition of penalty, then every page that doesn't rank for every term is penalized.

The fact is that any page of duplicate content is potential capable of being listed in the SERP. The pages that contain duplicate content are simply competing with each other for the single position that is available on a SERP.

In most cases the duplicate content page with the highest PageRank wins the competition for that position. So if you have duplicate content that is being "filtered" you generally can build enough quality backlinks to outrank the current page not being filtered.

So, if you insist on using the term "penalty" then for clarity add that it is a penalty imposed by your competition, not the search engines.

[peter gibson]

Please read this thread for an answer to your question.

Article on site or EZA first ?

[kflanagan28]

Originally Posted by dburk

Hi kyhawk2,

Hi kflanagan28,

As I'm sure you already know, there is no such thing as a duplicate content "penalty". There is a duplicate content filter that reduces the possibility of the same content being duplicated in the SERP.

Hey Dburk

I felt the OP as with most posters on this subject think of a duplicate content penalty, not filter. As I said in my post, this is what I thought the OP was referring to.

If you read my post, I specifically said Google burys dup content, it doesn't penalize a site i.e. filters it ...

Thanks for the input ...

[nailzer09875]

Duplicate content is never preferable to anyone. You can duplicate the theme of the content. If you are giving any information which is not created by that author or open for all then there is no problem about the duplication.

[ChrisBa]

Originally Posted by nailzer09875

Duplicate content is never preferable to anyone. You can duplicate the theme of the content. If you are giving any information which is not created by that author or open for all then there is no problem about the duplication.

I don't think people are really talking about ripping people off like this.. I think it's more so along the lines - if I write an article for my website, and publish the article on a article site to add some inbound links - how will it effect rankings

[dburk]

Originally Posted by kflanagan28

Hey Dburk

I felt the OP as with most posters on this subject think of a duplicate content penalty, not filter. As I said in my post, this is what I thought the OP was referring to.

If you read my post, I specifically said Google burys dup content, it doesn't penalize a site i.e. filters it ...

Thanks for the input ...

Hi kflanagan28,

I agree Google buries all but one of the dupes. So you can have duplicated content and have it included in SERP, you just have to outrank the other pages.

I lot of folks seem to fear having their entire website "penalized" due to having a little bit of duplicated content. This is the "myth" surrounding the duplicate content discussions. There is no penalty to your site, there is no penalty to your page, you just can't expect it to appear in the SERP unless your page outranks the duplicate pages.

[Fondybadger]

Originally Posted by kyhawk2

I just decided to change the head lines and keep the rest of the article the same and hope that I can avoid the sandbox...if one exists

is not something you can control, there are certain steps you can take in order to make the sandbox effect less destructive for your new site. As with many aspects of SEO, there are ethical and unethical tips and tricks and unethical tricks can get you additional penalties or a complete ban from Google, so think twice before resorting to them.

[nossie]

duplicate content on SAME website --> penalty

duplicate content on different websites --> no penalty.. but google will rank the highest authority website above others.

And all people saying google sandboxes duplicated websites.. this is not true. The whole internet is duplicate content... When im doing some agressive marketing all my web2.0 properties rank really good even if content is exactly the same on each site.

[dburk]

Originally Posted by nossie

duplicate content on SAME website --> penalty

If this were true wouldn't most blogs be penalized for having duplicate content on their post page and the permalink page?

[nossie]

Originally Posted by dburk

If this were true wouldn't most blogs be penalized for having duplicate content on their post page and the permalink page?

dont take it as strickt like that.. few pages with some duplicate text doesnt really matter...

But if you make a website with 10.000 pages and 50% is duplicate content, yes you will get a penalty.

[slashman]

Maybe I can get my 2 cents in here...

Google is a search engine... to be successful they have to give you the most relevant website on earth when you search, "hot dog buns". What if the most relevant sites (using their algorithm) is a site that has been copied? When it comes to high competition key word phrases where people use external SEO, I think the most relevant site is just the one with the best links in.

For less competitive key word phrases, content becomes more important... I've had several sites with the same content rank in the top 10. Of course eventually both sites disappeared because I didn't do any link building.

