Duplicate Content Penalty - How to Lose Google Ranking Fast!

Duplicate content penalty. Ever heard of it? This penalty is applied by Google and possibly other search engines when content found on your website is largely the same as what is found elsewhere on your site or on other websites across the internet.

Search engine spam has been common ever since search engines were first invented. Search engine spam describes the practice of making changes to your website that gets you listed high in search engines at the expense of readability by humans. Years ago, you could get ranked high on a search term simply by repeating it as many times as possible in a document. The primitive search engines of the past ranked the importance of a keyword simply by counting the number of times a term appeared on a page. Today's search engines are much more complex.

Google has been waging war against all kinds of search engine spam and especially against duplicate content in all forms. There are two main types of duplicate content that Google is concerned about.

The first is a website that simply lists the very same page hundreds or thousands of times with simply a few words changed. This is usually done to attain high ranking on a wide range of keywords. It is most often used to get ranked high on a whole bunch of keywords unrelated to your website but can sometimes be done by a site that is on topic but simply offering duplicate content.

The second type of duplicate content that Google is concerned about revolves around affiliate programs. It has been common practice for high traffic websites to establish an affiliate program. Affiliate programs themselves don't worry Google. What it doesn't like though, is for an affiliate program to take a template and then offer it to its base of affiliates to use. Some of the higher traffic websites end up with thousands upon thousands of duplicate websites all promoting the very same things and, according to Google, not offering any real value to the internet community. A website offering this type of cookie cutter website can easily find themselves de-listed by Google as happened to Template Monster a while back.

The third type of duplicate content is simply not included in the Google index. This is content that is found elsewhere on the internet at large. Google and the other major search engines are interested in gathering and cataloging as much quality, unique content as possible for human consumption. To this end, they look to minimize the amount of duplicate content they allow in their index. This is why creating a new website and simply filling it with third part content will rarely if ever result in high rankings in the Google index.

The solution? Don't rely on duplicate content as your main method of driving traffic to your site. Should you avoid all duplicate content? Of course not. What kind of duplicate content is acceptable? Answering this question is easily another article in itself.

Joe Duchesne is the co-founder of http://www.yowling.com. Yowling offers an easy to use web site builder that lets you create a professional website in no time at all for as little as $21 a month. Reprint freely as long as you keep the live links in this resource box linking back to my website.

---

Google Contest - Nigritude Ultramarine

Search engine optimization experts are having fun with Google. Experts,... Read More

The 3 Essential Components of a Search Engine Optimization Campaign

Everyday, the Search Engines average 300 MILLION searches. In a... Read More

How MSN and Yahoo Sells Your Traffic

Yes, it really happens. Now you might find it hard... Read More

Improve Search Engine Rankings - The Real Deal!

Ok, here's the deal, follow these steps and shoot me... Read More

Gaining Link Popularity Techniques

Link popularity is very important these days for all websites... Read More

Is My Search Engine Optimization Working?

You've just built a website and can't wait to start... Read More

13 Tips For Good Search Engine Placements

When used properly in combination with other basic search engine... Read More

How My Page Rank Went From 0 to 5 In One Update - How Yours Can Too

Increase Your Google Page Rank!Page Rank. We all know what... Read More

Search Engine Updates vs. SEO

Webmasters always anxiously wait for a search engine update. Those... Read More

Commonly SEO terms and Jargon used by Search Engine Gurus

What does all this SEO jargon mean.Have you ever been... Read More

Search Engine Optimization Tips For 2005 - Part Three

Welcome to part three of our series of articles on... Read More

Microsofts New Search Engine

I tried out Microsoft's new search engine (beta version) the... Read More

How To Measure Search Engine Marketing ROI

According to the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO), advertisers... Read More

How Important is PageRank, Really?

Webmasters can spend most of their waking hours doing everything... Read More

Googled

The Internet may have started as the fervent brainchild of... Read More

List Building vs. Search Engine Optimization

It seems the excitement about search engine optimization fades in... Read More

Getting Noticed by Search Engines

We all, meaning us webmasters want to have the best... Read More

?Google Friendly? Solutions to Graphic-Intense Sites

We all know that the search engines can't "see" or... Read More

How I Suddenly Stumbled Onto No.1 In Google and Yahoo Without Search Engine Optimization - So What?

Sometimes, the search engines act really strange. And this story... Read More

2 Lesser Known Ways to Brainstorm for Internet Home Business Keywords

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) doctrine states that you should always... Read More

Five Simple Steps to Getting Links to Your Site

Today if you want your site to survive in the... Read More

Free Search Engine Advertising: 10 Secret Ways To Indirectly Race To The Top Of Search Engines

Do you have a website that has little or no... Read More

Yahoos Back!

I was all set to write an article predicting the... Read More

Seek Engines: What If Seek Had Bumped Out Search?

In the early days of the World Wide Web, when... Read More

Link Popularity Pitfalls

As we all know Google uses their PageRank technology to... Read More

SEO #3: Getting Listed In Google in Under 24-Hours!

Yesterday you should have read the second course out of... Read More

Analyzing Googles Backlinks Is Close To Worthless

... Read More

Google - PR & Backlinks

Here are some observations that I have made recently:1. On... Read More

The Simple Formula To Search Engines

Search engines are one of the best tools to bring... Read More

Pay-per-click ? the Ultimate Tool to Boost Affiliate Sales

The old ways are not always the best ways.The traditional... Read More

See No Google, Hear No Google, Speak No Google

That's right - I dreamt of a World Wide Web... Read More

What is Search Engine Optimization?

It is no secret that search engines are the number... Read More

How Do I Improve My Web Site Conversion Rate? Part 1

Question 1.What do you mean by conversion? Do you mean... Read More