Where does Google draw the line with duplicate content on one site?

[Chris Sweeney]

I was on a website and it had a bunch of pages with almost the same exact stuff on each page, but they were just slightly different (just one or two of the targeted keywords). These pages were all indexed in Google, so I guess Google wasn't penalizing the site for duplicate content. So where does Google draw the line with duplicate content on one site?

[Arctek]

The pages might be indexed by Google, but do they come up in the SERPs for the same keyword searches?

It's been my experience that the pages may well be indexed but Google will simply show the page it deems most relevant in the results. Especially for pages on the same domain that have similar content.

These pages can usually be accessed from the supplemental results, i.e. where Google says "In order to show you the most relevant results, we have omitted some entries very similar to the 10 already displayed."

[Chris Sweeney]

Originally Posted by Arctek

The pages might be indexed by Google, but do they come up in the SERPs for the same keyword searches?

It's been my experience that the pages may well be indexed but Google will simply show the page it deems most relevant in the results. Especially for pages on the same domain that have similar content.

These pages can usually be accessed from the supplemental results, i.e. where Google says "In order to show you the most relevant results, we have omitted some entries very similar to the 10 already displayed."

Yup, they're coming up for the keyword searches in Google. These keywords each have a really low search volume (which all add up of course). But I still wonder why they're all indexed. The only content is one sentence. Each sentence is the same on each page, except for the keyword they're targeting. So I still wonder where G draws the line when it comes to duplicate content within one website. Does it have to be 100% the same as another page? 50%? 75%? Or does it really not matter?

[paulgl]

It must be something nefarious, and it must be something google
actually cares about. Neither of those probably apply here.

Google does not hate duplicate content just because.

Paul

[Marketing Fool]

yeah duplicate content penalties are a myth. I have millions of pages indexed with spun content (and not spun all that well)....

[bobcarlsjr]

Originally Posted by Marketing Fool

yeah duplicate content penalties are a myth. I have millions of pages indexed with spun content (and not spun all that well)....

erm.. it's not a myth......... go into google support forum.. adsense/deindexing/etc... you will see a lot of people posting their issues where google have deindexed their sites or rejected their applications due to duplicate content.. directly from google's mouth (email) with the violation "Duplicate Content"... they just haven't caught up with you yet..

[bobcarlsjr]

take note we're talking about duplicate content here.. not spun, even if it's 1% spun content.. duplicate = 100% similar

[Marketing Fool]

Originally Posted by bobcarlsjr

take note we're talking about duplicate content here.. not spun, even if it's 1% spun content.. duplicate = 100% similar

Hi, I'm sorry but you're just wrong...I have UNSPUN content posted all over the place too...but believe what you want, it won't effect me continuing to make tons of money from something you say isn't possible. *shrugs*

[Chris Sweeney]

Originally Posted by Marketing Fool

Hi, I'm sorry but you're just wrong...I have UNSPUN content posted all over the place too...but believe what you want, it won't effect me continuing to make tons of money from something you say isn't possible. *shrugs*

Is it unspun content taken from someone else's site (resulting in "syndicated content", which is okay), or is it unspun content from other pages on your site (resulting in "duplicate content", which is apparently not okay).

[rob1123]

Originally Posted by Marketing Fool

Hi, I'm sorry but you're just wrong...I have UNSPUN content posted all over the place too...but believe what you want, it won't effect me continuing to make tons of money from something you say isn't possible. *shrugs*

source:Duplicate content - Webmaster Tools Help

"However, in some cases, content is deliberately duplicated across domains in an attempt to manipulate search engine rankings or win more traffic. Deceptive practices like this can result in a poor user experience, when a visitor sees substantially the same content repeated within a set of search results.

Google tries hard to index and show pages with distinct information. This filtering means, for instance, that if your site has a "regular" and "printer" version of each article, and neither of these is blocked with a noindex meta tag, we'll choose one of them to list. In the rare cases in which Google perceives that duplicate content may be shown with intent to manipulate our rankings and deceive our users, we'll also make appropriate adjustments in the indexing and ranking of the sites involved. As a result, the ranking of the site may suffer, or the site might be removed entirely from the Google index, in which case it will no longer appear in search results."

This is part of Google's guide lines. To me they are suggesting that duplicating content is ok in most cases unless you are using it to manipulate you search engine ranking,

though being Google it's unlikely that they can tell the purpose for you duplicating content and so would by default de-rank/index your site. The fact that your site hasn't had either of these things does in no way prove that duplicate content is a myth and the most probable reason that you have avoided a 'slap' is because no one has reported your site.

[Marketing Fool]

Ugh, I'm not going to get sucked into this argument because it happens here once every couple of days it seems like. Duplicate content, good or evil?! Go back and read some of those other threads.

I know what I do, and what works for me, and that's all that matters to me. I've been doing this since about 1997 and you aren't going to convince me of something that my own experience patently disproves.

If you think duplicate content, in whatever form, is bad...then don't use it. I know it doesn't matter, so I will continue to profit from it.

[Bofu2U]

Originally Posted by Marketing Fool

Ugh, I'm not going to get sucked into this argument because it happens here once every couple of days it seems like. Duplicate content, good or evil?! Go back and read some of those other threads.

I know what I do, and what works for me, and that's all that matters to me. I've been doing this since about 1997 and you aren't going to convince me of something that my own experience patently disproves.

If you think duplicate content, in whatever form, is bad...then don't use it. I know it doesn't matter, so I will continue to profit from it.

What he said. Dead on.

[Bambu]

I have a site with close to 80 pages of very similar content. if I had to guess, I would say that the content was close to 75% similar. Despite that, all of the keywords that these pages target rank on the first two pages of Google. Now, that is not to say that if I changed the content to be more unique that they ranking of the pages wouldn't increase...

I have come across many sites that have essentially identical pages that have a keyword or two that has been changed that still rank highly in Google.

[Sohel Parvez]

Google treat web sites as a grouping of pages and not a single entity, each page on your site should be unique so that the tags and content differ between each page. Doing so increases the number of pages that will rank.

[bobcarlsjr]

Originally Posted by Marketing Fool

Hi, I'm sorry but you're just wrong...I have UNSPUN content posted all over the place too...but believe what you want, it won't effect me continuing to make tons of money from something you say isn't possible. *shrugs*

Originally Posted by Marketing Fool

Ugh, I'm not going to get sucked into this argument because it happens here once every couple of days it seems like. Duplicate content, good or evil?! Go back and read some of those other threads.

I know what I do, and what works for me, and that's all that matters to me. I've been doing this since about 1997 and you aren't going to convince me of something that my own experience patently disproves.

If you think duplicate content, in whatever form, is bad...then don't use it. I know it doesn't matter, so I will continue to profit from it.

sure, i am sure you are right and google is wrong.

please look at what rob1123 posted above extracted from GOOGLE's own website.. and also the TONS of email sent by GOOGLE to webmasters with duplicate content which are readily found online.

sure i can sell dope and make money, doesn't mean i am right. it just means the cops haven't caught up with me.

how stubborn do you have to be to still think you are right when google explicitly outlines their stand on duplicate content all over the web? lol.