The content is indexed. Changing each page just a little bit makes them look different to Google.... I think... I did a test on that and it seems 10 pages I created with only slight thesaurus changes all were indexed and ranked. I used a strange key word phrase with zero searches so I knew all pages in Google that had the phrase.

Thanks,

George

[Steven Carl Kelly]

Read this:

Official Google Webmaster Central Blog: Demystifying the "duplicate content penalty"

[Kurt]

Originally Posted by Steven Carl Kelly

Read this:

Official Google Webmaster Central Blog: Demystifying the "duplicate content penalty"

I generally take what Google says with a grain of salt. However, this article is probably as close to the truth as possible...Simply because it makes sense. And it's what I've always believed.

About doops on the same domain...It's been my experience that Google simply picks a page it thinks is best, then ignores the other doops. This isn't a penalty, it's a filter. It doesn't penalize the "original" page, just ignores the other pages it feels are doops. (unless they think you are spamming pages, then you'll get a penalty).

[Steven Carl Kelly]

Originally Posted by Kurt

About doops on the same domain...It's been my experience that Google simply picks a page it thinks is best, then ignores the other doops. This isn't a penalty, it's a filter. It doesn't penalize the "original" page, just ignores the other pages it feels are doops. (unless they think you are spamming pages, then you'll get a penalty).

Exactly right, in my experience.

[Soflyy]

It's a myth.

[marcusalphaeus]

Better to believe in something that is not true in case it is, than to not believe in something that is true in case it isn't. The fact is Google's algorithms are undisclosed and everything else that goes against proving or disproving a hypothesis is based on research and testing. In the end, there is no certainty in anything unless proven with no reasonable doubt that there exists an observation that leads to that undisputed claim. This is the concept of scientific reasoning.

[dburk]

Originally Posted by marcusalphaeus

The fact is Google's algorithms are undisclosed and everything else that goes against proving or disproving a hypothesis is based on research and testing. In the end, there is no certainty in anything unless proven with no reasonable doubt that there exists an observation that leads to that undisputed claim. This is the concept of scientific reasoning.

Hi marcusalphaeus,

I whole heartedly agree. The Creator did not disclose the laws of physics, we learned them through scientific method. Just because Google does not disclose their exact algorithm we can still learn a great deal through valid testing methods.

[4morereferrals]

Science? Methodology? Testing? Proof? Validation?

Why ya'll using all them big $5 words up in here? Dont need none of that testin' stuff now - ya hear.

Just get you some chicken blood, four 2" high candles, and matches from the island of Moa Moa .. sprinkle that chicken blood around your workstation cpu and light dem 4 kandlez before you go postin them articles and blog posts, and make sure to upload them thangz precisely in this order ...

Weebly, EZA, GoArticles, then Hubpages ... but ya gotta delete your Hubpage post and spin it 3 times and re add it on a friday night after 5 pm EST then ... ping it all 3.8765 times before the stroke of midnight.

You will then be indexed and ranked right where the Magic 8 Ball said you would!

Did I just give away my next $7 WSO report?

Originally Posted by dburk

Hi marcusalphaeus,

I whole heartedly agree. The Creator did not disclose the laws of physics, we learned them through scientific method. Just because Google does not disclose their exact algorithm we can still learn a great deal through valid testing methods.

[dburk]

Originally Posted by 4morereferrals

Science? Methodology? Testing? Proof? Validation?

Why ya'll using all them big $5 words up in here? Dont need none of that testin' stuff now - ya hear.

Just get you some chicken blood, four 2" high candles, and matches from the island of Moa Moa .. sprinkle that chicken blood around your workstation cpu and light dem 4 kandlez before you go postin them articles and blog posts, and make sure to upload them thangz precisely in this order ...

Weebly, EZA, GoArticles, then Hubpages ... but ya gotta delete your Hubpage post and spin it 3 times and re add it on a friday night after 5 pm EST then ... ping it all 3.8765 times before the stroke of midnight.

You will then be indexed and ranked right where the Magic 8 Ball said you would!

