Still not getting duplicate content thing as it applies to SEO, etc

1. 40

   Greg Sageposted 12 years ago

   I'm not copying anything, just trying to understand.  I've been on a 24 hour crash course on hubs, seo, adsense, google rankings, etc...
   
   and one part that just seems to get more confusing the more I dig is the part about duplicate content.
   
   If I have a hub or a blog, and someone copies it, what is it doing for them, and what is it doing to me?

   replyreport
   1. 74

      brakel2posted 12 years agoin reply to this

      If it is on the same page as yours, it may take views away from your original hub. It happened to me when mine was copied twice and all were on the same page. You can lose money and the others can make money on your stuff. If they are on different pages, it may not make much difference. Mine that was on first page - One got taken down by Google but another is still there. as the owner and server are in China and the United Kingdom. It is below mine, however, but I am still losing views to it. It is very aggravating. Now, I have another copied hub on first page with my copied one.

      replyreport
2. 51

   kimbojimposted 12 years ago

   Here is how duplicate content works.
   
   Let's say you have a hub up, and someone really likes that hub, so they publish it on their own website. They may not be trying to do anything malicious, but search engines do notice this duplicate content.
   
   Now, search engines do not directly penalize either your hub, or the republished hub. BUT, since they see the same content is published in more than one place, they don't want to show both places on the search engine.
   
   This may seem weird, since in this example there are only two sources of the same hub. Let's say the same hub is republished 100 times. If someone searches for the keyword you targeted, and this duplicate content "filter" were not in place, then all 101 (100 republishes + 1 original hub) links would crowd the search engine.
   
   This is not intuitive, nor does it provide search engine users with a concise way of searching.
   
   Why would someone want to republish your content? There are may reasons. For example, their website may not have much content, so they want to bulk it up, or they found the information enlightening and want their readers to see it. Or, more maliciously, they aren't good at writing, but are good at obtaining search engine rankings, so they steal content and rank higher than the original publisher, so they get all the views/profits, and you get nothing.
   
   My last part of this is, how do search engines choose which website to show when there is duplicate content? This is a search engine-by-search engine thing, and depends on many factors. The original content publisher may be favored, the highest PageRank or traffic-heavy website may be favored, or the longest lasting domain. The search engine will look at factors such as these to help understand which one website should be in the search engine.
   
   Long story short, you should never allow anyone to duplicate your content. It's better to let them link to your hub, because then their readers can see your hub (getting you traffic), and you will also net a backlink, which will help your search engine rankings.
   
   If there is any confusion or anything, let me know and I will try to help.
   
   PS: don't post your hubs on your blog (just in case you were thinking about this), because then you would be duplicating yourself, which could lead to problems, especially since HubPages only accepts 100% original copy now, and they may drop your hubs if you do this.

   replyreport
3. 60

   Laura Ginnposted 12 years ago

   It shouldn't matter if someone copies your work - if yours was there first you will be fine, but the copier will be penalised by the big G
   for having copied content online.  However you may still want to ask them to remove it or at least link to your site.

   replyreport
   1. 86

      Marisa Wrightposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      I wish that were true, but Google's algorithm is imperfect, and you'll often find the stolen version ranked higher than yours.  That's why you need to take action if you see your work copied anywhere.
      
      Google has said its next Panda update will be targeted at addressing that - but we'll see!
      
      If someone copies part of your Hub but keeps a link to your original, that's fine - because readers will click on the link and come visit your Hub to read the rest.  The same applies if you post a short "teaser" on your blog - though it's an even better idea to use new words to write the teaser, rather than just copying and pasting the first paragraph.

      replyreport
      1. 51

         kimbojimposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         Yeah, I've heard that even short teasers (from 1 to 3 sentences) can still affect SERPs in a bad way if the words are exactly the same.

         replyreport
4. 95

   PaulGoodman67posted 12 years ago

   Google has vowed to crack down on duplication in the upcoming Panda 3, so all current info on this will be out of date v soon.

   replyreport
5. 40

   Greg Sageposted 12 years ago

   hmmm.. ok, thx.
   
   Good responses.
   
   I was wondering about the blog part too.
   
   I don't have a blog, but was wondering if I did and a couple paragraphs were copied from a hub of mine if that could cause a problem

   replyreport
   1. 82

      Mark Ewbieposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Greg, with your skills, surely a couple of new paragraphs is no big deal?  Am I missing something?

      replyreport
      1. 40

         Greg Sageposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         I'm not asking because I want to dupe my own stuff... just wondering about extended quotes, or giving a taste of something that's on the other end of the link, that kind of thing... and whether I should care if something gets copied somewhere or just move on.

         replyreport
   2. 51

      kimbojimposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      I detailed that in my post:
      
      "PS: don't post your hubs on your blog (just in case you were thinking about this), because then you would be duplicating yourself, which could lead to problems, especially since HubPages only accepts 100% original copy now, and they may drop your hubs if you do this."
      
      The same applies for several paragraphs.

      replyreport
6. 74

   brakel2posted 12 years ago

   You can put a bookmark on your blog which tells a little about the article - a little summary - then link to your Hub,

   replyreport