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Duplicate Content - Fact, Fiction or In Between

by jmidas
7 replies
Hi all, I know there has been a lot of discussion about duplicate content, but I have a somewhat different question to pose to everyone.

I am now of the firm belief that duplicate content is not as big a deal as we all were led to believe. My thinking is that it matters on your own site, but you can have dozens of the same exact article or post on sites across the web and it won't hurt your SEO or page rank.

So, here's my question:

What if you have duplicate content on your own server? For example, I have about 10-12 sites all relating to one niche - each focusing on a slightly different angle to that niche. Much of the content is identical (all original to me) on each site. In this particular case, I use a virtual dedicated server to host these sites, although I doubt that makes a difference to the question at hand.

So, if dup content is a myth across many sites, is it the domain name or the IP address that is important (or both)?

Any thoughts?
#content #duplicate #fact #fiction
  • Profile picture of the author Ross Dalangin
    I think it's not so important unless it is really 100% duplicate like MFA sites that pop around. Domain and IP is different, domain can be banned easily but I don't think IP can be banned easily because most of the time there are so many domains inside the one IP.
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  • Profile picture of the author James Schramko
    If you are not re-using content a little
    you aren't leveraging enough from it.
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    This is where you get real information (backed up by proven results)
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    • Profile picture of the author dmderoeck
      I don't think you will be penalized for having the same content on multiple domains on same IP. I think G only looks at only domain specific duplicate content.
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      Michigan SEO
      Michigan SEO Expert
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    • Profile picture of the author jmidas
      Its interesting, on the three sites we have had up for a couple years now - that are essentially clones of one another - two are ranked very high (first page) for most of the likely keywords. The other is page 2/3. These are sites that we set up and basically left unchanged - maybe a couple content updates a year, tops.

      We just added about 10 more of the same site - each targeted to a specific state (so instead of "example.com" we have "floridaexample.com", etc..). Just did it so I dont have any results to report except it comes up number one for the specific search of the state+example - which is all we were seeking to do. The thing I dont want to do is kill the main site's rankings.
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      • Profile picture of the author James Schramko
        Originally Posted by jmidas View Post

        The thing I dont want to do is kill the main site's rankings.

        I think you are unlikely to kill the first site . You may not get too many more 'clones' ranked if they really are just the same.

        Mix them up a little.
        Signature
        This is where you get real information (backed up by proven results)
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        • Profile picture of the author jmidas
          I am only seeking to rank high for the very specific "state" searches for the clone sites - this makes it a very targeted lead. I am happy as long as the main sites dont get penalized.

          Over time, we'll probably throw in something unique to each of the clone sites, but I really dont think it will matter to the searches we are seeking. I dont care if the clone sites ever rank for anything but the specific search in that state.

          If someone searches for "Florida swampland" - for example - we are at the number one result in the organic searches.

          As long as our main "swampland.com" site is still ranking for a search on just "swampland" we are acheiving what we want.

          This is just another example, I think, that shows dup content is more myth than reality.
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  • Profile picture of the author sachibhat
    Here is a free seo guide from released by google itself
    http://www.google.com/webmasters/doc...rter-guide.pdf

    They are preferring fresh content but stressing more on duplicate content penalty if found on same domain
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