Duplicate Content and Google

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   NateB11posted 11 years ago

   I've just discovered this, because it's taken some time for me to understand exactly what is the problem with duplicate content: It's not that you will immediately be penalized, only if there is deceptive intent to manipulate ranking in the search engine. But duplicate content is not wrong in itself. The only thing is, when indexing, an appropriate page must be selected for that content; might not be the page you want indexed. This made sense, because it would be odd to have content in only one place; for instance, What about syndication? So, it seems to me, you could write a Hub, say, and then put the piece on another spot (like Blogger), but link back to the original Hub. I understand it's wise to link to the original, even if you put the content elsewhere. But how would you make sure the correct page is indexed? Now, I'm not thinking of a piece with heavy prose, something more stripped down, like poetry; put poetry on Blogger, link back to the original poetry Hub. Here's a link to info: http://support.google.com/webmasters/bi … swer=66359

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      Greekgeekposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      There's one other real problem with duplicate content, and it's why sites like Hubpages require that we post hubs nowhere else.
      
      The Panda algorithm attempts to rate the overall quality and usefulness of a domain such as hubpages.com. It looks at many factors, but one of those factors is, "Does this site have unique content found nowhere else?" vs "Does this site simply regurgitate content found elsewhere?" If the answer "yes" to the latter pops up too often, the Panda algorithm may downrank Hubpages as a whole, which can depress the search rankings and traffic for every page on the site.
      
      Multi-user platforms like HP have to work hard to fight against the "content farm" stigma, and one of the ways they do this is by trying, as much as they can, to make sure they host original content rather than content from elsewhere.
      
      Besides, all other things being equal, the "elsewhere" copy is liable to outrank the Hubpages copy in the SERPs.

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      1. 85

         NateB11posted 11 years agoin reply to this

         Yes, that makes a lot of sense, and it's enough reason not to put the content elsewhere. This helps a lot. Especially considering the algorithms looking for unique content. Seems like the best thing to do is not put content in more than one place. I got it.

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   LindaSmith1posted 11 years ago

   Duplicate content is not allowed on Hub Pages. In fact, most article submission sites require ORIGINAL content, not spun content, not duplicate content.

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   1. 85

      NateB11posted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Oh, yes, I'm aware of that; except HP doesn't allow content published before you put it on HP, but you can do what you want with it afterward. That's how I understand it. Duplicate content and spun articles are not the same; duplicate content (check the link I provided) occurs all the time on the Net, even on the same domain. It's just it's used as manipulation of rankings sometimes, and then the fake spun articles too, which I consider absurd. I'd rather write. Also, content is syndicated, so unavoidably duplicate. This is why I brought it up; there's more to it than what is usually talked about.

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3. 56

   Dame Scribeposted 11 years ago

   A funny thing I had to re-title a hub that answered a Q from a few years back which is fine but it did say - 'this title is in use and published on a hub earlier than yours' so, yes, got to watch out for that 'duplicate' .

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4. 58

   tussinposted 11 years ago

   It's no secret that "syndicated" content does just fine in search engines.  If you own two sites, you can republish the same article (that you own the full rights to) on both without incurring a Google penalty, so long as you don't really over do it and essentially make a "mirror" site.   Haven't you ever Googled something and noticed the top results were the exact same article? (Happens with Bing and Yahoo as well)  I see this a lot with medical content in particular.  It goes to show you how overblown some of these Google penalty myths are. And even if it is something that Google frowns on, their algorithm is not powerful enough to detect it as my own two eyes have witnessed. SMH.
   
   Of course if you are publishing on sites you don't own, such as Hubpages or Infobarrel, then you have to play by their rules.  Hubpages doesn't want duplicate content because they don't know who really owns the rights; they don't want to have an open policy that lets copyright abusers have a free-for-all.

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      NateB11posted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Thank you. This is exactly what I was wanting to get at; because usually people are just saying, "No Duplicate Content!" with a lot of scary undertones. I knew there was more to it, and what you're saying makes sense; I've seen duplicate content all the time.

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