Don’t Be a Copycat: Why Duplicate Content Hurts Your Rankings

Even though we are no longer bound to the rules of the classroom, plagiarism is still a valid concern, even in the workforce.

In web marketing circles, copying work is known as “duplicate content” and it will hurt SEO rankings of your website.

Why do we use duplicate content? Ultimately, it’s the easy way out.

Writing original content is a tough task that requires plenty of time and research. Why write an entire 750-word landing page, when you can pull from alternative sources with the wording that says the exact message you want to promote?

Many sites will pull their information from other sources in order to provide an easy method of stuffing content so there is actually copy to read on the page.

Penalties For Duplicate Content

Just as there are harsh consequences for plagiarism, Google has established a penalty system for sites that produce duplicate content.

Google views duplicate content as spammy and unhelpful to the web browser’s search experience. As a result, Google developed the Penguin algorithm to purge sites that re-use copy written previously.

With every update and refresh, Penguin seeks out copied material and drops sites off the rankings. This ensures that web browsers find relevant information that matches their search, rather than pasted words that they can also find on Wikipedia, other webpages or even self-plagiarism across the same brand’s websites.

In addition, the algorithm will only rank one source of the content, typically the original page that was copied rather than your site. This consolidation prevents redundant search results based on the same wording.

Self-Plagiarism

When we think of plagiarism, we typically think of stealing someone else’s intellectual property and words. We don’t consider that rehashing our own work is also considered plagiarism.

But remember, you couldn’t turn in a paper for your English class and then subsequently submit it to your History class.

It’s easy to think that copying content that already appears on your site is fine to use because you own it. The content is written with your own words – not someone else’s.

As a result, many sites will rehash the same 2 or 3 paragraphs on every page of the site.

Repeating your own content gets rid of excessive white space and makes the site seem fuller, it doesn’t add any substance to the page.

Google still catches this, whether or not you copy from your own site, and will penalize accordingly.

What Do I Do About Duplicate Content?

The best way to prevent duplicate content is:

• Simply writing specialized content for each page on your site. By using your own words, you provide a unique perspective of the material.
• Finding innovative ways to convey the same message. If you feel like your site needs a similar call-to-action on each landing page, research your audience and try to fit your content to appeal to that mindset. This prevents your pages from having the same wording as each other.

Writing compelling content is difficult, but it is worth the added effort to avoid Penguin penalties.

In addition, your site will pull in more readers because you offer a specific answer to their search. This will increase your organic traffic over time and boost your rankings.