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8 Facts About Duplicate Content and Google

Reblogger
Real Estate Agent with William Raveis Real Estate RES.0772823

I'm sharing Ken Cook's blog post with you because it has been my own experience with Google and dupiicate content.  I haven't suffered by sharing content between AR and my external blog.  However, I'll start using the canonical page tag ( see bullet point #2).

Original content by Ken Cook

Over the years I have addressed "duplicate content" at least 10 times here on this blog, another 5 or more times on Social Media Edge radio and no telling how many times at conventions and seminars where I have been speaking. 

It still comes up.

Here are the facts, Googlesque, about duplicate content:

  • Chances are none of you are guilty of overloading the Google indexing engine with duplicate content.
  • You can have a limited amount of duplicated content without penalty - for example you may have a "web presentable page", a "print formatted page", a "plain text page", and a "mobile optimized page" all with identical content on the same domain.
  • If you use duplicate content for the reasons listed above use the canonical page tag to help Google's indexing engine. For example if you have two pages of identical information at say http://icobb.com/landings/index.php and http://ahkse.com/homeloans/index.php and you want the icobb URI to be the indexed version you would put the following in the head of http://ahkse.com/homeloans/index.php: 
    <link rel="canonical" href=" http://icobb.com/landings/index.php"/>
  • Google *may* index only one of your pages with the duplicated content.
  • Google will certainly only pick one of your duplicated pages to rank higher than the others.
  • I have seen duplicate pages ranking in the top ten at least 6 times for the same content - this is claimed by Google to "not happen". The reason it does is because the other content on the pages is significantly different.
  • Keeping the above in mind Google suggests you don't even use content filled headers, footers and sidebars. In reality I haven't seen that impact as duplicate data.
  • If you publish 10 carbon copy blogs and you are ranking high on multiples your biggest risk is your competitor complaining to Google and having them de-index all of your sites without warning.

And directly from Google engineering:

Duplicate content on a site is not grounds for action on that site unless it appears that the intent of the duplicate content is to be deceptive and manipulate search engine results. If your site suffers from duplicate content issues, and you don't follow the advice listed above, we do a good job of choosing a version of the content to show in our search results.

What does this mean?

It means you're probably okay and no in any danger with Google unless you're posting every blog post 3, 5 or 10 times on the same sites. Even if you're doing it just two or three times only one is going to rank higher than the rest and if you get 3 or more in the top ten for the same content and same search terms Google may not catch you but your competitor just may complain!

Need me to look at your site and see if you have this and other necessary steps completed? Yes, even if you have WordPress you could still be non-compliant. Call me at 678-439-8683 or connect with me here.

 


Ken Cook - Web coder (I write the programs that make the whole world zing!) (678) 439-8683 Anything your mind can conceive I can create - online that is!

Social Media Edge Radio - seriously true professionals who won't misguide you with some crap they made up to sell more books and seminars. Every Tuesday at Noon eastern.

RETSORadio - part of the RETSO family. Great tech information and updates from people who have the answers, people who speak and product and service users.

Georgia FHA Home Loans information - where I have provided leads for loan officers and real estate agents since 2004.

NOTICE: I have been writing in this blog since July 2006. Some of the older articles may contain information that has changed. Please check the date and phone me if you have any questions.


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Comments (5)

Ruthmarie Hicks
Keller Williams NY Realty - 120 Bloomingdale Road #101, White Plains NY 10605 - White Plains, NY

Everything is a balance.  I look at it this way - and it helps keep me on the straight and narrow.  How would I feel if I came across the same content over and over as a reader?  If my blog isn't READABLE - as in creating an incentive for people to return...then I don't do it.  It's that simple. We want READERS and not just posts and pages that index to Google.

Dec 11, 2011 03:25 PM
Steve Queen
Bennett Realty Solutions - Bowie, MD
Chosen Realtor for Bowie And Laurel

It makes sense now Ruthmarie but an SEO instructor just recently told us to blog the post on all the sites we blog on... Good to hear different insight.

Dec 11, 2011 05:00 PM
Anne M. Costello
Weidel Realtors - Yardley, PA

Gail: Thank you for reblogging Ken's post. It is now starting to make sense. Have a good week!

Dec 11, 2011 10:46 PM
Debe Maxwell, CRS
Savvy + Company (704) 491-3310 - Charlotte, NC
The RIGHT CHARLOTTE REALTOR!

Gail, I've been preaching this and have been knocked down by various SEO 'gurus' time and time again.  I can TELL you that Ken has been doing this longer than any of the so-called gurus and KNOWS his stuff!  I'm SO glad he posted this one and hope that the masses see it and understand it!

Dec 12, 2011 02:24 AM
Ruthmarie Hicks
Keller Williams NY Realty - 120 Bloomingdale Road #101, White Plains NY 10605 - White Plains, NY

Whoops - I didn't mean it that way.  Putting the same/similar content on OTHER sites is fine. What I'm talking about is putting the same content up on the same site multiple times with minor variations.  Your readers will be bored to tears if you do that.

Dec 12, 2011 02:36 PM