Duplicated Text Content – When it is Okay to Copy?

The Manchester SEO Blog takes a look one of the more common problems that often befalls the less Web savvy, duplicate content.  Even those with more SEO experienced often developer a number of misconceptions. Google aims to maintain an exciting variety of results for a particular key phrase, so the more dissimilar your page is to the next most similar one, the more reason Google has to rank your website higher! Equally, the quickest way to get your website taken out of the search results altogether is to simply copy pages from another website.

Sometimes Duplicated Text Content is Unavoidable.

Greg Grothaus

Engineer, Google Search Quality

Search Engine Strategies Conference.

Obvious, no? Heh, well … no actually. Have you ever replied to someone in a forum, and quoted their original post? Have you copied the manufacturers specifications for a product that you supply? If Newtons laws of motion are altered by even a single word, then the definitions would be wrong.

So how do we know when copying is okay? How do you we know it is SEO compliant?  Well, the first questions is about purpose. Imitation is the highest form of flattery, and if a wide number of people use similar words to describe your website (and include a link) Google will come to associate those words with your site. However, if these descriptions supplied with the link to your site are identical word-for-word, Google will suspect something is not quite right. The most likely cause of this, is the same person copying and pasting the same description on several sites in order to obtain more back-links for their own site.

The same is true of your pages – you can rewrite a known article in your own words, and expect it to rank without any problems.  You can even include small blocks of identically duplicated text content and expect this to not affect your search position, provided at least the same amount of text again comes from yourself. It’s all about what you bring to the Web:

Ask not what the Internet can do for you, but what together we can contribute to the content of the Web.

If you need to include the manufacturers technical specifications for a product, could you also provide room for some customer reviews or feedback about the product? Perhaps the page could feature threads of chatter and advice about using the device?  Whatever the reason you have for including the duplicate text, think what you can give your visitors to supplement it.

Perhaps your company has several domains. All you need to do in order to get multiple, independent listings is find a reason to alter the text. Aside from issues such as hidden text, search engines aren’t too concerned if your sites look alike. If you just want the one domain, then you could set up a 301 redirection on all your domains onto your main one.

As always, the goal is thinking about your target audience, working out what they want and deciding what unique content you can bring to their Internet experience.

Tags: copy pasta, duplicate content, hidden text, redirect, SEO, target audience