subject: Google Duplicate Content Penalty - A Myth? [print this page] Google Duplicate Content Penalty - A Myth?
Google Duplicate Content What Is Duplicate Content?
So what we need to first is determine is what we mean when we talk about duplicate content. Some people mean that the content is EXACTLY the same between your website, article directories etc. Some people argue that even if you change the structure around, or a few words, that google will still see it as duplicate content. Other people even say that there is a certain percentage of duplicate words or sentences that will then make google think that your content is a duplicate. So for arguement's sake, lets just say that duplicate content is anything that is not 100% unique.
Will Google Punish You For Duplicate Content?
This is the big fear, that by producing content and then taking it and putting it on multiple sites, you will be banished from google. Well personally, when I started online with article marketing I wanted to do things "right" and so I would write an article, then spin' each sentence into several versions so that the software could then produce a unique article for each site I wanted to submit to. I hated doing this mind numbing task so much that I feel sick just thinking about it now. I kept it up for a while, but then I thought, stuff it!
Since then I have always written one version of the article and put it on loads of different sites, and you know what? I get traffic from those articles, I get ranked on page one for 20-30% of the articles I write, so it has worked fine for me and countless others I have met in the internet marketing world that do the same thing.
Let me point something out here. Do you know what article directories are for? They are for people to come and take your content, along with your author resource box and put it on THEIR website, as content. If you have ever tracked your links from articles you will see that if you write a good article, you could have many people using your article as content on their site. This is why article marketing WORKS. So if google hated duplicate content so much, your articles would not be showing on page one of searches because of all the people that have copied your content!
I would rather write three totally unique articles for three different keywords, than spend ANY amount of time "spinning" articles. Not only will your content read and flow better, but you have just given yourself a far better chance of getting traffic. In my experience, about 2 out of 3 articles you write will not get you much traffic on a daily basis, but when you hit a good one, it will get you traffic over and over again. I choose my time increasing the odds by writing more, quality content, instead of spinning the same one.
What About Duplicate Content On Your Blog?
So duplicate content on article directories and other websites is fine, but what about on your blog? Should you have that content posted anywhere else? Will it affect your blog ranking?
At the risk of losing a LOT of traffic from google, I did a little experiment over the last month or so. I posted every blog post I did somewhere else on the internetarticle directories, blogger, forums etc. to see what happened. No changing of words, sentences or even titles. The only rule I stuck to was that I posted my content on my blog first, made sure I got some backlinks to it before posting anywhere else and always linked back to my original blog post from all other content directories.
The result? I posted more content, in more places because it saved me time (and I didn't hate doing it, unlike spinning, ugh!), my traffic increased by about 40% from Google and my ranking for keywords I had previously created content for started to INCREASE too. Now, I am no google expert, but from talking to some others and understanding a little more about how google works, it seems that it has decided my blog now has more authority because a. I have more content on a larger number of keywords (all relevant to each other in some way) and b. my content is being linked to from relevant sources (basically, because the article is on the same keyword as my blog post).
So is the Google duplicate content penalty a myth?
I would be wrong to rule it out completely and say it's all a lie to slow down new marketers and sell more spinning and article marketing software, but in my opinion, I do think it's a big fat myth. When you look at what Google WANTS to give it's searchers, it wants quality, relevancy and popularity. So write quality articles, make them relevant by using other related keywords (and just talking naturally!) and get backlinks by using syndication, article directories, forums and commenting on blogs.and see what happens!
