The Myth Of Duplicate Content
Ok guys and gals, there’s so much bull and misleading advice going round about duplicate content penalties, we just had to make this post. You’ve heard it said or seen it written everywhere -
“You can’t publish the same article to more than one directory”,
or
“You can’t publish the same article to a directory”
or
“Google willl only list and rank the first submission of the same article or content”
We didn’t know who to believe or trust so we did what we usually do - we tested it ourselves!
And the results are in and for us they are pretty conclusive………. duplicate content is a myth.
Well almost a myth. let me explain further.
Test 1 - We published the same article to ezinearticles and then to our site. The result - both articles are indexed, live and can be found on google.
Test 2 - We reversed test one and submitted an article to ezine articles that was already indexed on one of our sites. guess what……same result.
Test 3 - We submitted the same articles to ezinerarticles and then submitted to 5 other article directories. Guess what….same result. At one stage we had the ezinearticles article on page 1 and article base and go articles on page 2 for the targeted keyword.
So is there a duplicate content penalty?…….We believe so, but only if you use the same content on the same domain ie if you have duplicate pages on one site.
Now, we are not suggesting you start blasting the same content all over the net - far from it. It makes sense to target alternative keywords by changing article titles, tweaking intros etc. This way you target more keywords with limited effort!
What we are saying is don’t be afraid of duplicate content penalties and don’t believe everything you read - start testing yourself…
So there you have it. For us, the duplicate content penalty did not exist when we submitted the same content to diffierent directories and sites.
Test for yourself and let us know your results and what you think…
JJ & Jason
Comments
I remember reading about similar findings recently too. Basically duplicate content doesn’t necessarily mean bad content, so Google can’t just arbitrarily penalise it.
An obvious example would be the big news sites, as they use a lot of the same sources and quotes as each other much of the content is duplicated over various news outlets. It would be ridulous to start penalising CNN and the BBC, for example, for publishing the same story.
Cheers,
Carl.
Hey JJ
Wonderful blog, I really like your impressive header - it’s awesome mate!!!!
As for article marketing, I’m glad to hear you did some test, it will prove useful for everyone else who decides to use article as a marketing method.
Keep up the great work and All the best
Nigel
Carl - Exactly, duplicate content is all over the net. Just make sure you are providing value to the user and not using it for creating spammy sites
Nigel - Article marketing is a great traffic generation method for driving ‘targeted’ traffic, which when done correctly will increase your conversions compared to other traffic sources.
Hi JJ,
Thanks for visiting my blog! Are you a student of Alex’s?
Great article! I like how you “tested” to find out the truth about duplicate content!
talk to you soon,
Lori
http://www.everythinghomebiz.com
Hi Guys,
When I saw you were doing this as a team I just had to stop by and say hi. I thought that Dad and I were the only team.
Obviously you guys are much more advanced in IM. I will be popping by for hints and tips!!lol
Becky
http://www.ianandbeckycarteronline.com
Hey Thanks for sharing this. It is the ‘duplicate content’ thing that had me confused the last day or two. I’ll tweak my articles slightly, but at least I don’t want to have to completley rewrite them.
thanks
dave
http://www.davedunnonline.com
Becky - You are welcome anytime and let us know if we can help with anything.
Dave - I would always recommend tweaking your content, however our tests proved to us that you can still rank for duplicate content on different platforms.
Cheers
JJ
Leave a Comment