Did I just give away my next $7 WSO report?

Apparently you are not aware of the even more powerful Extra Virgin Sacrifice Ceremony method that was first practiced in the caldera of Polynesian volcanoes (best served with garlic bread and rum, pineapple & banana drink). Alas, I think I may have revealed too much. I better not catch anyone trying to copy this method or else.

[Jenie0109]

well there are types of content duplication that Google is concern about:
Duplicate Content Penalty - How to Lose Google Ranking Fast

[Steven Carl Kelly]

Originally Posted by Jenie0109

well there are types of content duplication that Google is concern about:
Duplicate Content Penalty - How to Lose Google Ranking Fast

The first paragraph of that article sort of reduces the credibility of the rest of the article.

[dburk]

Originally Posted by Jenie0109

well there are types of content duplication that Google is concern about:
Duplicate Content Penalty - How to Lose Google Ranking Fast

Hi Jenie0109,

While some of the assertions in that article are true, they are mostly mis-characterized. There are penalties for doorway pages and cookie cutter style Thin Affiliate Sites that are essential another form of doorway pages.

Sites that contain duplicate content are not penalized just because they have some duplicate content. There is a duplicate content filter that prevents the SERP from returning pages that are duplicates for a particular search query.

While some dubious techniques incorporate duplicate content, it's the technique that generates the penalty and a mis-characterization, in my opinion, to call it a duplicate content penalty.

[ggoddi]

guys , can we say things in this way , if i write the content by myself and i rewrite it y myself too --no quote from others or then could I be free the duplicating trouble?

[Jon Alexander]

yes. That's one way to get round it.

The 'penalty' is a 'filter', in fact. As explained here the duplicate penalty myth

People who think it's OK to create sites loaded with nothing but dupes, rss feeds etc don't make any money despite what they tell you on forums. Edit - some of them make some money, because of other factors that get some of their sites ranked, but most don't, especially new entrants.

To believe otherwise is to say that you think one of these is true:-

1. Search engines don't care about showing page after page of duplicate results
2. Search engine technology hasn't evolved in the last 5 years.

[bgmacaw]

Originally Posted by Steven Carl Kelly

The first paragraph of that article sort of reduces the credibility of the rest of the article.

I'd guess that the author of that post never searched Google for music lyrics, news stories, recipes, etc., etc., etc.

Originally Posted by dburk

While some dubious techniques incorporate duplicate content, it's the technique that generates the penalty and a mis-characterization, in my opinion, to call it a duplicate content penalty.

You've got to love the cargo cult.

[Kurt]

Originally Posted by bgmacaw

I'd guess that the author of that post never searched Google for music lyrics, news stories, recipes, etc., etc., etc.



You've got to love the cargo cult.

You mean like believing Google only has one algo and applies it equally to all sites and searches?

[Steven Carl Kelly]

Duplicate, schmuplicate. I've got a site that is NOTHING but duplicate content, a bunch of reprinted articles from article directories, and it generates me regular revenue daily via Adsense and I do absolutely nothing to promote it.

[Solarwind]

I haven't read the other posts, but I had 7 sites, all with the same content. Truly it was an innocent mistake (really! I asked and though this is legitimate). 6 were deindexed. It took a *long* time to get them back on Google. I think in my case the punishment was extremely harsh, but it's definitely related to the duplicate content - the entire site (in all cases) was one page.

[4morereferrals]

Well Im not sure if you will conclude the same answers as I ... however you can visit a real world experiment I did a bout 30-40 days ago.

Search for the term .... panic attack heart symptoms both with and without quotes. I think you'll find the "in quotes" results enlightening.

Issue #1 - google is outsmarting the searcher and appears to be seeing panic attack heart symptoms as or the same as panic HEART ATTACK Symptoms, when not in quotes.

Google is showing the DUPED results when searched in quotes / not filtering them - as you will behold on pages 1 thru 25 I think ... LOL

However broadmatch - they hate the blog I setup for this test. Oddly enough Yahoo hates it too and ... BING loves it at number 1 page one last I looked.

I'll be interested in others deductions.