Duplicate Content: It’s Tricky
Most people know that duplicate content can get you banned from search engines, particularly Google. Yet, few understand why duplicate content negatively impacts websites' placement in search. Even worse is the fact that many steal content writing from other people's websites and try to pass it off as their own. In this blog, we will cover duplicate content in detail and hopefully, inspire web owners to create website writing that is informative and original.
Duplicate Content Defined by Google
If you take the time to do the research, you will see what Google clearly defines duplicate content as, "substantive blocks of content within or across domains that either completely match other content or are appreciably similar."
What does this mean? Well, if you take content from another website/author and try to pass it off as your own, you are using duplicate content. Google says "substantive blocks of content", meaning more than one or two sentences. Still unclear on what duplicate content is? Consider this basic question, "Are you deceptively trying to pass off other content writers' text as your own original writing?" If you're nodding your head "yes", you are violating the duplicate content policy.
Additionally, if you have the same content on every page of your website (even if it is your original writing), it will be considered duplicate content and could hurt your search engine placement. For this reason, you should make sure you have content on every webpage that is related to the title/focus of the page and that is 100% original. Don't have the time to craft unique content writing for your website? Get in touch with a professional content writer that can handle this task for you.
Why is Duplicate Content SO Bad?
There are numerous reasons why duplicate content is bad and can hurt your website:
* Google, and really all search engines, want users to have great web experiences. Search engines try to provide web users with information that is not only relevant to their search queries, but also original. When you use duplicate content, you're not offering anything of value web users.
* People use duplicate content to get more web traffic and rely upon deception to get ahead of their competitors. According to Google, many website owners using plagiarized content hope to, "manipulate search engine rankings or win more traffic", which ultimately results in a less than mediocre user experience.
* It is plagiarism. When you went to school, what happened when you copied someone else's essay and you got caught by your teacher? The same concept applies to the internet, only the teacher is Google and the punishment is losing top spots in search. Not to mention, stealing content is unethical as the original author put a lot of work into his/her web writing and does not deserve to be scraped.
* Google is able to pick up on duplicate content and plagiarizing is grounds for action, like banishment from search. Google's algorithms are so smart that they can detect who the original author is and who copied the content. This means the person that stole the content will be penalized, not the original author.
Sometimes, Google Says it's OK
There are essentially 3 instances that Google finds permissible when it comes to duplicate content writing: discussion forums, store items linked to multiple URLs and print-only web pages, like a printable PDFs.
Be Fair, Use Citations
If you really like the information another website offers, and you want to include it, you should always use quotations and citations (i.e. provide a link to the original source). There are always going to be times when other people say it better than we can or when other people write amazing pages, blogs or articles. It is OK to share their words by posting quotes, but make sure you give credit where it is due!
Someone Stole My Content
You can tell if someone stole your content by using a duplicate content checker, like CopyScape. If you discover your words were stolen, don't panic. Google says that, "it's unlikely that this (someone stealing your content) will negatively impact your site's ranking in Google search results pages." Take a deep breath and know you will be OK. You can also combat content thieves by filing a DCMA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) request with Google.