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.

---

Whats All This Hype About Links?

What's all the talk about links we hear about? Reciprocal... Read More

Meta Tags - An Important Part of Every Web Page

Meta tags are an absolute must from a search engine... Read More

Search Engine Optimization and Submission Tips

Bringing visitors to your site from the main Search engines... Read More

Search Engine Optimization - A Beginners Guide

Getting your site listed in the top search engines, such... Read More

Search Engine Musical Chairs

News broke this week that Yahoo has purchased the Inktomi... Read More

The Budget Webmaster?s 6 Step Guide to Improving Existing Rankings in Google

The Budget Webmaster's 6 Step Guide to Improving Existing Rankings... Read More

Search Engine Marketing (SEM) - Houses on Sand

Do you depend on free search engine traffic for your... Read More

Cache in the Bank: Understanding Googles Advanced Operators

If you would like to know when your site was... Read More

How To Get Number 1 Spot In Google, Every Time, Guaranteed

Woaah! Wait a minute. Before I exclusively reveal these insider... Read More

The Reality of Search Engine Submissions

Over the last few months, search engine submissions have changed... Read More

How to Succeed with the Search Engines

The Cold Hard Facts?..One of the most important factors in... Read More

SEO Blues

SEO, not again!, you may groan. The webmaster world is... Read More

How Search Engines Work

Before anyone can start optimizing a web site, you must... Read More

Keyword Research And Overture

Many of us who build websites get in the habit... Read More

Yahoos Back!

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

New MSN Search Engine: How Good is it?

If you have an online business or you just use... Read More

Article Marketing: Fox in the Competitor Hen House or Chicken Little?

I recently was asked by an author to remove a... Read More

The Search Engine Showdown

If you're anything like me, you have a favourite search... Read More

Breaking the Myth About Page Rank (PR)

The most difficult challenge most web designers face is getting... Read More

Work With The Search Engines - Dont try to Outsmart the Search Engines

Contrary to the claims of high-priced SEO firms, optimizing your... Read More

Link Building - The Waiting Game

Link building is a waiting game. Many clients have asked... Read More

What You Can Expect From Search Engine

Search engines will be a way for you to generate... Read More

Dont Get Banned by Google

There are many Black Hat techniques that people use to... Read More

How To Get Your Web Site Banned ? or Search Engine Promotion, How Not to do it!

Search engines constantly strive to advance their technology and algorithms... Read More

How To Start An Internet Business ? Meta Tags and Keyword Density

Okay, you have a domain name, layout and content. Now... Read More

Improve Search Engine Rankings - The Real Deal!

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

Link Popularity: Distribute Content, Not Just Links

You've spent many hours trying to increase your online traffic... Read More

Googles Next Big Move

November 2003 might go down in history as the month... Read More

Google Page Rank Is Dead - Part II

In part I - Google Page Rank Is Dead -... Read More

How to REALLY Profit from SEO

I want to give you a few more things to... Read More

Five and a Half Ways to Amp Up Your Search Engine Optimization

Statistics show that 85% of pages visited on the Internet... Read More

Linking Strategies to Skyrocket to the Top of Google

If you don't know already, one of the key success... Read More

10 Costly Search Engine Mistakes to Avoid

If you have a website then you already know the... Read More