09/06: Free Website Content or Duplicate Content Worries?

Because the debate surrounding duplicate content continues to rage unabated a lot of people are becoming paranoid about having their sites removed from Google for falling foul of search engine algorithms. Unfortunately there is a lot of totally unfounded scaremongering out there and, it seems to me, to be based on one thing  - marketing. 

Think about all the people who are making money off of the back of the fear of being de-indexed by Google - there are plenty of people selling software products that promise to save you from such a fate by ensuring that none of your site content will be considered duplicate. Think about it, if you've ever read The Rich Jerk you will know that one selling tactic is simply to prey on a person's fear - use that fear to convince them that they cannot do without what you are offering, that you can provide a resolution to their fear, whatever it may be. They say that sex sells - fear is a similarly powerful motivator. 

I'm no expert on SEO, and I know that there have been instances of sites running into difficulties over duplicate content but there are so many conflicting opinions that it's almost impossible to know who is right. I tend to side with those who feel that a great deal of what is foisted on us is nothing but guesswork, pure and simple. I have noticed the fearful questions on forums about the subject - should I write/distribute articles? Should I use RSS feeds on my site? Should I use Third Party articles? My suggestion would be to stop worrying about it, get on with producing your website or blog and provide the information that you think is relevant to your visitors. My view may be simplistic, but I'll be damned if I'll stay awake at night worrying about such things - it really is pretty ridiculous when you think about it. 

If you are in the business of creating junk/spam sites on a large scale, you may well fall foul of the search engines, which is, I believe, the reason they have these algorithms. "On a large scale" is a topic in its own right, but think in the region of hundreds/thousands, is my theory.  If your content is relevant, I don't believe you need to worry too much. Just think of all the news sites out there - by definition there content is duplicated every single day - headlines and stories published on thousands of places all over the web, often word for word via syndication. The web works on links and would be nowhere without them - can you imagine if search engines refused to index a site because it just happened to have the same story as one other site? A simple example of excluding a page from results would be generic affiliate pages - the kind that promise people their "own" site which is really just the corporate page with an ID embedded for each sucker, sorry, member - these are never indexed by search engines - if they were, a search for the company would produce thousands of results, all leading to essentially the same page. 

There are far greater experts than me who have spoken out on these issues and you will find the following links and resources useful. Some contain more useful links, and give differing theories and suggestions, but hopefully an overall balanced viewpoint to set your mind at rest.

Are you being Duped by the Duplicate content theory and other SEO theories?

Duplicate Content - Penalize Me, Please 

Avoiding Duplicate Content Penalties 

Duplicate Content Filter - What It Is and How it Works 

The Duplicate Content Penalty Myth 

Happy blogging!

TCH

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