View Posts by I recently had a discussion with a client about duplicate content. This conversation was instigated by my findings using Google Analytics. It started with using the "top content" analytics metric. I noticed 2 titles with the same name. This inspired me to get out my toolkit and sweep the entire site for duplication. More mirrored content was found so I thought I’d send the client and email.
Robert Said
Hello <Name Removed>
I was just performing my monthly analysis on your site and ran across mirrored content on your site. Here are the duplicate pages.
Client Says
"I often get inquiries from our brokers asking if they can "borrow" content from our website. In the past I’ve unequivocally said yes.
Should I be putting some sort of caveat on this now? Will Google only realize the text is duplicated if we have a reciprocal link in place? Or will it eventually determine there’s a match on sites with no relationship?
Robert’s Answer
This is more of a problem with organic ranking. For PPC if the mirrored pages are not on the same domain it should be OK. As a general rule unique, well written content ALWAYS out performs duped content by a long shot.
The content in this instance is found on a page within another domain. Is this really a problem? I understand the idea of using duplicate content in the same domain. Why is there a negative impact if we’re borrowing material from another website?"
Generally, Google will (algorithmically) determine who the source of the content is. The other sites found to have duplication will be devalued and/or receive little to no organic ranking benefits. Google’s algorithm is not perfect. I have seen them decide that another source (other than the author) is the original writer. Yes, this is often a result of the site with duplication having a high authority status. As long as the content can be spidered (crawled) Google will always find it, analyze it, determine duplication/spam value, and index it accordingly.
As the internet continues to grow at unprecedented rates, so does the filtration and quality scoring in both PPC and organic algos. That is why I say unique content is the best way to get your message out there. If others want to borrow your content I would suggest advising them to reference it with a link.
This will not help your organic or PPC results. Using duplicate or mirrored content is something Google speaks clearly about. I thought I would let you know that because it will make or break your marketing efforts online. Duplicate content is a big ‘NO NO’ if you want to rank well and gain experts status with your writing!
Read what Google says about duplicate content
The Bottom Line
Ultimately it is your call what content you want to use. I am sharing my views with you. My views are based on seeing websites completely de-indexed/devalued or penalized because of it. Don’t wait for the ‘algo creep’ in the Google algorithm; it won’t get caught up for long. Eventually duplication is found and a mathematical devaluation occurs.
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9 Responses to “Google Analytics Helped Me Find Duplicate Content”
I never realized the fact. Thanks for disclosing it. No doubt, site should contain unique content. Google penalizes sites that are seen to have duplicate content because they dont want to have multiple results with the same content showing for searchers queries as this could take away from the user experience. This could potentially mean that Google would choose one site to display in the search results and ignore the other site.
Arthur
December 7th, 2008 at 10:06 pm
Google will always find out duplicate content; there is no doubt on that. Google, besides, can pretty well judge if the content is aimed to deceive the search engines and to manipulate the search results. Google guidelines are rather very clear on this point. Its best to avoid duplicate content anyway.
December 7th, 2008 at 10:55 pm
Yes, search engines in general and Google in particular detest duplicate content. Content that is duplicate not only slows down the retrieval process but also degrades entire the search experience. It also tarnishes the reputation of search engines. Because the last thing a user wants to see when he searches is several search engine results showing the same text.
December 8th, 2008 at 9:49 pm
This instance reminds us once again the importance of unique content in our pages. Don’t forget how Google treats mirrored contents, Google frowns heavily on duplicate content that does not add any value to our site.
December 8th, 2008 at 10:37 pm
As you rightly say, duplicate content can be harmful to both organic and PPC ranking efforts. In the case of PPC, landing pages can easily attract duplicate content penalties. Adding the NOINDEX,NOFOLLOW tag and keeping the landing pages off the limits of search engine spiders is a solution. For organic pages writing unique content for pages is the way to go. In either case duplicate content issues should be deftly dealt with.
December 8th, 2008 at 10:48 pm
It is pretty cool with analytics how you can see the affect of making changes in duplicate content. When I detect it on any of the sites I report on it is part of my report.
Then it’s in the client’s court. Time and time again unique content with good interlinking dances circles around duped content.
Robert
December 9th, 2008 at 8:32 pm
Robert, just curious…
would this potentially affect templates as well?
What I mean is that if affiliates buy website templates or other types of duplicate systems, will this hurt them or anyone else, or are there rules that limit cookie-cutter systems?
We have all seen sales copy titles that start out with “Who else wants to …..”
Can you speak to this or are these exempt?
Isaac
Isaac
January 16th, 2009 at 8:50 am
In regards to the duplicate content part of this blog post, I personally use the http://www.copygator.com website to find and stop duplicate content:
1. it’s automated and brings me results instead of me searching for duplicated content. All i had to do was submit my feed and it started monitoring my feed showing me who’s republished my articles on the web.
2. i get notified by email so it contacts me when it finds copies of my articles online.
3. i use their image badge feature to alert me directly on my website when my content is being lifted.
4. it’s a free service as opposed the “per page” cost of copyscape/copysentry.
James S
February 2nd, 2009 at 1:32 pm
Isaac: Just an opinion but duplication is duplication. Google has ways of spotting and classifying it quickly. If it’s duped content it goes supplemental and the webmaster’s net gain of such content is a big fat 0. For templates I am sure there is mathematical devluation. I personally try to stay clear of templates.
James: A great dupe content finder. I actually use my own software to check for duped content and similarity.
Robert
May 8th, 2009 at 1:05 am